Dolphin 4

 

The Dolphin 4 is integrated package for complete tracking solution that combines the best of sensory, GPS, battery, communication security and wide area communications technology. The Dolphin 4 is designed to provision customer with continuous bidirectional real time telemetry information on remote assets using variety of communication methods.

The Dolphin 4 is a GPS based system, which uses GSM cellular telecommunications and Short Burst Data (SBD) satellite data service from Iridium for data transfer. Also, it has capability to use local communication bridge when available using Bluetooth LE. The system also has several other sensors to allow for interaction with the operational environment. This includes a motion sensor, atmospheric pressure sensor and accurate temperature sensor. The system is designed for long battery life operations and will utilize a rechargeable Lithium Polymer battery that has a 3-year shelf life. It can also operate using outside power supply (up to 40 VDC) and automatically switch between power sources.

Combining these technologies delivers a system which can provide control applications with all necessary data and control to run asset management and security type of operations. The Unit can be managed and controlled from central back office software console.

 

 

1. Dolphin 4 Architecture

The Dolphin 4 consist of the following key components:

• ARM Cortex M4 Microcontroller running RTOS

• MicroSD card local storage option for more than 100 Million encrypted update messages

• GPS tracking module

• GPRS communications module

• Iridium Satellite SBD communication module

• Bluetooth LE communication module

• USB 2.0 communication port

• Dedicated hardware cryptography chip for secure key storage, hardware RNG, UID, etc.

• Variety of sensors like atmospheric pressure, temperature, 3D accelerometer and Gyro

• Wide range automotive class (AEC-Q100) 2.5 – 42 VDC power supply 

 

The Dolphin 4 is designed to work on maritime vessel in salt/fresh water situations. Once the Dolphin 4 is associated to the asset all location and sensor/security status information which the Dolphin 4 collects is automatically sent. The Dolphin 4 will have the following operational states: Inactive (sleep), Service Ready, Tracking.

In Inactive mode, the unit will not consume data resources and consumes power at a rate which allows unit to be operationally ready for at least 3 years.

In Service ready mode unit consumes at very low rate both data and power resources (once a day update)

In Tracking state, the unit reports location and all other status information at a configurable regular interval. While in Tracking state the unit is continuously monitoring for exceptional conditions and will automatically send alarms to the central server if an exception conditions occurs. The Dolphin 4 automatically detects exceptions such as sensor alarms, geo-fence violations, unauthorised removal, etc. Unit also has onboard data storage capability for events when no communication is available. All this data can be uploaded when communication becomes available again.

All field diagnostic and troubleshooting operations are performed via a powerful but easy to use smartphone/tablet application which can control systems directly via local Bluetooth communication. Unit is capable doing FOTA (Firmware over the air) updates.

The Dolphin 4 can be managed and controlled from central back office software console. In addition to sending software/firmware updates to the Dolphin 4 the back-office software provides for the adjustment of numerous operational parameters such as: reporting interval, enabling geo-fence monitoring, setting ownership, etc. The Dolphin 4 is designed to be easy to use anywhere in harsh maritime environments.