Vodafone has selected the Taoglas Edge hardware and firmware connectivity solution from Irish IoT antenna company Taoglas for its new Invent application development platform.
Vodafone’s Invent platform allows enterprises to create bespoke IoT solutions for industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, energy and utilities, and transportation.
The offer combines an application enablement platform with trained local teams to scope, customise and integrate applications incollaboration with customers. Custom-built modules can be created according to local requirements, while maintaining a consistent look and feel, and building on common data structures and user models to ensure compatibility.
Taoglas Edge offers short and long-range wireless hardware and firmware, with a variety of sensors, afording a way to manage and integrate data from edge deviceswith Vodafone’s connectivity platform.
Taoglas said in a statement: “Combining Taoglas Edge and Vodafone’s suite of IoT services and global connectivity, businesses have the ability to create next-generation IoT solutions that can scale massively, offer enterprise-class security and support comprehensive management across many different connected machines, systems, instruments and appliances.”
Dermot O’Shea, co-chief executive at Taoglas, said: “Successful adoption of IoT is all about enterprises using sophisticated intelligence from their IoT data to help them make more insightful decisions. A connectivity revolution is gaining steam as companies like Vodafone roll out high-speed 5G networks worldwide. We have seen significant interest in IoT application development around industrial appliances, medical devices, smart grid, smart farming and animal health, asset tracking, predictive maintenance and more.”
Debbie Power, IoT country manager for Vodafone Ireland, said: “The introduction of our Invent platform, with the Taoglas Edge, will provide an end-to-end IoT solutions for businesses of all sizes and will allow them to connect globally. This will help democratize the IoT landscape by giving businesses connectivity, device, app development, data insights, hosting and a fully managed service in one place.”
Meanwhile, Taoglas has announced at MWC Americas a new GNSS L1/L2/E5 module that combines antenna, RF electronics and receiver technology delivering reliable centimeter-level positioning. The new Edge Locate ‘smart antenna’ has been developed with module maker u-blox.
Where most IoT devices use single band GPS technology delivering on average 10 metre accuracy with existing GPS modules and antennas, the new antenna uses multi-band Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning technology for accuracy of between one and three centimetres.
GNSS can be used in conjunction with real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning to enable location-specific, mission-critical services such as emergency response, smart infrastructure, precision agriculture and micro-mobility applications. Taoglas can consult and install the RTK network in any global location for any IoT use case.
Ronan Quinlan, co-chief executive at Taoglas, said: “Centimetre level positioning is absolutely key to the next-generation of IoT enabled applications. Take an example from the burgeoning micro-mobility industry. When granting licenses from a trial, the city authorities would like to monitor the riders of e-scooters, ensuring riders are staying off footpaths, or parking in designated areas.
“The problem is that today’s legacy GPS solutions don’t often know which side of the road a scooter is on. Whereas with our solution, fleet operators can pinpoint within just a few centimeters where a device is located. We do this by working with our customers to enable the whole solution and we make sure it works reliably in real life.”
