Nespresso connected coffee machines project is maybe one of the most visible and exciting project developed on top of Sierra Wireless technology so far, with our Mobile Hotspot Overdrive which saved the day on episode 21/season 8 of the TV show 24. It was so hard to keep it confidential until the last minute!
Description of the application
2 new coffee machines meant for professionals (Nespresso Zenius for SMEs and Nespresso Aguila for Hotels & Restaurants) now communicate with Nespresso ERP using worldwide GPRS wireless networks for optimized operations mainly. Machines send data on regular basis and can receive commands for remote diagnostics.
Get prepared: a technician may ring at your door before the break down occurs! And coffee capsules will arrive before you realize you are actually running out of capsules!
In other words: No coffee down time any more!
How to develop such an M2M application*
Developing this kind of m2m application usually requires 2 different types of developers one for each embedded and server software parts.
All the Sierra Wireless technology used to develop such a project is accessible to you through the Sierra Wireless Developer Zone. The Nespresso application uses the following technology pieces:
*Note: because of confidentiality constraints tied to Nespresso application, this post does not describe the exact Nespresso application, but rather describes a generic M2M application based on a Nespresso-like (remotely managed coffee machines) use case.
Embedded Application Details (Open AT)
The embedded application is written on top of Open AT, in C and Lua. A standard m2m embedded application usually implements three main functions:
- Periodic acquisition of coffee machine operating state using a serial link, and periodic data push to AirVantage Cloud Platform (asynchronous, longer period of time). Data consolidation, compression, and security are paramount for both confidentiality and bandwidth optimization purposes. The remote wireless communication is managed by the AirVantage ReadyAgent, handling most mandatory features here above, thus reducing time-to-develop.
- Monitoring of data thresholds to detect upcoming or ongoing issues and alerts sending to AirVantage platform using the alert mechanism of the ReadyAgent.
- Remote diagnostics or parameterization requests reception from AirVantage Cloud Platform, also implemented by the AirVantage ReadyAgent
Server side application (AirVantage)
Server side, this kind of M2M application usually implements 3 main features:
- Integration into company ERP and process. This is done by using AirVantage APIs (samples are given to use them in many different languages in the developer zone, including Javascript, Java, PHP and .Net).
- Use the AirVantage web portal interface to manage devices airtime subscription and monitor airtime consumption, monitor communication devices and machines health, and trouble shooting. The self-service AirVantage operating portal allows the solution operator to send asynchronous commands or configuration batch to whole or part of device fleet, including upgrading the FW or the SW.
- Build an end-user facing application on top of AirVantage APIs to let the user monitor and/or control its machine remotely, from a PC, a tablet or a smart phone (not used in this project) (samples are given to use them in many different languages in the developer zone, including Javascript, Java, PHP and .Net).
Sources: Nespresso joins forces with Sierra Wireless (Nespresso source) ; Nespresso selects Sierra Wireless technology (Sierra Wireless press release) ; Nespresso-Sierra Wireless joint demo at MWC
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