REMONDIS & Rhenus: Smart Filling Level Checker Uses Laser and IoT

That is a task performed by Rhenus Data Office. The document logistics service provider from Westphalia provides customers with data protection bins, collects them and disposes of their contents in compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (see Info box). This process was long conducted on a regular schedule, and that was where Rhenus saw scope for optimization. Some containers were only half full while at other locations they were full to the brim with documents stacked next to them on the floor. The existing option was far from ideal. A customer’s employee had to keep an eye on the filling level and call Rhenus in time to request collection of the full bin. That in turn required Rhenus to set up a call center to handle calls.

What Rhenus lacked was automatic notification of the filling levels of its data protection containers. The digital filling level checkers available were too expensive for use in large numbers – over 100,000 data bins. And they mostly used energy-intensive ultrasonic technology that required frequent battery replacement. The solution was to digitize the collection process, for which Rhenus developed jointly with the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) and Telekom at the Fraunhofer Enterprise Labs (see Info box) a low-cost filling level checker.

Rhenus fixes the filling level checker to the underside of the bin’s lid. The sensor is directed toward the interior and records the filling level by laser. There are various levels, such as half full, 60 percent, 80 percent. The device’s wireless module is on the outside of the sensor. The module relays the filling level via the NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) machine and sensor network. This mobile network standard for the Internet of Things (IoT) is designed to save energy as it transmits small amounts of data. As a result, subject to transmission frequency, the wireless module can run for several years on a standard commercial battery. In addition, NB-IoT transmits data reliably from warehouses or data archives in basements.

The filling level checker relays the reading as required, either at predefined intervals or in accordance with the level, to Deutsche Telekom’s IoT Cloud. There the customer can specify the site, the floor or the office where each bin is located and which wireless module is assigned to it in Rhenus’s SAP system. By linking the ERP system with the cloud platform’s dashboard the logistics enterprise’s operator can, for example, group all containers by customer or location and check the filling level of each bin and the battery status of the module. Alarms can also be defined, such as a first notification at a filling level of 60 percent and a second at 80 percent. Alarms are sent automatically by e-mail or via the application’s API interface to the service provider’s ERP backend. Pick-up vehicle routes can be optimized. Locations are only visited if their bins are really full.

This process automation makes personal notification of the filling level, and with it the operation of a call center, superfluous. A further advantage is that if the containers are collected before they overflow, data protection is ensured. Rhenus can use the sensor data to plan pick-ups and disposals precisely. The IoT platform provides the data in a user-friendly way and connectivity enables the waste disposal company to offer an improved service. If the bin is full the collection service will be there to collect it. Too early or too late pick-ups are a thing of the past. The all-inclusive solution, consisting of device, connectivity, IoT platform and service, is designed to be inexpensive and thereby suitable for large-scale use. After a successful test phase Rhenus aims to equip 100,000 data bins with sensors.

The filling level checker system can be applied in many industries and to many materials: containers of industrial liquids, grain silos in agriculture, trash cans at truck stops, letter boxes. Or used glass containers.

REMONDIS, one of the world’s largest service providers in the recycling and waste disposal industry and, like Rhenus, a member of the Rethmann Group, has optimized the collection schedules of its used glass containers with the IoT solution. REMONDIS used to empty used glass containers in cities and municipalities at regular intervals irrespective of how full they were. On average they were only 60 percent full at pick-up. That led to superfluous collections and additional fuel consumption as a crane arm emptied the contents of containers into the pick-up truck. At busy times, in contrast, containers were too full and bottles were left alongside the containers – a potential cause of accidents and injuries, not to mention environmental pollution.

REMONDIS equipped its used glass containers with laser filling level sensors and got a grip on these problems. Thanks to IoT it can now optimize its route planning. Containers are emptied as required on the basis of the latest filling level data and are now, on average, 90 percent full when they are emptied. So the pick-up vehicles with their gas-guzzling cranes can be put to much more effective use, and that means a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. “We are totally satisfied with the Telekom solution, which is worthwhile for us in several respects,” says Arne Brosch, Managing Director of REMONDIS Olpe GmbH. “Together with our local authority partners and customers we all benefit from the reduction in emissions.”

The labor input was reduced too, enabling REMONDIS to better offset the growing shortage of drivers. And there is less unpleasant and labor-intensive overspill at container sites. A further advantage is manipulation-proof automated documentation of reports and emptying times. Thanks to NB-IoT the wireless modules are inexpensive to manufacture and energy-saving in operation so that they continue to function, requiring no maintenance, throughout the service life of the glass container. So thanks to IoT REMONDIS can offer its customers a more efficient pick-up service.