H2020 INSYLO Project: Disruptive IoT solution to optimize the animal feed supply chain
- Type Project
- Status Filled
- Execution 2018 -2020
- Assigned Budget 1.005.113,38 €
- Scope Europeo
- Main source of financing H2020
- Project website INSYLO
Currently, feed suppliers produce feed for each farmer and distribute it in bulk, which is then stored in silos on different farms. However, the lack of reliable and cost-effective solutions for remotely monitoring raw material levels in silos forces farmers to make manual estimates, resulting in financial losses. To address this problem, the EU-funded INSYLO project proposes an IoT device that combines hardware and software to remotely monitor raw material levels in silos, forecast demand, and allow feed suppliers to optimize their supply chain. The device installs in just 5 minutes and connects to a smart cloud platform that collects data from hundreds of thousands of silos.
During this period (M10–M32), we completed the development of the firmware, hardware, and software for our commercial version for deployment at our testing centers in Spain and the United Kingdom. Our main achievements have been the development of a reliable version of our hardware platform, an over-the-air (OTA) update system, a self-calibration procedure, and our volume estimation method, with which we have achieved 97–99% accuracy across various silos and environmental conditions. We have also fully developed the INSYLO management platform for active interaction with our testers during testing.
We deployed 343 devices for our large-scale testing and validated the technology for 17 months with satisfactory results. During this time, we also obtained national and international patent protection (including in Germany, France, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, the US, China, and Mexico) and developed a detailed roadmap to achieve certification in all our target markets. We have prepared a detailed economic and environmental impact analysis to demonstrate the positive impact of our technology.
We've reached out to over 50 potential customers and signed 10 pre-commercial agreements to deploy devices in over 1,000 silos across the EU and the UK. We've also received seed funding from an initial group of angel investors and initiated negotiations with major venture capital firms interested in supporting our commercial growth. We've updated our financial projections and project a global market share of 2.13% by 2025, generating cumulative revenue of €40.45 million with high profit margins.
We have published three scientific articles and participated in eleven in-person events and two online events. We have achieved over 550 dissemination impacts.
INSYLO is a Spanish technology startup founded in 2013 with the mission of digitizing the feed supply chain for livestock farms. We offer an accurate and cost-effective solution for remotely monitoring feed stock levels in livestock farm silos. With this information, we forecast feed demand and enable suppliers to optimize silo replenishment logistics (inventories, delivery routes, raw material purchasing, etc.). Our goal is to build a comprehensive system that enables data exchange between livestock farmers and feed suppliers, thereby optimizing the entire supply chain.
Currently, feed supply companies must manage the replenishment of thousands of silos used on livestock farms to store feed. They receive a call or email from farmers when the feed stored in the silos is about to run out. The supply company must prepare and deliver the feed within 24 to 48 hours. Replenishment orders arrive with unpredictable notice, making it difficult to organize production and delivery routes efficiently. More trucks are sent than necessary, which impacts the environment through pollution and the business through wasted money and resources.
Feed suppliers need an optimization tool to maximize their refilling efforts. INSYLO's service will forecast the feed finish in the silos and organize the refill transport. Routes will be planned to maximize the number of silos refilled by a single truck in the shortest possible time.
INSYLO has designed and developed proprietary technology to measure the volume of feed inside a silo and send the data to our servers. The device is installed on silos and measures the amount of stored product with great precision thanks to a 3D volumetric camera. It also monitors storage conditions by measuring the temperature and humidity inside the silo.
At the end of this project, a total of 343 INSYLO devices have been manufactured, deployed, and thoroughly tested in Spain and the United Kingdom. The platform, website, and app are fully prepared for data management and customer interaction. The hardware and software are fully optimized and ready for commercial launch, and the proprietary hardware technology was granted patent protection in 2020.
Feed is produced by suppliers in feed mills and distributed in bulk to different farms, where it is stored in silos. Feed must be produced specifically for each farmer and delivered within 24 to 48 hours.
Each supplier supplies several silos on several farms (the top 50 EU feed suppliers manage an average of 7,500 silos each). They receive hundreds of replenishment orders daily, the logistics of which must be rapidly optimized. However, the lack of reliable and cost-effective solutions for remotely monitoring silo feed stocks hampers optimization: most farmers assess them manually, leading to (i) inaccurate measurements (overloaded or underloaded trucks) and (ii) uncertainty about demand (feed suppliers cannot organize production cycles or raw material purchases cost-effectively). This results in annual losses of €500 per silo (equivalent to €400 million in the EU-28).
INSYLO revolutionizes the situation and offers the sector a precise and cost-effective solution for remotely monitoring raw material levels in silos, forecasting feed demand, and enabling suppliers to optimize inventories, production batches, delivery routes, and raw material purchases.
INSYLO is a smart service that combines hardware and software. Thanks to our unique smart volumetric sensor, we accurately measure raw material levels in silos at a very low cost (6.5% cheaper than the competition).
Our IoT device installs in just 5 minutes and is completely independent of farm resources (off-grid, solar-powered, or connected to the internet). It's also connected to our intelligent cloud platform, which leverages the power of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence to collect data from hundreds of thousands of silos and determine the right time and quantity to replenish each one, optimizing the entire feed supply chain. In the first five years, we will sell more than 100,000 devices, achieving a 2.13% market share of the 5 million silos worldwide.
INSYLO clearly surpasses the most advanced technology. Currently, the vast majority of existing silos (more than 95%) lack integrated fill-level measurement technology, so farmers must physically climb to the top of the silo each week to estimate its load or calculate it acoustically with a sledgehammer. The alternative to this manual and inefficient method is expensive load cells or imprecise single-point level sensors (ultrasonic, radar, laser, etc.) with measurement errors of up to 20%.
INSYLO is the first cost-effective solution capable of accurately measuring feed levels in silos thanks to its patented 3D volumetric camera. Furthermore, by harnessing the power of big data and artificial intelligence, our solution is capable, for the first time, of forecasting feed demand (i.e., replenishment orders) and organizing feed truck delivery routes to optimize them.
We have developed a market-ready solution that has proven capable of revolutionizing today's feed supply chain. Optimizing feed inventories, production batches, delivery routes, and raw material purchasing translates into savings of up to €500 per silo per year for livestock farmers and feed suppliers.
Furthermore, from an environmental perspective, the optimization of feed delivery routes has demonstrated a real reduction of approximately 15% in the distances traveled by trucks, which has a direct impact on reducing CO2 emissions.
From a social perspective, livestock farmers will benefit from a solution that will make their daily lives easier. On the one hand, they will avoid having to climb into the silo to check the feed level, which reduces occupational hazards. On the other hand, they can be sure they will never run out of feed, which gives them peace of mind.
- INSYLO TECHNOLOGIES SLU (INSYLO)
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