IoT and Space applications: a success story

Nowdays, big data analysis is a well known concept used to described many different scenarios. This concept was not widely used about 8 years ago when the project we are talking about started. At that time DAVE Embedded Systems' was selected as a potential supplier for a brand new and really innovative project. The details of the project and the end customer are protected but the concept behind this project was to design a global data acquisition system about the weather conditions in order to store, analyse and provide valuable output to potential end customers.

In shorts:

1. the weather data is collected and properly stored
2. the data is analysed
3. the data is organised according to the end customer requirements

the Business Model behind is to sell basically an IoT service: you pay a fee and I will provide the data you are looking for

This business model required a huge investment in order to: 1) setup the world wide sensor network able to collect the information about the local weather conditions, 2) setup the data storages and elaboration systems 3) analyse and create value from these data.

DAVE Embedded Systems was involved in the step number 1. The target was to design a system capable to get the information about the weather and deploy these information to the data storages. This task was concepted by the customer by designing small and flexible space satellites able to survive in the near space and collect continuosly the weather conditions, analyse them and send images and measured/analysed data to the earth. In this scenario DAVE Embedded Systems has provided the intelligent nucleus of the satellite. This nucleus should be robust and able to survive a period in the space. DUe to this limited time period it was not requested to have a space conformity but a reliable industrial conformity available in the market for a long period. For this reasons the System On Module Lizard based on Texas Instruments AM35 was selected

The project approval required some years before final positive go to the space. Actually there are many satellites around the world and the customer business model is up and running very well thanks to their capabilities and a bit thanks to DAVE Embedded Systems' technologies and capabilities.

Processor: Texas Instruments "Sitara" AM3505/AM3517

LIZARD is a mid-class ARM Cortex-A8 SOM (System On Module) based on Texas Instruments "Sitara" AM3505/3517 application processor. LIZARD is a well balanced solution for a high range of applications where extended connectivity, sophisticated displays, rich user-interfaces are required, including industrial electronics, smart home controllers, security systems, automation and point of service. At the same time, LIZARD guarantees cost efficiency and reduced power consumption. LIZARD is designed to be easily included in customer's embedded systems, due to the small form factor, the inexpensive stacking connectors and the pinout compatibility with DAVE Embedded Systems' Esatta line CPU modules family.

Related products

DIVA SOM

DIDO SOM

SBC DIVA