Research Project ICON – The Intelligent Container

Virtenio GmbH participates actively in the joint project in the field of container logistics at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Virtenio will contribute its many years of experience in the field of sensors and actuators. Virtenio’s efficient hardware solutions and virtual machine are welcome additions to the entire project.

The intelligent container was developed for autonomous monitoring of transports of perishable or sensitive goods by the Microsystems Centre Bremen, ComNets and LogDynamcisLab. Various technologies such as RFID, sensor networks and software agents are linked in the system to ensure continuous and product-specific monitoring of the transport containers. Costs for external mobile communication are reduced by local preprocessing of the sensory data. An embedded processor platform integrated into the container, truck or trailer calculates a model for predicting quality changes for each commodity. If a risk to the goods is detected, the goods owner or transport coordinator automatically receives a message.

(Origin: www.intelligentcontainer.com, 16.06.2011)

The challenge of using monitoring solutions in containers by sea with the need to see the data anytime and in real-time is the lack of infrastructure for popular GPRS gayways. Findings from this project have finally led to VIRTENIO relying on the Iridium System and developing a suitable Iridium Gateway which is compatible with other VIRTENIO products. With this Iridium Gateway, VIRTENIO is able to connect the data sources in the container with the cloud, everywhere in the world.

• www.intelligentcontainer.com