The American company Union Pacific is engaged in rail transportation. Due to various breakdowns, cars sometimes derail - this spoils the goods, delays delivery and threatens with losses of tens of millions of dollars. To prevent this, the company puts wheel integrity sensors on the cars. Such a sensor warns of a defect, the wheel is replaced and an accident does not occur.

Unmanned vehicles. A complex system of sensors, automatic devices and artificial intelligence allows transport to do without a driver. The vehicle can move completely independently or under remote control, which saves on personnel.

For example, Raxel Telematics has developed a system of sensors and a mobile application. She knows how to track driving style: acceleration and braking, speed limit, use of the phone while driving. Sensors are installed in the car when buying a CASCO policy, then the cost of the policy is calculated depending on the behavior of the driver: the price is reduced for the neat and increased for the reckless.

Accident prevention. Sensors are installed in vehicles that monitor the components of the car, for example, engine wear or tire pressure. If the readings get too low, you can repair the part before it breaks, avoiding costly replacements or downtime.

If we imagine this cycle in a higher-level version, then we have the following picture:

The first stage is research, that is, product analysis, competitor analysis, analysis and development of features. At this stage of internet of things development, it is important for developers to evaluate how they will produce this device. Will it be a build from scratch, or reuse of hardware and some modules, or a partnership. Let's conditionally call this confrontation Build vs Buy vs Partner.

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To choose the right approach, you need to answer the following questions:

Where exactly can your company add value?

• Target business model: how do you plan to make money with this device;
• Available resources: human, experience, finance, etc.;
• Time to market: how quickly you want to release the device;
• Availability of ready-made solutions on the market;
• Intellectual property - requirements.

ID/MD is a sore subject for us as a design house. When it comes to industrial devices of the Internet of things, such an abbreviation as IoUH, in other words, Internet of Ugly Housings, or the Internet of terrible buildings, most often pops up. For our part, we note that “industrial” does not mean “ugly”.

For example, an outdoor air quality measurement station. On the left is a typical design. On the right is one of the prototypes for the Atmotube fixed air quality monitoring unit.

Below is a complete product development cycle. Everything starts with an idea. The next stage is research, proof of concept, patenting, development of industrial design and engineering documentation, prototyping.

After a few engineering iterations, we get an MVP, then we move on to selecting and setting up production, running the product through several testing cycles, and finally launching mass production.