The “Intelligent Container”—A Cognitive Sensor Network for Transport Management

Abstract

Abstract-The "Intelligent Container" is a sensor network used for the management of logistic processes, especially for perishable goods such as fruit and vegetables. The system measures relevant parameters such as temperature and humidity. The concept of "cognitive systems" provides an adequate description of the complex supervision tasks and sensor data handling. The cognitive system can make use of several algorithms in order to estimate temperature related quality losses, detect malfunctioning sensors, and to control the sensor density and measurement intervals. Based on sensor data, knowledge about the goods, their history and the context, decentralized decision making is realized by decision support tools. The amount of communication between the container and the headquarters of the logistic company is reduced, while at the same time the quality of the process control is enhanced. The system is also capable of self-evaluation using plausibility checking of the sensor data.

The Phase Space as a New Representation of the Dynamical Behaviour of Temperature and Enthalpy in a Reefer monitored with a Multidistributed Sensors Network

“…This behaviour is also confirmed by the lowest area that is covered by sensor group J within the phase diagram 1.95 (°C 2 , Δ=1). The total range of variation of the cargo temperature for the complete journey was 6.8 °C, which is in accordance with previous published data that report deviations above 5 °C during long transports (Jedermann et al 2009;Lang et al 2011). The phase diagram of temperatures emphasizes the difference between the temperatures recorded by the sensors at different locations inside the container.…”

“…Other models of the environment in refrigerated transport units are addressed to the prediction of heat and mass transfer during transportation and can combine variables as temperature again, with time aspects of transportation, such as fluctuating external ambient conditions, door openings, product removal/loading (James et al 2006). The "intelligent container" developed by Lang et al (2011) is equipped with 16 sensor nodes each containing a temperature and humidity sensor. The system uses several algorithms in order to estimate temperature related quality losses, to detect malfunctioning sensors and to control the sensor density to provide an accurate spatial interpolation and measurement intervals.…”

“…In August and in Southern Spain, noon outside temperature can easily exceed 35 °C; consequently, the large heat gain makes it far more difficult to control product temperatures (James et al 2006). The built-in sensors of a standard refrigeration unit measure only the inlet and the outlet air temperature, but not the freight temperature (Lang et al 2011). The on/off action would be improved if the temperature sensor measured the air surrounding the carton stack instead of the return air, according to James et al (James et al 2006) this would reduce overcooling of the product and temperature cycling.…”

Reducing food losses by intelligent food logistics

“…Similar concepts were published by Emond & Nicometo [25] and Scheer [26] under the term FEFO to stress the difference from standard FIFO planning. The term 'dynamic FEFO' was introduced by Lang et al [27] to stress the point that delivery assignment is not fixed, but can be modified at any time according to new information on shelf life deviations. Besides arranging the order of deliveries based on the current shelf life, the expected duration of succeeding transport processes was also taken into consideration.…”

Joint activity and data detection for machine to machine communication via Bayes Risk optimization

“…A broad field of application for future M2M networks comes from industrial approaches such as smart metering, surveillance purposes or logistics [1]. For these applications, a huge number of M2M devices are connected to a central aggregation node and transmit only on occasion or event driven, making communication sporadic.…”