Revolutionizing Grain Storage Measurement: SiloSpi’s Connectivity Transformation with Skylo, Taoglas, and TxWireless

Background

Grain silos are high-capacity structures used for the storage of grain. They serve as grain collectors, storage, and distribution centers. Given the crucial role grains play in human nutrition, the storage phase in grain production is of utmost importance and demands careful handling. As the grains transition from the stunning golden fields to storage, it’s imperative to ensure that no errors occur. The stakes are high.

On farms, often located in remote areas and outside populous regions, silos allow farmers to efficiently store their grain, fermented feed, and animal slurry. Monitoring grain is crucial in the agricultural sector for efficient storage management.

Typically grain silo sensors use traditional methods of measuring volumes, such as load cells, radar, guided radar or capacitive measurement. These are expensive methods, ranging from €2.5k – €12K per silo per year.

Challenge

Traditional methods of measuring and sharing silo data are both manual and error prone.

Traditionally, farmers have manually inspected the level of feed in silos to avoid running out. Feed mills have historically accepted feed orders manually, requiring orders to be delivered within 24 hours of the phone call in most cases. This inefficient emergency delivery process has a negative logistics cost of over €2 billion globally, on average, per year. Likewise, in other verticals such as dry mortar, polymers, wood pellets etc., without access to real-time levels, the owners of silos run the risk of run-out, and all the associated costs of down-time that could occur as a result.

In order to increase efficiency, safety, accuracy as well as proactively monitor the level and status of silos, accurate data must be collected, then transmitted to centralized data repositories for monitoring and analysis.

SiloSpi, a next-gen grain monitoring solution, has been able to successfully overcome some of the environmental challenges faced by traditional methods. However, it still faced a significant challenge – regional and global connectivity. Less than half of the farms, mills, and processing plants in remote areas of New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and North America have adequate cellular coverage to operate SiloSpi effectively. The gaps in connectivity translated into missed opportunities to optimize logistics of feed delivery, costing millions of euros per year.

Solution

Original satellite connectivity has existed for decades, requiring custom hardware, independent connectivity plans, and a high total cost of ownership (TCO). However, next-gen satellite connectivity is now based on 3GPP Release 17 standards, meaning that it can now be added onto standard cellular chipsets to enable seamless and ubiquitous coverage leveraging the same hardware.

Skylo’s satellite network ensures ease of connection and reliability of service wherever there is access to the open sky. Skylo partners with global service providers to deliver the network service, allowing subscribers to receive a single bill from their original provider. In partnership with Taoglas, an equipment manufacturer, and TxWireless, a custom designer and manufacturer of wireless solutions, and customers can continue to use the hardware and antenna systems from brands they know, who they trust and are familiar. In this case, a standard, off-the-shelf Taoglas antennae was used.

The cellular module powering SiloSpi (Sierra Wireless HL7810 module) was upgraded for satellite connectivity and enabled SiloSpi to communicate over satellite using its same dashboards and tools. SiloSpi automatically connects to either cellular or satellite depending on location and availability so customers need not worry about needleless configuration or controls.

The complete solution includes:  

●     The SiloSpi device with associated cloud and mobile applications

●     Taoglas Antenna: FXUB64  

●     TxWireless: EDGE Connect SoM with SemTech’s (previously Sierra Wireless) HL781x hardware and Skylo SIM card

●     TxWirelesss: EDGE Insights – LvLogics instance

●     Skylo Satellite Network 

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Impact

Every day, livestock farmers need to manually inspect each of their feed silos to avoid running out of stocks. Suppliers process the orders primarily by phone calls and typically deliver the feed within two days. This inefficient system has a global impact of €2.5B€ in avoidable logistic costs each year.

SiloSpi provides feed suppliers with remote monitoring of their customers’ silo levels on a real-time basis. For a few dollars per month, the SiloSpi service empowers the suppliers to optimize delivery and save up to €850 per silo per year in labor and transport costs. Savings on logistics can be up to 25%.

●     100% Coverage Boost: With Skylo’s ubiquitous satellite network ensuring ease of connection wherever there is access to open sky.

●     Cost Efficiency: The device firmware upgrade eliminated the need for custom technology or increased equipment costs.

●     Seamless Operation: Automatic roaming between satellite and terrestrial connectivity ensured uninterrupted data flow.

●     Logistic Optimization: Real-time remote monitoring of silo levels enables suppliers to optimize delivery saving up to €850 per silo per year.

The collaboration between Skylo, Taoglas, TxWireless, and LvLogics exemplifies innovation meeting necessity. By overcoming connectivity challenges through integrating satellite communication capabilities seamlessly into existing hardware infrastructure, it not only enhanced the functionality of SiloSpi but also opened doors for similar advancements across various sectors facing similar challenges.

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For field test results, click here.

For passive antenna chamber testing, click here.

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