mobile and off highway iot - stw technic€¦ · the primary technologies employed in iot for...

©2017.STWTechnic,LP

Mobile Machines and Off Highway IoT or I’ve Looked at Clouds from Both Sides Now! Bob Geiger President, STW Technic In recent years every manufacturer of working vehicles has become aware of the importance of connectivity and data management, and the rapid evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT). These topics cover a broad range of functions, technologies and challenges. The objective of this white paper is to organize and address these issues to assist manufacturers in developing an IoT strategy. Connectivity and data management technology may be added on a vehicle as original equipment by an OEM, or it may be added as an after-market capability by distributors or fleet owners to meet their needs.

© 2017. STW Technic, LP Mobile Machines and Off Highway IoT

The Stakeholders In the world of mobile machinery IoT, there are three general categories of Stakeholders and they may have very different perspectives and needs.

1. Manufacturers or OEMs 2. Distributors, Dealerships, Fleet Owners, Rental Companies 3. End Users

The first group is the manufacturers or OEMs. The OEM is overall responsible for designing, building, testing, marketing, selling and maintaining the vehicle. It is interested in almost every aspect of vehicle use, performance and maintenance. But accessing, organizing and analyzing this information may be quite complex and challenging. The second and third groups, the Distributors and end Users, may be more interested in how the machine is utilized – number of work hours, location, operating conditions, settings, fleet management – but could also be interested in preventative maintenance analysis and early identification or prevention of any problems or defects. We will discuss these groups more when we look at Use Cases for IoT.

The Technology The primary technologies employed in IoT for mobile machinery are:

• A communications network on the vehicle that provides data from components, engines, transmissions, PTO and other critical vehicle functions. Historically, this has been the CAN bus, however, the use of Ethernet and other fast network protocols is certain to play a major role in the future. There may also be a bigger role for wireless technologies in relaying information on the vehicle to avoid the complex and costly proliferation of wire harnesses.

• A connectivity or telematics module that collects information from the vehicle or disseminates information to the vehicle. This module will have the capability to access, log and store significant amounts of data. It will have the capability to perform significant processing and analysis as a preliminary step to forwarding the data to the cloud and remote servers. It should also provide a web interface to browsers or apps to allow local access (via wifi or


Bluetooth) independent of the Cloud or any cellular services. This module may have any or all of the following communications functions:

§ CAN bus connectivity

§ Ethernet interface

§ USB interface

§ GPS modem and antenna (possibly including additional interfaces for precision guidance and/or agriculture)

§ GSM/Cellular modem and antenna

§ Wifi/Bluetooth modem and antenna

§ Other communications interfaces as necessary (example LoRaWAN for machine to machine communication and coordination)

• A cloud-based IoT service that provides a mechanism for allowing remote users, PCs, servers and other constituents to access the data from the vehicle or even to connect directly to the vehicle to perform various functions such as firmware updates, settings adjustments, etc. This service must provide general administrative functions to manage users, devices, groups, roles, security, and other non-operational functions. This cloud-based IoT service will generally have a data base capability for storage of large amounts of data and/or files, and will have a range of analytical and presentation tools that can be employed to gain useful information from the data. It may provide connectors to allow integration with other cloud-based services.

• An End-to-End Configurator is critical to allow for the evolution and inevitable modifications to the entire IoT system – the addition, deletion or changing of the parameters and variables that are read from the vehicle, the network modifications, the database updates, the addition of new tools or integration points, etc. This configuration capability should provide user-friendly mechanisms to create or modify variables for all of the communication protocols, including CAN freestyle, CANOpen, J1939 and Modbus at a minimum.

• Back-end Integration can also be performed to allow the data from mobile machines to be integrated into the ERP, CRM and MRP systems of OEMs or other stakeholders for end-to-end automation.

• Security Technologies are essential to ensure that only authorized access to any of the data and services is allowed. The danger of unauthorized, malicious hijacking of IoT connections is a major concern to all and must be carefully evaluated in any IoT strategy.


• Information or Entertainment Technologies such as music, video and maps such as those used in on-road vehicles may be desirable, however, they will not be addressed in this paper

The System Architecture In the ideal case, the mobile machine should be capable of communicating data at all times in all places. This may be impractical because of cellular or satellite limitations, or it may be undesirable because of cost or use-case considerations. For this reason, it is important for the connectivity/telematics module to have sufficient local memory for holding data over a significant period. It must also have the ability to process and compress data to optimize its remote networking requirements. If possible, it is desirable to have a system architecture that allows access to the machine locally without using the Internet or any cloud or IoT services. This can be facilitated, as mentioned above, by the addition of wifi and Bluetooth technology. In this way, smart phones, PCs or tablets can be used locally to access the machine, which may be much more efficient for local troubleshooting, diagnostics, testing and other functions. These devices can be supported via web applications and browser technology, or via apps.


