eSAT Global — a US company planning to use existing geostationary satellites to provide communication for IoT applications — has formed a partnership with Canadian company Transport Genie under which eSAT Global will provide connectivity for Transport Genie’s system for the monitoring of livestock in transit.
Initially the two companies will conduct large scale field trials of eSAT Global’s satellite communication modules integrated with Transport Genie’s livestock monitoring technology. Trials are expected to be begin in Q4 of 2020 and global availability in 2021.
Transport Genie CEO Joel Sotomayor said the company had been searching for satellite connectivity that would meet the power usage, latency and cost levels of terrestrial communications options.
“We expect … eSAT [will] deliver ubiquitous connectivity..[at] a form factor and at a price that is required for our solution to compete in every market,” he said.
The deal is eSAT’s second in the agriculture sector. In March it announced a deal with Australian company Smart Paddock under which it will provide connectivity for Smart Paddock’s cattle monitoring tags.
Transport Genie’s system uses sensors are placed throughout a livestock hauler that record micro-climate conditions and communicate via Bluetooth to a hub unit in the cab which in turn communicates over a long-range wireless technology to a central computing resource where data is analysed and made available to the driver and those with a stake in the live cargo.
Data is stored in a database which is then sent to the lead stakeholder and driver. Alerts are raised if certain thresholds are exceeded. The sensors can measure temperature, humidity, vibration and CO2 and ammonia levels.
