Milk Collection Truck as a Rolling Data Centre

"Always On-Line with GPRS"

 

The officially controlled detection of quantity was the beginning of equipment on milk collection trucks.

The foundation for the exact payment of the delivered milk has been laid down more than 30 years ago when the metering technology on milk collection trucks was established by using DIESSEL rotary piston meters.
It was in the early eighties that mainly the large dairy groups were pushing to the development of data capture systems on collection trucks in order to additionally rationalize the accounting procedure.

The first commercial device version delivered by DIESSEL was the DATACOMP which was able to comply with dairies' requirements at that time.
At the beginning, only the supplier and driver data had to be linked with the intake quantity whereas nowadays a variety of additional information has to be managed on the truck (complete intake control, sampling etc.).
The number of arising tour data was considerably increased due to the sampling procedure and the temperature monitoring.

The modular system ZEVODAT-M developed by DIESSEL in 1995 complied with the rising demands. The advantage of the data capture system is its flexibility which enables a supplementary extension of hard- or software.

At first, the data transfer from the milk collection truck to the dairy was done exclusively by means of a cable.
Broken data cables up to completely torn out cable boxes were always the weak side of this kind of data transfer, so that we were always looking for alternative solutions.

Due to their missing transfer safety, the infrared or DECT radio transmission only served as intermediate solutions.

The rapid development of mobile radio technology delivered the data transfer via GSM as an alternative to the cable, more expensive but also more practicable.
Today, we have another version of a data communication: GPRS (General Packed Radio Service)

Compared with conventional data radio solutions, the mobile radio technology GPRS being independent from the fixed network and based on the GSM network (global system for mobile communication) offers substantial advantages.

The accounting for GPRS, for example, is done according to the data volume and not according to time charging which is comparably more expensive. Moreover, the connection is a permanent line that means that the user is "always online", which is similar to a standard line. There are no long connection setups and, at the same time, a considerable price advantage. Communicating via GPRS the user can apply a larger bandwidth for the data transfer. For a download a capacity of 36 kb/s is possible, GSM only offers a capacity of 9.6 kb/s maximum.

The worldwide in spread, Netherlands-based dairy group CAMPINA has always been a pioneer regarding the application of innovative technology on milk collection trucks in order to go on optimizing the already very well developed logistics strategy.

Against that background, GEA Diessel developed in cooperation with the company SAGEM Dr. Neuhaus Telekommunikation an additional module which can easily be integrated into the existing data capture structure of the ZEVODAT-M via a serial interface.

 

Fig. 2: GPRS module with RS232-interface with data capture system

 

 

 

The reorganization to a new internal data management system and the modified coding of the MCS sample bottles required the revision of the hardware and software components of CAMPINA's existing ZEVODAT-M.

During that revision a change over to GPRS could be realised and this is where the GEA Diessel's modular CS3 construction principle showed its advantages.
For the hardware changes and the modifications of the software the existing ZEVODAT-M could be extended without problems.

Why GPRS for the linkage of the trucks?

When communicating via GPRS, the actual transferred data volume only is charged, offering the economical possibility to link the whole car pool "always online" to o n e central personal computer similar to a standard line.
In the past, several transfer computers were required; now one computer alone can manage all the trucks.
Especially the trucks stopping at dairies which are not connected to the data network or which supply their milk into trailer or freightliner trains caused problems for the administration or for the drivers.

These days, all trucks can be reached whenever required via the bidirectional data exchange. Immediately after the milk intake they can send all information for further data processing.
All results such as the actual milk intake, milk transfer into trailers or containers by pumping, change of driver or trailer etc. are transferred without delay thus enabling the control room to react immediately.

In summary, the GPRS technology offers the following advantages:

• current survey on the status of the truck pool
• continuous access to every truck
• real-time data capture of all actions at the truck
• data transfer in parallel to and from several trucks simultaneously
• direct information of the service personnel is possible
• quick blocking of suppliers with former problems is possible

A very important argument for CAMPINA was the reduction of the personal computers required for the data transfer, which were spread in the dairies all over the country. Only one central server was able to simplify the administration considerably.

The figure below shows the GPRS structure realized by GEA Diessel.

Already during the designing phase data security was an important subject which had been given highest priority.

For GEA Diessel, data security is a basic feature of the GPRS transfer concept and comprises:

• „Mobile-Office-Online“ Service of the KPN-Telekom with special user authentication
• secured data channel in the internet by means of „IPsec“ tunnel
• application of a Firewall and a special network structure
• additional modem authentication at the server
• overplayed data coding from the modem to the server
• overplayed protocol for data security on the user level

These measures include all the technologies which are available today to prevent attacks both from external (from the internet) and internal (from the intranet) forever.
The special protocol proved its reliability in practice by avoiding any loss of data.

The good cooperation between supplier and customer helped already in the past to develop successful technologies for the truck logistics.

With the existing flexibility of the ZEVODAT system, market leader GEA Diessel is in a position to comply quickly with customers' demands and to realize them practically.

From the measuring technology itself to simple, cost-effective data capture systems and complex multifunctional systems – GEA Diessel supplies it all.

The author:
Hermann Hartmann, Dipl.Phys., Head of metering and data technology at GEA Diessel

Published in: European Dairy Magazine 2005

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