A Closer Look at Moog-Crossbow's ILC-2000 Asset Tracking Solution

The Moog-Crossbow company has built an impressive reputation supplying sensor technology to military programs and asset-tracking operations around the globe. The company’s GPS-aided inertial measurements units (IMU); attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS); vertical gyroscopes; and inclinometer/tilt sensors are fielded on a wide range of manned and unmanned platforms, such as the Hunter RQ-5A Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, ITAS and the LRAS targeting systems.

Crossbow, which was acquired by Moog, Inc. (NYSE: MOG.A and MOG.B) in June of 2011 has shipped more than half a million sensors to customers such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and EADS.

According to Moog-Crossbow’s Director of Business Development for M2M products, Quin Waddell, this rich military and aviation background has influenced the company’s approach to providing asset tracking solutions for commercial air carriers.

Waddell demonstrated the ILC-2000asset tracking solution at the recent IQPC Cold Chain Global Forum in Chicago, which has apparently received approval from the FAA, and is now ready to begin testing and certification with commercial air carriers. The ILC-2000 leverages a proprietary algorithm to suppress its wireless radio when in flight, which is a critical requirement for acceptance on commercial aircraft.

The ILC-2000 doesn’t rely on airport beacons as part of the radio suppression process, but rather, it leverages a combination of proprietary sensors that track acceleration, pitch and other metrics to determine when the device in flight. The ILC-2000 continues to track location and environmental data during flight, but does not report the data until it is on the ground, and is safe to do so.

The ILC-2000 it is a hardware-only solution. But Moog-Crossbow partners with FreightWatch to provide the software platform that customers need to analyze the data sent from its devices.

The ILC-2000 is an elegant solution, with a smaller form factor that other asset tracking devices demonstrated at IQPC. It also has a unique differentiator - in the form of an external connector that works with a variety of temperature probes. This functionality is critical for shipments containing water, or those packed with dry ice – as no asset tracking solution (including the ILC-2000) can survive while submerged, or with dry ice. But the ILC-2000’s external connector and Platinum Resistance Thermometer (PRT) address this issue.

At the IQPC Cold Chain Global Forum, there were dozens of packaging vendors, who supply cold-sealed, insulated boxes that are used by pharmaceutical companies to ship vaccines and other cold-chain products. The Moog-Crossbow ILC-2000, with its external temperature probe, works seamlessly with most of these packaging solutions. For more information, visit www.Moog-Crossbow.com.

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