Why Now Is the Time to Get Comfortable with IoT and Robot Assistance

Posted by Brooke Lester on Jun 30, 2021 4:30 PM

Working with a robot

Robots and automated factories no longer exist solely in science fiction. They’re real, and they’ve already started to play a role in the transportation industry. Expect them to be a fixture for years to come.

Robotics and the Internet of Things make operations more efficient and cost-effective. Yet, you can’t reap the benefits of these technologies if you don’t have the right infrastructure in place. Read on to learn about how B2B integration allows you to take advantage of robotics and IoT. Are You Ready to integrate?

Are you ready to integrate?

The Role of IoT and Robot Assistance in the Transportation Industry

We can see robotics and IoT in several places within the transportation industry:

  • Robotic assistants in the warehouse
  • Drone deliveries
  • Sensors in shipping containers

In the coming years, there’s a good chance we’ll start seeing such developments as:

  • Driverless vehicles
  • Remote-controlled ships

IoT and robotic assistants require data to make decisions, and they transmit information in return to their human users. To utilize these technological advancements, transportation companies must be able to feed data into these devices and software. They must also be able to handle incoming data streams that those devices and software transmit.

Legacy systems don’t integrate with IoT devices or robotic assistants. That creates problems because those systems store valuable information that IoT devices and robots could utilize to boost efficiency.

Robot in automated factory

How B2B Integration Enables Innovation in the Transportation Industry

B2B integration allows transportation companies to leverage IoT and robotics by centralizing enterprise information. Instead of data stuck in silos, information flows into one place where it is accessed by various applications (including IoT devices and robotic assistants).

In this post, we’ll talk about two types of integration:

  • System integration
  • Middleware integration

System Integration

System integration” refers to the exchange and integration of electronic organizational transactions, messages, and files through intra-company business processes that connect internal systems and data collection devices.

We’ll illustrate the connection between system integration and emerging technologies with an example: let’s say you’re going to install sensors on shipping containers to give you status updates while items are in transit. System integration would bring information about the shipment into one place so that the sensor could access it. Moreover, it would centralize the data the sensor transmitted, so humans would be able to see it and analyze it.

Middleware Integration

Middleware connects network-based requests generated by a client to the backend data the client requests. Think of it as the glue between separate, complex software programs. By extension, middleware integration helps these programs “talk” to one another.

How would middleware integration be used for IoT and robotics? It would allow software applications, such as an order fulfillment system, to share information with a robotic picker. In turn, the picker would send information back to the order fulfillment system to let it know an order had been filled.

“B2B integration allows transportation companies to leverage the power of IoT and robotics.”

IoT and robotics can make the transportation industry more efficient and save money. B2B integration enables this industry to harness this technology effectively. Integrate. Then Dominate.

Integrate. Then dominate.