Intel thinks its new Connected Logistics Platform (Intel CLP) is the key to reducing package damage and loss in the transportation industry.
Intel’s CLP lets businesses monitor the condition and location of products within the supply chain, via low-cost IoT sensors. CLP uses sensor tags, gateways and cloud components to monitor packages from loading to unloading.
According to the European Space Agency’s Real-Time Intelligent Cargo Monitoring project, 30 percent of all shipments are either damaged or severely delayed, while a staggering 30 percent of perishable goods go to waste during the transportation processes and never reach their destinations.
A single-use sensor tag is attached to a standard deliverable good or a perishable product. The sensor collects data points on location, temperature, humidity, shock, tilt and damage.
In the case of food products the sensor will inform businesses of the atmospheric conditions the product is experiencing while in transit, such as temperature and humidity.
If a package is tampered with or opened the sensor can alert the owner in near-real time that something has occurred. so rather than a damaged package reach its final destination where no one knows at what point the package was interfered with, packages using Intel’s sensors will have already informed there owner of the damage, as well as time, location and which vehicle it was traveling with.
Low Cost IoT
Tony Romero VP & GM for Planning and Logistics at Intel stated that: “Intel ships over 170,000 tons of goods and materials every year. Imagine the possibilities when these shipments are smart and connected.”
“The data gathered and communicated en route will help us improve numerous business decisions like rerouting if demand shifts or intercepting damaged shipments.”
All of the data is sent to a gateway over a proprietary wireless sensor protocol. If a sensor is unable to communicate with the gateway due to a blocked signal path, maybe because its at the bottom of a pallet, it will reroute through other sensors in its proximity establishing a secondary link.
The battery-powered gateway collects the data and sends out alerts to personnel when required to and communicates with industry developed cloud-based tracking applications.
As the entire project is aimed at providing a low-cost IoT solution for companies. The IoT sensors communicate with a low-cost proprietary wireless sensors network, rather than an expensive 4G connection thus reducing the initial set-up cost.
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JJ Van der Meer, partner at PA Consulting commented in a released statement that: “The Intel Connected Logistics Platform provides our clients a powerful solution across a range of different industry sectors for unprecedented real-time transparency of shipment progress and conditions.”
“Some evaluations include findings of temperature excursions for more than 60 percent of the shipment duration, with route and duration improvement opportunities of up to eight hours on a 36-hour shipment. They are also finding significant deviations in shock measurements, up to a doubling in g-forces experienced by sensitive products, depending on the truck and road quality.”
