ROI. Refrigeration On Internet
Context
Food service facilities, dairy stores, food warehouses and restaurants are facing critical challenges related to commercial refrigeration:
- reducing maintenance costs;
- increasing energy consumption awareness and efficiency;
- preserving and maximizing stored food quality in compliance with HACCP.
On the other hand, small and medium restaurants are usually skeptical about introducing invasive technological innovations to replace activities in daily processes.
Business need
Adding monitoring and controlling functionalities typical of the IoT to old industrial refrigerators allows to:
- avoiding waste of time in recording and reporting (usually manually) fridges temperatures;
- boost efficiency thanks to predictive maintenance andfailure notifications;
- automatically generate reports for food managementnorms and regulations.
The most important need was to add these functionalities without invasive interventions and apparatus replacements.
Solution
Control
A 32bit Microcontroller board is connected with a traditional motor controller. In addition, the board shares data via WiFi with the server receiving optimized parameters for the control algorithm.
Cloud
A cloud infrastructure based on Fiware modules and the Zerynth Advanced Device Manager is used for temperature reporting, data analytics, fridges fleet management andintelligent control strategies.
Sensors
Temperature and humidity sensors are installed in the refrigerated room. Moreover, auxiliary sensors can be installed in the fridge for the monitoring of gas temperature and pressure.
Dashsboard
A web-based dashboard and a user-friendly physical display allow fridge performance monitoring, predictive maintenanceand alarming.
Zerynth Added Value
Fast Development Cycle
Thank to Zerynth Studio and the Python 3 Language.
Fast Customization
Through the Zerynth Package Manager, the architecture can be easily extended and customized.
Portability
The Zerynth Virtual Machine eases the implementation of the programming logic on other embedded architectures allowing the design of different control boxes.
Flexibility
The system is 100% ready for new and existing commercial refrigerators (Walk-in, Reach in, Aisles).
Scalability
The Zerynth Advanced Device Manager allows to start from a single fridge and expand to the entire refrigerators fleet.
