AT&T Pushes the Bounds of Connected Device Tech at Texas IoT Foundry
A behind-the-scenes look at what goes into the carrier's breakthroughs in IoT solutions.
![IoT and Sensors IoT and Sensors](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/bltef8504f5262bab0f/65245bdcc5ac4a0ee0c32995/shutterstock_558519535.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Shutterstock
The first thing clients see upon visiting the Foundry to enlist Lee’s team’s help solving any issue is the Ideation Station. Filled with molding clay, Legos of all shapes and sizes, whiteboards, bits of wire, building blocks and batteries, it looks more like a kindergartner’s arts and crafts class than where hi-tech, billion-dollar ideas are born. But Lee says AT&T set the room up specifically to have the kind of collaborative, back-and-forth conversations with customers that spark great ideas. His team stays away from the sticky notes and rigid methodologies of other, more traditional development studios. After all, if the customer has made it as far as the Ideation Station, they probably have a good idea of what they want. Lee says ideally, the actual people who deal with the problem every day will be in there side by side with the executives writing the checks. He wants actively engaged clients that aren’t afraid to try new things — even when those things might not work the first few times.
The Foundry’s 3-D printer, says Lee, allows the team to make basically everything you can see in the shop. Where designing even one component of the physical part of a solution used to take weeks, today Lee can have it within five or six hours. The Objet 350 used in the Foundry uses various resins in a cartridge format, uncannily similar-looking to the old inkjet printers. It uses intense UV light to cure the resin as the machine builds each layer, squirting out a “sacrifice material” supporting layer to hold the shape as the plastic is being laid out and that is later removed. Most printers, Lee explains, use the same material for that supporting layer, meaning the engineer has to come behind and grind away that layer. The Foundry’s machine uses a water-soluble sacrifice material engineers simply brush away when the object is finished.
Have you ever seen one of those shows where they customize motorcycles or cars and wonder what they use to cut out the little intricate parts that make it so unique? You might be surprised to learn that in a lot of cases, it’s just highly compressed water. Lee explains that the water jet cutter in the Foundry is essentially the same — only this one can cut through up to 10 inches of steel, just using compressed water. A massive hydraulic compressor takes highly filtered water and pumps it to 6,500 psi, then channels it all through a tiny diamond-shaped nozzle. The pressure is so intense that the cutter itself sits in a tank of water to protect the cement floor (and the solution showroom on the floor beneath).
One of the biggest investments in the lab space is around testing capabilities. Toward the back of the lab is a copper cage with all of the equipment needed to simulate an entire cell site system. Lee’s team is able to run those tests so that they almost exactly replicate what would happen in real life because once those doors close, there’s complete radio silence. The engineers inside are isolated from external interference, and random people driving by can’t accidentally connect to it like it’s another cell tower.
It might shock you to learn that companies turning to the Foundry for a solution to a manufacturing or retail distribution problem aren’t too keen on having to shut down their assembly lines just so AT&T can go test out a new theory. So Lee’s team has its own model-size supply chain operation in house that lets them test technologies out in an actual operational environment within its own lab.
There have been products out there that can give retailers visibility into exactly what inventory is on their shelves for awhile, but they’re complicated and extremely expensive. Not only does every shelf need its own camera and compute capabilities, but the power to run it all, too. AT&T worked out a low cost alternative by using a “time of flight” sensor that sends out a low-powered beam to measure how long it takes for the light to bounce back as a means of calculating distance, and therefore determining how many objects are (or aren’t) on a shelf. While there certainly are advantages in the solution for the retailers peddling the wares, Lee says the real value is for the manufacturers shipping stock to outlets. Knowing how much inventory to send where on a minute level can save these producers millions.
One solution Lee’s team is trialing right now is how to tag equipment, tools and consumables so that as a worker leaves a site, the inventory will self-check. EMTs that have just dropped accident victims off at the hospital will know how many backboards, neck braces and IV drips to restock, and dispatch can tell at a glance that it isn’t adequately equipped to be sent to another accident. AT&T is testing the tech out on many of its own work crews, helping its techs know whether or not they have the ladders, drills or meters.
One solution Lee’s team is trialing right now is how to tag equipment, tools and consumables so that as a worker leaves a site, the inventory will self-check. EMTs that have just dropped accident victims off at the hospital will know how many backboards, neck braces and IV drips to restock, and dispatch can tell at a glance that it isn’t adequately equipped to be sent to another accident. AT&T is testing the tech out on many of its own work crews, helping its techs know whether or not they have the ladders, drills or meters.
IDC predicts worldwide spending on the internet of things (IoT) to reach $745 billion this year. While the bulk of the channel is still working out the kinks on how best to monetize and scale formal IoT initiatives, the folks over at AT&T have been hard at work pushing the front lines of connected devices at a dedicated IoT Foundry in Plano, Texas, for years.
The brilliant minds at the IoT Foundry work with partners and customers to develop out-of-the-box solutions to make things work better, cost less, provide more value and create more opportunity. The technologies these innovators use are as cutting-edge as they come, encompassing everything from radio frequency (RF) engineering, 3D printing, hardware design, web applications and virtualization.
Channel Futures stopped by the Foundry this week and got a tour led by none other than its director, Craig Lee, who led the way on his trademark roller skates, complete with customized AT&T logo hubcaps. Lee showed us labs, brainstorming rooms, massive (and massively expensive) state-of-the-art machinery and a whole showroom of vertical-specific solutions partners are using to increase efficiencies for their customers. Click through the slideshow above to see the highlights.
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like