Edgefinity IoT

Edgefinity is an Internet of Things (IoT) platform that is designed to act both as the central nervous system of an organization’s productivity, safety and security systems and a highly effective item and asset management system, automating the supply chain, and keeping track of utilization rates of key equipment. Out of the box, Edgefinity IoT includes the capability to track items, assets, personnel, and vehicles using easy to define rules that enable the organization to add visibility to production processes, measure productivity, and follow (and document) company Emergency Action Plan (EAP) protocols.

Edgefinity IoT Productivity benefits include:

• Improved visibility of items, assets, and people across multiple facilities.
• Meeting and documenting compliance with mandates of customers and government.
• Reduced theft on-site and in transit.
• Streamlined business processes.
• Reduced labor cost and human error
• Improved asset utilization
• Lower equipment and inventory costs by reducing safety margin purchases

Edgefinity IoT Safety and Security benefits include intelligent alert handling to support multiple emergency scenarios and help manage the following requirements:

• Fall detection
• Panic button monitoring
• Threats and hazards sensing
• Automate protective actions
• Notification, warning, and communications capabilities
• Emergency response and accountability procedures
• Means for locating staff members in an emergency
• Mustering and Evacuation
• Presence assurance of emergency equipment
• Emergency shutdown procedures

Edgefinity IoT is designed to handle the varied special requirements of warehouse tracking, asset management and safety and security applications on a single unified platform. The solution takes advantage of current state of the art technologies in Auto-ID systems, hardware, communications, and software.

This hardware agnostic system design allows for future incorporation of technical advances in:

• RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)
• RTLS (Real Time Location System)
• GPS (Global Positioning System)
• BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy)
• IoT (Internet of Things)
• Mesh networking
• Software (cloud and mobile)

This rule-based solution is architected to support a growing array of inputs and actions. It’s open-ended design allows for choosing among many different hardware combinations to best fit the application requirements. It is an expert system that enables managers to be confident that production, operational, safety and security procedures they themselves specify are always followed. Edgefinity IoT ensures that orders aren’t missing items, assets can be found instantly; workers, contractors, and visitors can be located reliably, and quickly, in an emergency; and that incidents of different types can be responded to and documented appropriately, while minimizing false, and irrelevant, alarms and notifications.

Designed from the ground up as a future proof system, the software components of the system utilize state of the art application and database security protocols to ensure performance that cannot be compromised.

In short, Edgefinity IoT offers an integrated solution for the following pressing issues:

1. Operational Efficiency
2. Supply Chain Compliance
3. Asset Visibility
4. Loss Prevention
5. Lone Worker Safety
6. Risk Management

How does Edgefinity IoT work?

Edgefinity IoT is a fully abstracted Internet of Things (IoT) platform that is engineered with the following features:

• Shrink wrapped and “self-defining”. This translates into faster deployment and easy to maintain code.
• Fully rules driven with intuitive “drag and drop” interface. This allows the sensing of virtually any type of event, which then triggers any number of desired actions.
• Exceptionally user friendly, elegant and intuitive graphical user interface.
• Support for passive RFID, BAP (Battery Assisted Passive RFID), active RFID, and RTLS, as well as future sensing technologies.
• Native support for fixed and mobile readers.

The strength of Edgefinity IoT is in how the user can take advantage of both the low cost of passive RFID, and the precision of the latest RTLS technology and sensory capabilities of advanced Active RFID tags through an easy to use, yet extremely powerful rules engine that allows the user to define inputs (Triggers) and outputs (Reactions) to manage physical safety and security problems.

The growing list of possible triggers include:

• Entering or leaving a defined area (geofencing)
• Asset movement
• Dwell time in a defined area
• Panic button press
• Fall detection with accelerometer
• Temperature changes
• Loss of signal
• Low battery
• Tampering in an attempt to bypass protection

If the condition triggers are met and none of the filters (Day, Time, User Group) suppress the rule, reactions can include one or more of the following:

• Send text message
• Send email
• Call a phone number with a prerecorded voice message
• Send a message over TCP
• Change the state of a relay over IP (for instance to control equipment)
• Blink tag LED
• Increase framerate of captured video
• Display dialogue/checklist for operators via PC, Tablet or Smartphone
• Pop a message onto staff PC screens
• Flash a strobe light
• Sound an audible alarm
• Lock/Unlock doors

Edgefinity IoT contains all the necessary elements to provide a holistic inventory and asset tracking, security and safety net to all types of large organizations – particularly multinational corporations and government utilities.

No matter which Auto-ID technology is chosen for your needs – Passive RFID, Active RFID, Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, Mesh networking or an UWB (Ultra Wideband)RTLS (real time location system), Edgefinity IoT keeps you in the know by combining multi-sensor capabilities to give you a complete picture of your entire enterprise. From any web browser, managers always have a live, real-time view of item flow, asset location, and any employee alert situation.

Edgefinity IoT is deployed with state-of-the-art hardware – tags, infrastructure, and endpoints, both fixed and mobile, to deliver up-to-the-second information on any person, vehicle, asset or work-in-process.

Edgefinity IoT provides the full range of features needed for managing EPC (Electronic Product Code) compliance mandates, printing, reading and validating RFID tags, and management reporting. Edgefinity IoT offers true insight —  real-time tracking of items in inventory, assets, and employees.

Edgefinity IoT performs the following functions:

Items

• Inbound (receiving) and outbound (shipping) validation for EPC compliance.
• User defined multilevel GTIN product hierarchies
• Order level commissioning
• Optimized filtering and smoothing of RFID data.
• Application pallet/case order validation.

Assets

• Track inventory and assets in throughout your warehouse in real-time
• Monitor WIP (Work in Process) assets in real-time

People

• Track people throughout your facility in real-time
• Panic button
• Fall detection
• Impact detection
• Lack of movement
• Loss of signal
• Mustering and evacuation
• Labor reporting
• Low battery
• User Defined Rules