IoT Flex Node
Challenge
Small Data Garden was established in 2017 and the company has its background in wireless IoT sensor nodes and related applications. Their first IOTSU –product family was realised with state of art electronics and rigid enclosures. As a challenge, the customer needs were driving towards a thin, bendable, space efficient, low-cost and easy to integrate sensor structure having autonomous functions. So, a new technical layout and way of realisation were looked after. The identified key business cases were in logistics and industrial processes.
Solution
The existing IOTSU -products were taken as a starting point. The design and development was aiming to a light-in-weight, flexible and flat structure, which included all the functionalities like wireless communication, location tracking, temperature and activity sensor. The flat form factor induced a profound redesign round to fulfil the requirements related to assembly environments such as metal sheets and human body. The manufacturing of prototypes also utilized a totally new value chain.
Impact
The prototypes were presented in several fairs in Finland and France and in seminars and workshops organised by Smartees during year 2019. Two customer test cases in food logistics and industrial process monitoring in Finland and in Sweden were successfully piloted during the SmartEEs project. Further product concept and business development will be continued with several other identified/contacted cases. The scale-up of product manufacturing is on the way and the IOTSU ® Flexi will be launched during 2020 for selected markets.