https://www.iotworldtoday.com/wp-content/themes/ioti_child/assets/images/logo/IoTWorldToday-mobile-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
    • Back
    • Roundups
  • Strategy
  • Special Reports
  • Business Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Industry Perspectives
    • Featured Vendors
  • Other Content
    • Back
    • Q&As
    • Case Studies
    • Features
    • How-to
    • Opinion
    • Podcasts
    • Strategic Partners
    • Latest videos
  • More
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Editorial Submissions
  • Events
Iot World Today
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
    • Back
    • Roundups
  • Strategy
  • Special Reports
  • Business Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Industry Perspectives
    • Featured Vendors
  • Other Content
    • Back
    • Q&As
    • Case Studies
    • Features
    • How-to
    • Opinion
    • Podcasts
    • Strategic Partners
    • Latest videos
  • More
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Editorial Submissions
  • Events
  • newsletter
  • IIoT
  • Cities
  • Energy
  • Homes/Buildings
  • Transportation/Logistics
  • Connected Health Care
  • Retail
  • AI
  • Metaverse
  • Development
  • Security
ioti.com

Supply Chain, Transportation & Logistics


Potential IoT and Blockchain Use Cases: Tracking Tuna and Trees?

Optimists see blockchain use cases spanning nearly every industry imaginable, while skeptics see the technology confined to a limited number of applications.
  • Written by Brian Buntz
  • 12th September 2018

At its core, the Internet of Things represents the digitalization of the physical world, while blockchain, one of the most hyped technologies of late, was designed to enable cryptocurrency transactions without the need for a central authority.

The two technologies, independently, together or in conjunction with AI, promise to transform businesses of nearly all stripes. But gauging technologies’ promise at a relatively early stage of adoption is tricky, especially considering the fluidity of the terms’ definitions and proposed applications. Although IoT is further along than blockchain in terms of adoption, estimating the technologies’ disruptive potential can be challenging, especially when they are used in tandem, making it difficult to answer questions such as: To what extent can IoT blur the lines of the physical world and how good of a fit is blockchain for use with physical assets? Can the technologies disrupt, for instance, how seafood companies locate and track fish? Or lead to increased harvest yields and greater traceability for palm oil plantations?

An SAP analyst and media event dedicated to blockchain considered those themes in a panel discussion focused on blockchain’s potential for supply chain applications. With three of the five panelists hailing from tech companies, the inclusion of digitally-focused executives from Bumble Bee Seafoods and another from a palm oil exporter were the clearest evidence of technology’s far reach.

Blockchain, IoT and Tuna Fishing

The theme of sustainable fishing has gained ground in recent years with groups ranging from the World Wildlife Foundation to Greenpeace, Seafood Watch and the Marine Stewardship Council launching campaigns to combat overfishing.

But how plausible is it that you as a consumer could know with a high degree of authority if a can of tuna you find at a supermarket is more sustainable than another? And how can fishing companies using traditional harvesting techniques ensure they can, first, have a good chance of success and, second, help ensure that the fish they catch is accurately tracked?

Tony Costa, senior vice president and chief information officer of Bumble Bee Seafoods, described how technologically limited the beginning of the fishing supply chain can be. “We have fishermen in the north ends of Indonesia go out on a 25-foot boat with a 25-horsepower engine and go out 5 or 10 miles into the ocean and literally catch tuna by hand,” Costa said.

[IoT Blockchain Summit is the event that’s scaling blockchain for IoT across industry and enterprise. Get your ticket now.]

The manual nature of the work leaves open the possibility for considerable technology-based efficiency gains, Costa said, but overhauling the early phase of the supply chain would represent a considerable shift. During a visit to Indonesia, Costa assumed he could use RFID tags to track individual fish as they arrived from fishing boats. “But the fishermen already cut up the fish out at sea. They put it into bags and wrote their name, date and the location of where they caught that fish.”

Bumble Bee Seafoods hopes to expand its use of technology to drive greater efficiency and transparency throughout the supply chain. “We want to get that data on the blockchain, but then we want to go back to IoT: How can we put sensors on the boat, on the fish, on each piece?” Costa asked. “[IoT] is going to facilitate unbelievable supply chain optimization and integration throughout the process.” One tangible example where Costa sees potential is in helping tuna fishers jointly locate fish. “I have this idea of a Go Fish app,” he said. Because tuna are migratory, fishers could jointly help communicate which ocean locations apparently have more fish nearby. As of now, two fishers could go out in the morning, one could catch five and the other return empty-handed. If fishers could communicate while they are out at sea, they could work together to help triangulate the locations of schools of tuna, Costa said. Meanwhile, blockchain could enable the company to precisely track, say, the provenance of a specific can of tuna. When asked how the company would ensure the accuracy of information entering the blockchain, Costa indicated the company would build upon an existing auditing process.

