Webinar - Connectivity and telematics as part of an off-road mobile machine control system

Q) Between telematics devices and platforms from different providers, are there any universal or standardized programming and implementation methods? For example, every telematics unit has Linux and user creates software for Embedded Linux?
Q) By user I mean the integrator and implementor, not machine end user.
A) For example, container technology is one solution which can be used to make telematics unit software independent of the hardware and the services provided by the operating system. Utilizing container technology is coming more and more popular in this kind of devices and Epec has also build support for using docker containers in Epec 6200 unit.

 

Q) How can the device be programmed? Which applications can be developed (examples)?
A) Device can be programmed using CODESYS 3.5 PLC programming. Also C programming is possible. Some customers are even using python language for some functions.
A) Device can be used as telematic device / edge computer. It can also be used as a master PLC in centralized control system architecture. It has also been used to make driver assistance solutions. So device is very versatile. I hope this answer to your question.

 

Q) Is isobus also available for codesys 3.5?
A) ISOBUS for CODESYS 3.5 is currently under development, so stay tuned.

 

Q) If more computing power/storage is needed locally on the machine (for example saving and processing lots of data such as GPS references), can the Epec device handle this or interface with something that can?
A) Yes, 6200 is available with different memory sizes. For example, version with 32GB Flash memory is currently used by some customers to store all CAN communication for several weeks in the device’s internal database.

 

Q) Has SC4x less I/Os planned to make room for additional connectivity?
A) Currently there is no plans to have wireless connectivity in SC4x products. There is plans however to have ethernet interface.

 

Q) I personally like Epec’s readymade Codesys Libraries for controlling the machine. You could ask a demo from Epec, they also have good training team.
A) Thank you for the compliments. We also recommend the Epec product training for everyone interested of our products and software development.

 

Q) Are there also plans to realise a machine-to-machine communication (harvester/forwarder i.e.) directly – without cloud connection?
A) Yes, Ponsse has plans for direct M2M communication between harvester and forwarder.

 

Q) It was mentioned in the seminar, but can you please repeat/elaborate on examples of various benefits of edge computing?
A) These three benefits are the most common and mentioned during the presentations.
1. When data-analytics is done locally in the telematics unit instead of cloud server, analytics can be done when the internet connection is poor or even lost.
2. If there are some analytics/computing required which has some realtime requirements, for example, driver assistance systems, the response time is much better when it is done locally instead of sending the data to cloud to be analyzed and processed.
3. When most of data is processed locally at the Edge device, instead of sending all the data to cloud, you can optimize the costs of data communication.