The Looming IoT Battery Tsunami

Looming IoT Battery Tsunami (Part 1 of 3)

Most of my contacts know I’ve worked in telematics, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and IoT for over 30 years. My purpose in writing this three-part posting is to bring attention to an issue (part 1), discuss ways in which it can be addressed tactically (part 2) and lastly layout a potential IoT-industry-wide business opportunity (part 3). I’ll keep this fairly non-technical as it’s geared toward the end customer, the purchaser and user of the technology.

The problem:

Historically or pre-IoT as it is today and before low-cost wireless networks (both local and wide area), long life batteries and advances in rechargeable battery technologies, a customer who implemented telematics, M2M or even early sensor technology would typically install one (1) device to track or monitor an important asset or node of a key business process. Today, with the invention of beacons, low cost Bluetooth? and other sensors, miniaturization and lower cost components the number of battery-powered installed devices has exploded – literally from a 1:1 basis to a 1:N basis per facility, per asset, or per problem being addressed. ?IoT devices are projected to be in the billions within the next two decades. All devices with either rechargeable or single use batteries will ultimately need these batteries, or the entire device replaced. While various technologies are used in these batteries (lead acid, Lithium-ion, nickel cadmium, etc.), one thing is true – these will all have an end-of-life event.

One example is a customer with 5,000 refrigerated trailers. Instead of having one telematics device that monitors location, reefer fault codes and fuel levels they may now have sensors in each zone of the trailer (up to 4 or more) and possibly door sensors, volume or weight sensors. So, the customer with 5,000 refrigerated trailers and 5,000 telematics devices now has an installed base of battery using products of possibly 25,000 or more – a 5X increase. Add to this the fact that the trailer is always moving, and you quickly have a very large whack-a-mole problem.

You can imagine that there are similar issues in warehouse, manufacturing and sortation facilities and yards that are using beacons for tracking temperature, light, motion, zones, spot locations, doors, or work areas. With some yards being many acres in size and many facilities over a million square feet this can create a huge hide-and-seek problem unless every sensor and device location is logged and even photographed (as some used for security are hidden on purpose).

Items that impact battery life:

·???????Battery technology being used and how batteries are manufactured – all batteries have a maximum power at charge as well as leakage (losing power even on the shelf); rechargeables typically have a recharge cycle limit.

·???????Wake up cycles and heartbeats - how often the device powers up to check sensors or to communicate.

·???????What components in the device that are powered up – not all electrical components are needed for every task

·???????Retry algorithms for communications - either to other sensors or to WiFi, cellular or other networks.

·???????Processing - what work the device itself needs to do such as filtering false positives or filtering duplicate data.

·???????Temperature and temperature variations – all batteries have temperature range specifications and temperature is critical to battery performance.

·???????Low power modes – these enable critical functions to continue such as “find me, I need batteries.”

How many of you have been awakened between midnight and 2am with a blaring fire detector giving a battery warning? Of course, the many detectors in your house never go out all at one time! So, the fire detector manufacturer usually recommends changing them all once a year which is great for the battery manufacturers and for simplifying recurring maintenance but doesn’t optimize the battery’s useful life, reduce battery purchasing costs or reduce inventory costs.

In Part 2 we’ll discuss possible ways your maintenance teams and your venders can help in managing your IoT battery challenges.

#iotsolutions #batteries #m2m #telematics #maintenance