Data-Driven Palm Oil?

In the panel discussion, Abhishek Singh, head of IT and digital, palm oil at Apical, agreed “IoT is a good supplement to blockchain when it comes to data acquisition,” and said his company was looking for strategies to improve the productivity of each of its trees and plantations. There are well-established business processes in place for such detailed analyses, but they are traditionally manual. “The challenge for us is to move the data from pen and paper to a real-time data acquisition process,” Singh said. The rise of tablet computers, however, has helped ease that transition, enabling workers in the field to take pictures of specific trees and verify data accuracy of harvesting data.

An article from Digitalist magazine notes the palm oil industry is investigating technology-based strategies to boost lagging productivity and to help the industry combat reputation challenges. At present, only 19 percent of palm oil is harvested sustainably, according to the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

Other palm oil producers have explored using connected sensors to track water saturation and environmental conditions such as humidity in palm plantations. The Digitalist article notes, for instance, that drone imagery leveraging image analysis and machine learning can be used to create virtual models — digital twins — of each tree on a plantation. The models can be used in conjunction with data from soil sensors, weather stations and satellite images to help inform how individual trees should be fertilized, irrigated and harvested.

The open source, blockchain-focused Hyperledger organization has also considered how distributed ledger technologies could be deployed to close “current gaps in transparency” in the palm oil supply chain. A plantation worker could use a mobile device to track fruit from a given geolocation or even tree while also keeping track of the date and time and the worker’s name.

Ultimately, blockchain’s disruptive potential remains something of an open question. On the one hand, there is, for instance, the optimistic assessment of the authors of “Blockchain: Transforming Your Business and Our World” that the technology can disrupt “almost any industry that deals with some sort of transaction or tracking mechanisms.” The World Economic Forum, on the other hand, believes the technology’s potential is constrained to a narrower set of use cases and recommends the technology not be used for applications with physical assets. Some people see blockchain as “an idealized abstraction of a ledger,” said Zulfikar Ramzan, chief technology officer at RSA. “They see this vast sea of opportunity.”

One of the most popular enterprise blockchain applications is its use in conjunction with IoT technology to spur supply chain traceability and efficiency. A recent SAP survey found supply chain and IoT to jointly be the most promising blockchain use case. The tokenization of blockchain — essentially using distributed ledger technology to track physical assets is a popular research subject and the subject of numerous pilot projects. Ramzan, however, is not convinced of the convergence of IoT and blockchain that is often involved in such projects. “When I hear about IoT applications of blockchain, I think it is weird. I think that is just the wrong application,” he said. “All of these problems get introduced [in trying to merge IoT and blockchain] that people try to sweep beneath the rug. How do you take a physical device and securely identify it using a digital identifier?” he asked. “As soon as you have a process by which that happens, you have to trust that process. You have created this entity that you trust. But the whole point of blockchain is to avoid trust, which is why it is completely decentralized.”

Tags: Supply Chain, Transportation & Logistics Embedded Computing IIoT/Manufacturing Metaverse Features

Related Content


  • Image shows a fire truck in New York City
    Nvidia Files Patent to Help Self-Driving Cars Detect Emergency Vehicles
    The company’s solution could prevent AV’s from interfering with first responders on the road
  • Image shows the inside of a Tesla Model X P90D full electric luxury crossover SUV car with a large touch screen and dashboard screen
    Teslas Using Autopilot Involved in 273 Crashes Since July
    Data revealed following NHTSA research into crashes with cars equipped with advanced driver-assist systems
  • Continental invests in Motovis
    Continental Invests in Chinese Self-Driving Company Motovis
    Announcement comes weeks after Bosch announced it was partnering with WeRide to develop autonomous driving software
  • Small Robot Company's Per Plant Farming robot
    Robotic Farming Services Rolling out to 50 Farms This Fall
    Small Robot Company is Britain’s first fully autonomous crop-scanning service

2 comments

  1. Avatar Pournima Chavan 14th September 2018 @ 10:36 am
    Reply

    Autoplant System is an IoT enabled supply chain solution provider. Also, it has recognized by Gartner in their 2 cool vendor reports- 2018 Cool Vendors in IoT Services & 2018 Cool Vendors for Artifical Intelligence in Asia. Read the full report here http://autoplant.in/download-gartner-report/

  2. Avatar [email protected] 18th September 2018 @ 7:58 pm
    Reply

    The concept of utilizing location (services) in the supply chain and as an added source of security for blockchain is especially useful in the food/beverage markets. Using a CLoC (cloud location over cellular) solution in the tuna example would allow each vessel to be tracked at specific time intervals and report back the location of that vessel to within meters of accuracy. When the fisherman hits the dock with his/her catch, he/she could include an inexpensive, disposable tracker with his/her ID with their catch. That tracker would stay with the tuna all along its route until it hit its end destination.

