Imagine you are a nurse on the night shift. Most patients are asleep and stable. But some have oxygen deprivation, high blood pressure or fever. You are all alone and have to monitor hundreds of patients. Without technical aids.
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The machine measurement technology manufacturer Status Pro faced exactly this challenge together with its customers. Only these are not human patients, but rather machines or real estate, some of which are far apart and do their work. Most machines are fine most of the time. But it is, in the truest sense of the word, vital to know early on whether the condition of a machine is deteriorating. And not only when it is too late and the patient can no longer be saved.
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Status Pro used its know-how in measurement technology and developed modern sensors that measure the “pulse” of the machines. However, measuring the values does not solve the challenge. The same applies here as with the nurse: she will not be helped if only important vital parameters are measured. In addition, the data must always be provided reliably and in real time. If there are a large number of patients, it is important that they are made aware of the patients in critical condition and that important additional information about the affected patient is immediately provided, such as: B. illness and the treating doctor.
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This in turn can be projected onto the challenge faced by Status Pro and its customers: successful monitoring requires
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1. reliable machine data,
2. fast and stable processing of data,
3. intuitive information provision with a focus on critical cases,
4. Relevant context for troubleshooting.
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In addition, the necessary knowledge is often distributed across several stakeholders. For example, the machine measurement technicians have the know-how about sensors, the electrical machine builders about the machines and the operators of the production lines about the production processes. This results in a high level of communication and coordination effort, especially when problems arise.

Complementary software for processing, visualizing and configuring sensor data was intended to address this complex challenge and increase added value for customers.

The project developed a solution for machine monitoring. The focus is on software that complements the sensors for processing, visualizing and configuring the sensor data.
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The software allows the various stakeholders to monitor their machine without having to be physically there. The machine manufacturer can immediately see which machines are potentially in a critical status. He receives all information that is relevant to identifying and resolving the problem (e.g. location of the affected machine, contact person, images and historical measurement data). He or she can then take the necessary steps to resolve the problem.
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The following considerations, among others, are at the center of the development:
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• Data security and sovereignty.
Machine data is often sensitive data. Competitive advantages can be generated from the ownership and availability of data. Accordingly, the software developed ensures that sensitive data in the multi-tenant architecture is only stored in the customer's own database.
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• One-stop shop
The software should not just be a simple monitoring interface, but the main contact point for machine monitoring. Accordingly, the software was developed as a bidirectional application: In addition to providing and visualizing sensor data, the application also enables the configuration of sensors. This specification simplifies monitoring and maintenance. For example, alarm limits can be set individually and the measurement intervals can be defined.
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• Intuitive and mobile use.
Classic industrial software is often synonymous with cumbersome user interfaces and complicated, desktop-heavy programs. Status Pro's forward-thinking intention should be underpinned by a modern and intuitive user interface. As in hospitals, monitoring often takes place not just from the desk, but from everywhere. Accordingly, the user interface and the underlying infrastructure of the software are designed for mobile use from anywhere. At the same time, the implementation as a responsive web app has no restrictions on the security and scalability of the software. Basically the best of both worlds.

As a specialist in the field of machine measurement technology, Status Pro has recognized the market potential for digital machine monitoring. The combination of Status Pro's experience in hardware programming and SIDESTREAM's scalable and flexible software development ensures the perfect symbiosis for the project.
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After Status Pro had already developed the hardware and validated market needs, SIDESTREAM was brought on board to develop a robust and sustainable solution following modern software practices. After an initial conception phase, the project was developed in two-week sprints over several months. The following development plan ensured that customers were able to see the software and provide feedback at an early stage:
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• Development phase I is used to set up an infrastructure and the initial “piercing” of data transmission from the sensor to the web application.
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• In development phase II, the operation of the web application was improved and additional functions were added.

• In development phase III, the infrastructure and backend were brought to the live level: The application must scale to large amounts of sensor data and meet customer security standards.

This means that it is ready for the market and the software is operated and developed incrementally so that all customer needs can gradually be covered.

The entire software was developed for a Kubernetes cluster with a dedicated backend and database per customer. Sensor data is made available via an MQTT broker, read and then routed to the correct customer stack. This infrastructure ensures that the requirements for usability, scaling, security and data sovereignty are equally met.
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Each dedicated company stack consists of the following components:
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• PostgreSQL relational databases for managing all data: TimescaleDB plugin for processing large amounts of sensor data
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• User management via gotrue: User data is stored in PostgreSQL DB

• VueJS web application