The connection to remote users and servers is necessarily through the Internet, though how the Internet is accessed can vary. By having cellular, Ethernet and wifi/Bluetooth technologies, this connection can be flexible and support a number of operational scenarios. IoT and Cloud servers are, by definition, accessible through the Internet by users and other servers. Integration with stakeholder ERP systems can be facilitated through various web methods and secure tunnels. The key is to have this architecture as flexible as possible so that changes can be implemented by configuration without massive custom programming and development Analytical tools, real-time diagnostics and presentation, and other forms of data reduction, analysis and presentation may be conducted directly on the IoT platforms by use of their native toolsets, or may be performed on servers within the domain of the stakeholders with proprietary tools once the data has been downloaded from the Cloud.

Use-Cases The beauty of IoT is that there are really no limits on the uses for data. But there are certainly pitfalls associated with this limitless technology. The biggest pitfall is trying to do too much too fast and frustrating your organization on the whole enterprise. The following Use-Cases are examples of ways that IoT can be utilized for various stakeholders. It is important for an organization to cautiously explore one or two of these Use-Cases initially to determine their value and then slowly proceed in implementing them. The most important thing is to avoid painting oneself into a corner by the choice of technology, architecture and infrastructure. Fleet Management This is the basic information set, typically for Fleet Owners

or End Users, that tracks the vehicles location, a minimal set of operating characteristics (speed, acceleration, fuel consumption, engine temps, etc.) and allows the user to monitor a fleet of vehicles on a real-time basis.

Machine Usage Statistics

This use-case records all parameters associated with machine usage, independent of the actual job function or operational scenario. Fleet owners and OEMs can use this data to evaluate how machines are being used and to


collect statistics that may be useful for billing and other business purposes.

Operator Communication

This allows remote managers or fleet owners to communicate job functions or instructions to the Operators of vehicles and returns feedback from the Operators.

Operational Scenario Tracking

This use-case records all of the parameters associated with a distinct operation or job and allows an End User to evaluate different operational scenarios for their effectiveness, or to judge the performance or efficiency of operators and operations.

Workflow Management This use-case provides a well-defined workflow for a machine and tracks this workflow with all the relevant parameters and results. The workflow definition may be received from a remote management site or it may be created locally by an operator.

Predictive and Preventive Maintenance

This use-case records data from machine sensors and operations that can be used to predict what maintenance activities should be performed on the vehicle and when they should be initiated. This can be as simple as time-based maintenance decisions or as complex as using powerful analytical models to predict component wear and precisely schedule replacements for optimal maintenance. When coupled with back-end integration into an ERP system, this use-case can also provide just-in-time provisioning of maintenance and repair parts for distributors or end users.

Warranty Record This use-case records all data about vehicle usage and operation to determine whether warranty claims are valid. Typically, this is an OEM or Distributor use-case.

Real-Time Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

This use-case transfers critical data either locally or remotely so that a technician or engineer can evaluate, analyze and troubleshoot problems. This may involve event-based logging with buffered data and require multiple-variable charts, graphs or tables.

System Software Update

This use-case offers the OEM the option of doing machine updates in the field. The updates can be made on controllers, displays or the telematics device itself. There are clearly safety and security implications to this use-


case and they must be carefully evaluated before implementation.

Parameter Adjustment This use-case offers the End User or OEM the capability to adjust parameters, setpoints, thresholds or other operational characteristics remotely. The same caveats apply as above.

Machine Performance History

This use-case allows an OEM to collect long-term machine performance data to analyze for future design modification purposes.

Remote and/or Local Testing and System Calibration

Provides a safe and comfortable environment to either locally or remotely monitor prototype systems and allow developers to make adjustments during the prototyping phase.

These use-cases are a mere sampling of the ‘low-hanging fruit’ for IoT programs. There are doubtless many, many more that can be concocted to provide value to stakeholders.

An IoT Methodology


Strategy Recommendations and Conclusion The objective of this paper was to summarize the current IoT concepts and technologies for mobile machines and off highway vehicles. There are many use-cases and many architectures that can serve the purpose of connecting machines to an IoT infrastructure and creating value for various stakeholders. The best strategy for companies embarking on an IoT project is to start small, but implement an architecture with components that will allow you to grow, expand and evolve as your experience points you in new directions. The best starting point is always a service that will provide both immediate value and a manageable information set. Here are some basic guidelines:

1. Choose a connectivity module that will be robust enough for all environments and use-cases.

2. Choose a connectivity module that will provide both local and remote access functions.

3. Ensure that your architecture provides a mechanism for growth and change by configuration as much as possible, not by new code development.

4. Start with a simple use-case and a relatively small amount of data. Become familiar with different ways to collect data and analyze it before taking on larger data sets and more sophisticated analysis.

5. Focus on usability as much as features.

6. Make sure security is thorough and extends throughout your system.

7. Choose an IoT system that is based on the latest technology and that can expand to meet your needs as you build out to multi-year vehicle production.

mobile and off highway iot - stw technic€¦ · the primary technologies employed in iot for...

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