Nov 03, 2017California technology company Roambee has commercially released a low-cost Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), GSM and Wi-Fi-based solution for tracking the locations and conditions of assets and inventory throughout the supply chain, for approximately 3 cents a day per tracked item. The system consists of BeeBeacons to transmit data via BLE, Bees that act as hubs or "hot spots" to collect that data, and a cloud-based server that manages and contextualizes data for users. The BLE-based system serves as an alternative to technology such as radio frequency identification (RFID), the company reports, since it can provide visibility of a tagged item—whether inside, outside, or in motion—at a relatively low cost.
Roambee was launched in Santa Clara in 2014 to develop sensor-based asset- and inventory-management solutions. It first released the Bee, which can transmit data to a server via a cellular or Wi-Fi network. This year, after several months of piloting the technology it developed, the company is now offering BeeBeacons in large volume, as well as the BeeFleet vehicle-management device and BeeLock to monitor who is authorized to unlock a container or vehicle via BLE. The company's founders, who came from RFID firm KeyTone Technologies, had hoped to develop a system that could track goods and assets at a lower cost than RFID (which requires a reader infrastructure that is not necessarily mobile), explains Sanjay Sharma, the company's co-founder and CEO.
The founders developed the Bee GPS-based tracker device, which it leases to customers. It has built-in Wi-Fi and GSM cellular connectivity, BLE and GPS functionalities, and cameras (see Burglars Stung by IoT Bees in Santa Clara). "We've been bringing pieces together to realize our original vision for RFID," Sharma states. "We know where RFID works well and where it doesn't, and we are targeting uses cases where RFID doesn't work well."
Sharma cites the tracking of goods in cartons or on pallets that are in motion. Companies want to know where their goods are and when, he says—and, in some cases, they also want to know the status, based on sensor measurements. The Bee is a mobile device that can be attached to a vehicle, container or pallet, and can transmit its own unique ID number and GPS- or BLE-based location via GSM or Wi-Fi. However, Sharma says, the company spoke with customers who wanted to track not only a particular pallet, but the many cartons or products that might be loaded onto it. The Bee itself would be too expensive to make that kind of use case affordable, he explains, whereas passive RFID tags would require an RFID reader, and most passive RFID tags cannot transmit sensor data.
The solution Roambee developed is the BeeBeacon, a small, battery-powered device that comes with a built-in temperature and humidity sensor, as well as a light sensor for tamper detection, if requested. The BeeBeacons capture data on a 10-second interval and transmit that information, along with their unique IDs. The transmission is then captured by a Bee hub, which interprets the data and forwards it to Roambee's cloud-based server via a cellular or Wi-Fi connection. The server software manages that data and shares relevant content to users to indicate where goods are located, as well as their status, every 10 seconds.
Typically, a BeeBeacon—which is about the size of a coin—could be placed inside a carton and then be activated. It has a built-in battery that lasts for about four years, so it can be reusable. Users can acquire the BeeBeacons and the Bees from Roambee at no cost, but would then need to pay approximately $1 each month (3 cents per day) to access that data.
As goods move around a warehouse, into a truck or other vessel, or into a store, the BeeBeacon continues to transmit its ID and sensor data, and the Bee reports that information to the server. If a carton is opened, the light sensor transmits data indicating that the item had been tampered with. In the event that the temperature or moisture level reaches an unacceptable threshold, users can view that status or receive an alert.
The system also knows if a product with a BeeBeacon inside it is removed from a vehicle, as well as if a vehicle filled with BeeBeacon-tagged items leaves its expected route or schedule. The Bee hub comes with a rechargeable battery that requires a charge about every 90 days.
"The beauty of this model is that users can start to realize their value very quickly," Sharma says. The system allows a company not only to receive real-time alerts of events that could cause damage to a product, but also to gain analytic data. For instance, if a location in a supply chain, or a given condition (such as the time of day or a specific driver), tends to result in the loss of products, a company can address that problem. For instance, he notes, "They can view the probability of loss at certain locations. Or, if the temperature is going up while the truck is not moving," that could indicate that the vehicles themselves may have cooling problems, or drivers may be turning off refrigeration.
Several companies have been piloting the BeeBeacon system for about three months, Sharma says. Mexican beer companyGrupo Modelo is using the system to improve estimated time of arrival (ETA) predictability, and to better manage inventory, eliminate disruptions, strengthen security and improve demand forecasting. The company is tracking pallets loaded with beer through the supply chain. An unnamed pharmaceutical company is tracking the temperatures of products as they are transported. And an electronic consumer goods manufacturer is employting the tamper-detection feature to understand whether cartons filled with high-value consumer electronics are being opened during transit.
The system is designed to scale to very large numbers for companies that may be tracking hundreds of thousands or even millions of products. Not only are the BeeBeacons designed to be low-cost to enable that volume of use, but the system is designed to move the data quickly. To reduce the risk of a data queue in which information becomes backed up and delayed due to sheer volume, Sharma says, Roambee is setting up local servers that act like a rudder, attracting local data to themselves and then forwarding that information to the central server. "They act as a conduit for collecting data and forwarding it," he states, "which gives the data queue elasticity" so that data can be processed more quickly.
Roambee is also releasing its BeeFleet, a fleet-management device attached to vehicles to be tracked in storage yards and while driving. The BeeLock enables companies to better secure containers or vehicles, by programming them not to open for unauthorized parties. They would require a specific BLE signal from a user, or could be remotely instructed to open by the company that owns the lock.
