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Case Study: Smart Container Introduction:

Marico, an FMCG company, wanted to build an IoT device or a system for understanding user-

cooking behaviour and also to establish healthy cooking habits among its consumers. This led

to an idea of building a smart container that can notify the about consumer various parameters

such as calories consumed and anti-oxidant consumed. This system can also extract the data

such as consumer usage behaviour that can draw useful insights to Marico.

Customer Profile:

Marico is an Indian consumer goods company providing consumer products and services in

the areas of Health and Beauty based in Mumbai.

During 2015, the company generated a turnover of Rs. 5,733 crore. Marico has 8 factories in

India located at Pondicherry, Perundurai, Kanjikode, Jalgaon, Paldhi, Dehradun, Baddi and

Paonta Sahib.

Business Requirement:

Marico's business strategy aimed at developing a Smart Oil Container for with the following

features:

1. A Display Screen on the container which can show:

• Calories consumed for the day and month.

• Anti-oxidant consumed for the day and month.

• Oil present in the container.

• Oil consumed in the last usage.

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Case Study: Smart Container

2. All the data should be produced in the form of visual representation such as graphs and

gauges on a web dashboard.

3. The device should have a flow control mechanism.

4. The device should indicate the oil level in the container, with different LEDs at the base

indicating different levels.

Challenge:

The following were the major aspects of building Smart Container:

1. Selection of the sensor to measure oil usage. The oil being a consumable product compelled

us to choose the sensor that can be placed outside the container and could measure the oil

level.

2. Sensor data should be sent to cloud for analyzing various parameters such as calories,

antioxidants, etc. based on oil consumption.

3. Choose a hardware that occupies the least space as to make sure the size and weight of the

container are appropriate to use.

4. The insights from market research suggested making a container with flow control feature.

Solution:

After experimenting with various sensors, we got the best results with the Load cell. This sensor

can be mounted underneath the container and can measure the weight of the oil in the

container. The weight data can be used along with the known density of the oil & the area if the

base beneath the oil to calculate the level in the container.

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Case Study: Smart Container

This sensor is interfaced to PIC controller that communicates to Bolt hardware unit over UART.

The Bolt hardware that comes with Wi-Fi module over it, communicates the sensor data to

cloud (Bolt IoT Platform). The cloud platform helps to visualize the collected data in the form of

graphs. For smart container, all the data collected were visualized in the form of gauges and bar

graphs.

Monthly and weekly statistics were explained using bar graphs and daily statistics using a

gauge.

Additionally, for quick view of calories and antioxidant consumed, we interfaced a TFT screen

on the container and which displays various parameters such as oil in the container, calories

consumed for the day, antioxidant consumed for the day and the battery level.

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Case Study: Smart Container

Result:

The Bolt IoT platform played a key role in building Smart Container, it simplified the process of

getting sensor data over the cloud. Using APIs, this data can also be displayed over a mobile

app. It helps user to make conscious decision on their oil consumption and stay healthy.

Using the data collected from smart container, the users oil usage pattern and many insights

can be drawn. Using these insights Marico has an opportunity to take marketing and business

decisions.

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Case Study: Smart Container

“To learn more about us please visit us at www.boltiot.com or write us

at contactus@inventrom.com. Looking forward to solve your problems by deploying IoT to

serve you.”