Approaching Agriculture Inventory Monitoring by Combining IoT and AI

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In this episode of What To Expect When You're Connecting, host Ryan Carlson speaks with Nathan Hoel, Co-founder and CTO of BinSentry, a company in the smart agricultural technology market. They discuss the challenges of ensuring reliable connectivity for IoT devices in rural areas, the importance of customer-centric solutions, and the hurdles BinSentry faced with different IoT connectivity technologies. Key topics include BinSentry's use of time-of-flight sensors for accurate feed inventory in silos, dealing with microfretting in SIM cards, and the impact that a flexible and reliable IoT connectivity partner has on reliability, support, and the impact on cost savings. Nathan shares insights on maintaining focus as a start-up and the significant impact of precise billing models on their business operations.

00:00 Audio Podcast- Full Episode

00:33 Challenges in Animal Feed Management

01:02 BinSentry's Technological Solutions

03:00 Customer-Centric Approach

06:23 Processing the Data of Taking Measurements

09:42 AI and Image Processing

11:45 The AI Training Process

15:44 Inventory Management and Business Impact

18:48 Staying Focused on the Mission and Avoiding Scope Creep

19:55 How saying no is the key to maintaining focus and a winning market strategy

26:29 Digging into Technical Topics for Product Development

26:51 Connectivity and Radio Selection

32:10 Reliability Lessons Learned

32:43 The Vampire Issue: Solar Panel Problems

34:07 Importance of Carrier Relationships in Rural Areas

36:28 Soracom's Proactive Problem-Solving

40:18 Temperature Challenges and Industrial SIM Cards

46:56 Billing Model Innovations with Soracom

59:09 Final Thoughts and Reflections

01:00:08 What is Soracom to You?