OnAsset Intelligence, the pioneer in aviation compliant tracking and monitoring devices, is announcing the newest evolution of its SENTRY products – SENTRY 600 FlightSafe®.
Combining the latest in 5G cellular technology, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and LoRaWAN, the SENTRY 600 delivers a compact and flexible solution optimized for long field life and extreme scalability. Building upon OnAsset’s legacy of continuous innovation, the SENTRY 600 incorporates learnings from over a decade of large-scale global deployments in 160+ countries to offer a fully featured product platform that can support customers well into the future. In addition to its comprehensive suite of wireless networking capabilities, the SENTRY 600 offers a rich complement of sensors, now including temperature probes for cryogenic and deep-frozen shipments, paired with onboard data storage and processing designed to analyze information at the edge via machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms that can run on the device itself instead of a cloud server. Since the SENTRY gathers its own data and also captures data from nearby sensor devices that are monitoring everything from piece-level cargo shipments to warehouse assets and infrastructure, the SENTRY has a unique real-time vantage point to analyze data and derive powerful prescriptive and predictive insights.
The SENTRY 600 has been designed from the ground up to ensure massive scalability as the use of sensors and real-time logistics visibility becomes mainstream. The proliferation of OnAsset’s suite of Sentinel Bluetooth® sensor tags has ramped aggressively, and the industry’s continued focus on using sensor technology for visibility and control of operations shows no sign of slowing down. Building on the launch of Managed Interoperability™ earlier this year, OnAsset’s SENTRY 600 will support the connection of tens or hundreds of thousands of sensor tags to a SENTRY acting as a gateway – reading very large quantities of sensor tags manufactured by OnAsset and a host of third parties. Now with the addition of LoRaWAN paving the way for longer range sensor tags, a single SENTRY device can provide gateway services for large facilities and airports supporting huge numbers of sensor devices.
OnAsset CEO Adam Crossno comments: “It isn’t just about what you can do today, but how you are positioning for tomorrow. We see a lot of providers in the industry trying to tackle range and scalability challenges by introducing overly complicated mesh networking architectures. Although such approaches may work in small, controlled settings, they add complexity, have difficulty scaling in the real world, and aren’t optimized for situations where sensors need to live for many years operating off small batteries. Range matters. Compensating for lack of range by adding complexity is moving in the wrong direction. We have already launched the industry’s longest-range Bluetooth 5.0 tags in our Sentinel products, and we will be further enhancing our industry-leading performance as we collaborate with our customers and partners to bring new solutions to market.”
OnAsset partners with Unilode Aviation Solutions to enable the digitization of ULDs and galley carts using custom-made Sentinel tags. As part of this partnership, the companies are working together to install a global network of SENTRY devices at all major airports worldwide to act as gateways for the Sentinel tags. Unilode recently signed agreements with major aviation ground handling firms including Swissport, Menzies and Dnata that further support the installation of SENTRY devices globally.
Unilode CEO Benoît Dumont comments: “We are making excellent progress on the digitization of our assets, and we are especially excited about OnAsset’s SENTRY 600 product, which will continue to support our future needs. We have worked with OnAsset for many years and have a rich history of innovation together. Unilode won the IATA Air Cargo Innovation Award twice and for us, innovation is about more than just digitizing ULDs, we are driving a new way forward by bringing our customers a comprehensive solution that extends horizontally across multiple business units. We are constantly evolving and exploring the creation of new products and services for our airline customers, GHAs and original equipment manufacturers to provide them with the true breadth of our industry solutions. We want to be viewed as a one-stop-shop for ULD and galley cart digitalization and the SENTRY 600 is a major component of how we will achieve that goal.”
OnAsset’s SENTRY product is a rare combination that offers full aviation compliance along with dual usage as both a standalone tracking device and gateway. Now with the addition of more wireless networking, sensors, onboard data storage/analysis and flexible edge processing capabilities, the SENTRY is becoming a true product platform.
Crossno summarizes: “In the current global situation many airlines are looking toward cargo services to drive revenue, and we have seen huge take-up in using the combination of SENTRY and Sentinel devices to add layers of visibility to critical cargo shipments and logistics infrastructure, especially cold-chain related perishables and pharmaceuticals. The fact that our solutions can support aviation service providers, airlines, freight forwarders and shippers using a cohesive and standards-based technology platform is very exciting. We are a true OEM, and we help customers adapt and innovate products every day – we don’t shy away from a challenge and are eager to engage with customers to understand their needs and deliver on their requirements.”