    Through the beauty of IoT, the tuna can be traced from the water from where and WHEN it was caught, to the market or restaurant where it’s sold. At each step, the location and time can be verified, along with other factors such as temperature, velocity and moisture, adding not only an additional layer of security in the blockchain, but also valuable insights to the integrity of the perishable. As well, CLoC can trigger an action if a state (condition) changes in order to protect product integrity and freshness. For example, if the temperature rises above a certain degree, an alert can be sent to take immediate action to prevent spoilage. Or if a geofence is broken, a theft can be prevented. Or in the case of a recall, the product can be traced to its exact location preventing further illness, in addition to liability for the grower/distributor.

    The use cases are endless when one considers what can be accomplished by adding location to IoT applications!

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your IoT World Today account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Latest News

  • IoT-Enabled Bug Monitoring  System Finds Forest Threats
  • A Waymo autonomous vehicle drives along a San Francisco street.
    NHTSA Boss Hints at Federally Regulating Autonomous Vehicles
  • Image shows Faction's D1 electric three-wheeler
    Nvidia Powered Driverless Three-Wheelers Set to Debut
  • New Drone System Aims for Full Autonomy

Roundups

View all

IoT Product Roundup: Canonical, InfluxData, Wiliot and More

23rd June 2022

IoT Product Roundup: Cisco, Telit, Draganfly and More

9th June 2022

IoT Deals, Partnerships Roundup: Google, Arm, Senet and More

26th May 2022

White Papers

View all

The Role of Manufacturing Technology in Continuous Improvement Ebook

6th April 2022

IIoT Platform Trends for Manufacturing in 2022

6th April 2022

Latest Videos

View all
Image shows Unilever's Alberto Prado at AI Summit 2022 in London

AI Summit 2022: Unilever’s Alberto Prado

Prado talks about how Unilever is using AI to accelerate the speed of new discoveries and gives them access to more breakthrough innovation

Image Shows John Lewis' Barry Panai at AI Summit London 2022

AI Summit 2022: John Lewis’ Barry Panayi on AI in Retail

Panayi talks about data and AI in retail and how individuals and the technology can work together

E-books

View all

How Remote Access Helps Enterprises Improve IT Service and Employee Satisfaction

12th January 2022

An Integrated Approach to IoT Security

6th November 2020

Webinars

View all

Rethinking the Database in the IoT Era

18th May 2022

Jumpstarting Industrial IoT solutions with an edge data management platform

12th May 2022

AI led Digital Transformation of Manufacturing: Time is NOW

9th December 2021

Special Reports

View all

Omdia’s Smart Home Market Dynamics Report

7th January 2022

Cybersecurity Protection Increasingly Depends on Machine Learning

28th October 2020

IoT Security Best Practices for Industry and Enterprise

20th October 2020

Twitter

IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

IoT Product Roundup: Nokia, Energous, Dashbot and more dlvr.it/STRKDh https://t.co/YgTAI5SXSB

6th July 2022
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

A new #IoT bug monitoring system from @CENSIS121 is helping the UK’s #forestry industry fight pests, and save money… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

6th July 2022
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

NHTSA Boss Hints at Federally Regulating Autonomous Vehicles dlvr.it/STQrrw https://t.co/Yjp1UKuaE5

6th July 2022
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Nvidia Powered Driverless Three-Wheelers Set to Debut dlvr.it/STQq0H https://t.co/RrYyVPgFzB

6th July 2022
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

New Drone System Aims for Full Autonomy dlvr.it/STQnvV https://t.co/S4O8hb6gQh

6th July 2022
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Bosch, VW Approved to Develop Automated Driving dlvr.it/STQllD https://t.co/neI30dVmC6

6th July 2022
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

🤔 Looking for 3 Strategies to Avoid IoT Key Theft? We’ve got you covered! As tech companies continue to develop an… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

5th July 2022
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

AI Summit 2022: Unilever’s Alberto Prado dlvr.it/STMpRN https://t.co/1dyLREr8N6

5th July 2022

Newsletter

Sign up for IoT World Today newsletters: vertical industry coverage on Tuesdays and horizontal tech coverage on Thursdays.

Special Reports

Our Special Reports take an in-depth look at key topics within the IoT space. Download our latest reports.

Business Resources

Find the latest white papers and other resources from selected vendors.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IoT World Series
  • Channel Futures
  • RISC-V
  • Dark Reading
  • ITPro Today
  • Web Hosting Talk

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Login/Register

FOLLOW IoT World Today ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X