How AL2Tech Helps Hubwater Reduce Water Bottle Waste Across Europe
AL2Tech needed to help Hubwater obtain water consumption and usage data from their water dispensers without having to build and manage the IoT infrastructure from scratch.
AL2Tech leveraged the Golioth API and firmware SDK to deliver secure, connected device that could measure water consumption and deliver data from distributed locations over a cellular / GPS connection.
Golioth worked with AL2Tech and Hubwater to deliver more value than with AWS alone. Using the Golioth Open API, SDK, and Pipelines, AL2Tech delivered a new future-proofed device in half the time.
Reinventing the IoT Wheel is Time-Consuming and Expensive
Based in Milan,Italy, AL2Tech is an engineering design firm specialized in embedded systems design. Golioth sat with Andrea Longobardi, Founder, and Alessandro Longobardi, Head of Software and Firmware to discuss recent innovations for Hubwater, a company providing sustainable drinking water solutions in Europe. AL2Tech are leveraging the Golioth platform and Pipelines to deliver innovation and data that helps Hubwater reduce plastic water waste and help people stay sustainably hydrated.
The AL2Tech team began working with Hubwater, a sustainable bottle water company, in late 2023.
Andrea details, “Hubwater started offering smart water bottles that you could refill in different shops across Europe. Their branded water bottle is built with an NFC target under it. They've created an app that people can use and have built relationships with bars and restaurants. So if you go around Europe and you have their bottle, you can get it refilled for free.”
“That was the original project,” Andrea explains, “They merged with an Italian company, Acqua System, who makes water dispensers for homes and offices. The water dispenser is a machine with filters so you can drink purified tap water.” The existing Acqua System machines are not connected to the internet and are standalone units. Andrea continues, “So, now they want to add an NFC tag reader and integrate these devices with the cloud. This way, if a machine is at the gym for example, they could charge the gym member a fee for the amount of purified water or whatever beverage was offered and consumed. And we agreed to do that for them.”
“Another use case is to ensure that employees stay hydrated. For example, the Acqua System units are available to employees at Armani shops across Europe. Now they can ensure that their employees are staying hydrated and healthy.”
Andrea explains, “AL2Tech often partners with cloud-development companies to deliver OTA and data pipeline capabilities for our clients as we do not have that capability internally,” he continues, “It extends the time to deliver the project as partner collaboration takes time to align, and also to communicate back to the client. So we wanted to try to find a solution that could solve the cloud side for us as it was a common scenario.”
“I listen to the Amp Hour every week. That’s where I heard about Golioth for the first time."
“I listen to the Amp Hour every week. That’s where I heard about Golioth for the first time. Then, when I saw the demos at Embedded World, I realized that Golioth could deliver OTA and data pipelines for us so we can better serve our clients with more control and transparency.”
Golioth Pipelines and OTA Delivers More Value, Faster
As an engineering firm, delivering more value for a client’s dollars is critical to a successful relationship. “Hubwater was the perfect example where using Golioth gave us a great advantage,” Andrea extols, “Golioth has given us the ability to offer more value, faster, at a better price for our clients. With Pipelines, our clients can reach device data because we’re able to send it over to their database where they can do whatever they want with it. Plus, we have complete control over the cloud interface and the security of their product.”
In AL2Tech’s case, delivering value on a project is one thing, but with Golioth they were able to take it a step further, “We’re also able to deliver continuous value thanks to OTA,” Andrea explains, “If we have something that needs changing in the firmware, we use the OTA updates.
Building Quickly and Planning for Future Value
AL2Tech was able to build a solution for Hubwater without relying on additional software development firms because Golioth handles those capabilities natively. Andrea comments, “Unlike AWS, where you have a puzzle to put together with a lot of different parts in order to make over the air updates happen, we were able to quickly build data streams using Golioth Pipelines,” he continues, “Everything is integrated, it’s one of the best features. You can manage everything in one place. Our clients are able to log into Golioth daily and use the interface to see how many boards have been produced, tested, and secured with certificates. It's a great way for them to be able to monitor the progress of things without having to wait on a production file, which we also share.”
Golioth also enabled the AL2Tech team to build for the future, to the delight of their clients. “Because we knew we had a way to extend the capabilities of the device, we added extra GPS and analog inputs onto the board,” Andrea shares, “This ended up serving us well because Hubwater wanted to offer new Sparkling Water services. Thanks to extra sensors and the flexibility of Golioth’s firmware SDK, we can add extra sensors to the machine and bring that functionality to the product with over the air firmware updates. Now Hubwater can understand from the cloud when the CO2 bottle is empty for prompt refilling and maintenance, which means they can charge more for their product.”
Another important element of managing devices is troubleshooting and security. Andrea details, “If there is a problem with the board, our client can simply give us the tag or the blueprint for the device and the serial number. On the Golioth platform we can immediately see the board in question and begin troubleshooting or maintenance procedures. Everything's integrated in one place and to me that's a great advantage.”
“The other thing is security,” Andrea recalls, “Security is complicated. Our clients used to tell us, ‘We don't care about security, we will think about it later because we have to sell machines and then we will figure out security in the future.” Golioth has built in security from day one because we recognize that this experience is all too common. Andrea continues, “With Golioth, security comes almost for free. We spent some time building some automations for our production units, but the cost was almost free for the client. And so even for the first units, we already have security in place. That was definitely different from how we usually do projects, especially during prototyping. Clients don’t have to pay to figure it out in the future because we don't have to integrate it later. We already have it.”
Saving Time and Costs Upfront Means Accelerated Production
“Hubwater was initially trying to go the route of AWS because AWS had provided $10K of credit. But that’s not the right reason to stay with AWS. It would be technically overly complex, more expensive in the long run, and at the same time an inferior experience,” Andrea explained, “But Golioth worked with us on pricing to keep our client happy. And they are very happy because they can check in and see everything in one place.”
“With Golioth, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We were able to speed our project up by at least 50%. That means Hubwater is able to get to market faster with a production-ready unit. As you can imagine, faster delivery also means our clients are saving money as well,” Alessandro chimes in.
“With Golioth, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We were able to speed our project up by at least 50%"
“And now that Golioth has released a solution for AI, I think they are excited about the possibilities for preventative maintenance, repairs, and lots of ways to use water consumption data to help people stay hydrated while reducing plastic waste,” Andrea concludes.
The Hubwater project has already gone into production with plans to increase units almost immediately.
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