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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INSYLO (Disruptive IoT solution for optimising the animal feed supply chain)

Teaser

Summary

INSYLO is a Spanish technology-based start-up founded in 2013 to provide a service for the animal feed sector. We provide an accurate and cost-effective solution to monitor remotely the silosâ€™ feed stock levels. Using this information, we forecast the feed demand and allow feed suppliers to optimize inventories, delivery routes and raw materials purchases. Our goal is to build a system that will optimize the feed supply chain already present in Europe.
Currently, feed supplier companies have control on the silos on the farmers\' land and are bound to refill them. They rely on a call from the farmers when the feed stored in the silos they have access to is almost over. The supplier company are to refill the supply within two days. This contract requirement preserves the lives of the cattle the farmer feeds with the siloâ€™s feed reserves. The call to refill arrives at a moment notice and it is unpredictable, so it is not possible to organize routes to optimize the task per truck. More trucks than necessary are sent out, affecting the environment by pollution and the business by waste of money and resources.
Feed suppliers are in need of an optimization tool to maximize their refilling efforts. Insylo\'s service will foresee the feed in the silos finishing and will arrange the transportation of the refill. The routes will be planned to maximize the number of silos refilled by the same truck in the less time possible.
Insylo designed and developed proprietary technology to measure feed level and send the data back to our servers. The device sits firmly on top of the silos, half of it inside the silo, half outside. The outside part has, among other things, a gps and a transmitter; the inside part has a 3D volumetric camera. The camera measures the volume of bulk materials stored in silos, so it looks inside the silo. Because the camera only sees what is inside the silo there is no possibility that a person can be recorded. The device transmits to the Insylo\'s database:
- the temperature value of the inside of the silo
- the depth value of the feed inside the silo (processed from the camera image)
- the humidity value of the inside of the silo

All the information is gathered from inside a silo and no information at all is gathered from the surroundings.

Work performed

The INSYLO projectâ€™s work plan is divided in 7 work-packages.
WP1 is dedicated to the development of INSYLO commercial version. It includes tasks regarding hardware, firmware and software improvements. During the first reporting period, we have mainly focused on firmware and hardware improvements (e.g. implementation of a Linux based platform or drafted a new design for our deviceâ€™s housing and its electronic system architecture).
WP2 consisted on the execution of a small-scale pilots, which involved the manufacturing and testing of 24 INSYLO devices under a real environment (i.e. farm silos belonging to two feed supplies).
WP3 consists on the execution of large-scale pilots, which will involve the manufacturing and testing of 300 devices in real environmental conditions. The devices to be tested in WP3 will be an updated version, upgraded according to the feedback obtained during WP2. This WP has not started yet.
WP4 involves activities regarding intellectual property rights, certifications and value proposition. So far, we have a patent applied for, with a positive outcome, and further submitted for international phases via PCT.
WP5 involves communication and commercialization activities. So far, we have initiated negotiations with target clients as well as we have participated in different networking events.
WP6 is dedicated to project management and coordination activities. Under its scope, we have monitored the project development in order to assure alignment with the projectâ€™s objectives and compliance with the obligations acquired under the grant agreement.
WP7 refers to management of ethics issues mainly related to personal data protection.

Final results

INSYLO clearly goes beyond the state of the art. Currently, the vast majority of existing silos (>95%) donâ€™t have any coupled technology to measure their filling level, so every week farmers must physically climb to the siloâ€™s tops to estimate their load. Other options available in the state-of-the-art are either expensive load cells or inaccurate level sensors (ultrasound, radar, laserâ€¦) that have measurement errors of up to 20 %.
INSYLO will be positioned as the first cost-effective solution able to measure accurately silosâ€™ feed level. Moreover, by leveraging the power of artificial intelligence, our solution is capable for the very first time of forecasting feed demand (i.e. refill orders) and organize feed trucks delivery routes to optimize them.
The main expected result of the INSYLO project is to have our solution market-ready. Once adopted by our target clients (feed suppliers), it will disrupt completely the feed supply chain. Main impacts consist on the optimization of the feed-stock inventories, production batches, delivery routes and raw materials purchases. This is translated in savings of up to 500 â‚¬ per silo and year.
Moreover, from an environmental point of view, since INSYLO optimizes feed delivery routes, it can reduce the carbon footprint of the feed supply chain by up to 25 %
Finally, from a social point of view, farmers will benefit from a solution that will help them in their daily routines. On the one hand, they wonâ€™t need to climb to the top of a silo to check the feed level anymore, which reduces occupational hazards. On the other hand, they can be confident that they will never run out of feed, which brings peace of mind.