Growth Sonar was created to meet customers’ needs

We began the project by visiting Finnish fish farms to identify customers’ needs. Meeting such needs would bring users clear added value and improved profitability. We observed the everyday work and lives of fish farmers during various stages of their work. To enable the smoothest possible transition from post-its and Excel spreadsheets to digital solutions, we examined the farmers’ digital know-how. In addition, we found that the practices and everyday work of Finnish fish farmers can vary hugely.

The key need highlighted in the user survey was the elimination of manual work stages to free uptime for feeding fish and developing the company’s business. Users wanted to get rid of the paper strewn around office desks and boats; they wanted to cut straight to data in digital format. By being easier to view, data recorded by Growth Sonar would provide farmers with even better opportunities to develop their fish feeding and businesses, and to measure and improve the farms’ profitability.

Business thinking was integral to the project from its earliest stages. On the one hand, we studied how Fennoaqua could help its customers develop their businesses; on the other, we explored how digitalisation and new data products might improve Fennoaqua’s operations. The business-design goal was to understand how fish farmers view their own business and the kind of data they use for making business decisions. We also surveyed the range of players in fish farming and their various roles in the value chain.

The project enabled us to create a solution that helps fish farmers to make decisions based on defined data, with a clear link to the bottom line. For Fennoaqua, digitalisation will provide new possibilities for forecasting demand, optimising feed plant production and improving logistics chain efficiency.

Design of IoT equipment began in early 2018. This would allow Growth Sonar to connect remotely to feeding machines and to control feeding. Another goal was to gather real-time data from the fish pools, such as the water temperature and oxygen content, actual feed quantities, and video feeds from the pool. As well as fish farmers, such data would be useful to Fennoaqua’s experts, enabling them to develop data-based feeding recommendations, for example.

Gofore teamed up with two other operators – ProtoRhino and Siemens – for the IoT project. ProtoRhino designed and implemented the IoT equipment, while Siemens provided the MindSphere IoT platform for communication between Growth Sonar and IoT devices. Gofore implemented communications between those devices, and the interface for controlling and monitoring them. Gofore also led the project and was the customer’s main contact throughout.

Reliable operation and recovery from faults were critical, given that the IoT equipment would control feeding. And, since the system had been created through three-way collaboration, comprehensive testing required seamless cooperation between the parties. Gofore was the testing designer and organiser. ProtoRhino tested the equipment, whereas Gofore performed system-level testing between Growth Sonar’s interface and the IoT device. The equipment was also tested under various conditions.

Testing was done throughout the project, but there was an intensive three-week testing period at the project’s end in summer 2019. Several rare faults were discovered and fixes were prioritised with the customer. System information security was tested with the assistance of Gofore’s security experts. These tests ensured that no third party could take control of the equipment. Both the equipment and Growth Sonar’s software were security-tested.