Bobb – the Smart in Smart Buildings
The Internet of Things: Great for Smart Buildings, Smart Farming and Industry 4.0?
Or for many disparate devices that send data to various smartphone apps or proprietary hubs with no central processing, rules or orchestration?
Like a body where all the limbs do their own thing.
The Internet of Things needs a brain.
Meet Bobb.
Bobb puts the Smart into Smart Buildings.
Bobb puts the Smart into Smart Agriculture.
Bobb is the brain for the Internet of Things.
Bobb runs in The Cloud as a subscription service, in a shared tenancy or private instance. For secure communication with local-only devices or standalone offline operation, a Bobb-Local device is required.
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Bobb unites all these disparate parts into one coherent system.
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Bobb lets you know the bad news so you can act on it.
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Bobb can track the locations of plants or products, or personnel.
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To Bobb, any data source is a sensor. Bobb is aware of time, timezone, season and geography. Bobb knows about weather conditions, traffic conditions, and environmental conditions.
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Bobb supports all leading Smart Homes, Smart buildings and Smart Agriculture systems. Bobb is supported by JFDI’s range of low-energy sensors, built to sense everything any business needs to know.
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Bobb creates a single database of current & recent data, with a single set of rules working on that data.
Bobb Stories
Bobb is useful for so many things. So we thought we’d tell you how we’ve already used Bobb to solve real-world problems. Just click on a story below for a chapter-and-verse on what Bobb can do. There are loads more use cases out there… if you want to know if Bobb could solve your problems, let us know!
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Bobb Stops Our Staff Roasting (or Freezing)
Our building wasn’t designed to win environmental awards, and it never will. Instead, it was intended to be a low-cost, long-term revenue generator. And as such, it’s cold in the winter and meltingly hot in the summer.
Bobb and Bobb’s multisensory enabled us to quantify these qualities. The sheer convenience of a battery-powered multisensor meant we could install them everywhere and move them around. We immediately noticed huge temperature differentials. One side of the building is hot in the morning and cool in the afternoon, while the other is the opposite. Air temperatures outside are often lower than inside. And the zone above the suspended ceiling is a furnace heated by the colossal metal radiator of a roof above. Even on winter white-sky days, it’s up to five degrees warmer up there than in the ice box below.
Air conditioning is not very eco, expensive to retrofit, and it’s of questionable efficacy in a building like ours. So we decided to even out the temperature differentials instead. We installed fans and ducting to move cool air to warmer places (or vice versa) and dump the hot air outside. Bobb controls the whole thing. Overall temperatures in our working space have reduced by up to ten degrees in the summer, and in the winter, it’s cosier. So we have a much nicer working environment year-round for low energy and meagre equipment costs.
We used:
- Bobb
- Bobb multi-sensors
- Bobb-supported Wi-fi switches
- Fans
- Ducting
- Kids’ crawl tubes
- Our eyes, ears and senses
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Bobb Enables Predictive Maintenance, Scheduled Replacement & Imminent Breakdown Warnings
It’s costly when a machine breaks down. Failure often starts in one component but damages lots of others. The breakdown can be inconvenient, threaten the health & safety of staff or the public, or even endanger life. Plus, there’s the downtime and lost production costs when a breakdown occurs.
Preventative maintenance is almost always a cheaper option. But you need to understand how each component can fail, how often they fail, and how to detect failure or imminent failure.
Sensors can give you valuable telemetry data. Sometimes a machine will even have a suite of built-in sensors whose data isn’t even used. Feed this data into Bobb, and you can detect and act upon rapid changes that are out of normal ranges, rising or falling averages, exceeded maximums and minimums and more. Alert someone by push notification or voice announcement, increment an exception count or set a flag to increase the data collection rate.
Add a Machine Learning solution to drive your predictive maintenance schedules with greater confidence and precision than ever. Past data becomes training and testing material for an ML model, producing a model that can be demonstrably tested for its prediction accuracy. Incoming data becomes a feed for Bobb, indicating intrinsic anomalies and patterns in the relationship between different metrics. Detect problem components early, plan replacement schedules, prevent component failure, and avoid downtime and associated losses.
Bobb + Machine Learning is the safety-enhancing, quality-improving, cost-reducing tool you always needed to make your engineering operations run as smoothly as you wanted.
Call JFDI to find out how we can help you use your data to reduce your operating costs.
We used:
- Bobb
- Bobb sensors
- Bobb custom plugins for special sensors
- Machine Learning
- Bobb Notifications
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Bobb contextualises raw data, enabling Machine Learning
Machine Learning is revolutionising how organisations recognise patterns in their data and act upon them. But raw data isn’t suitable for Machine Learning. You can’t just collect numbers from a sensor and expect a machine to learn from it. Instead, you need to add context; other pieces of data were concurrent with the data gathered. For example, the ambient temperature, humidity and barometric pressure might influence power consumption data. This is usually difficult, requiring custom programming or manual processing.
Bobb can gather both data and context for you. Set a data collection rule, telling Bobb what to collect. Your incoming data will be stored alongside any potentially useful additional facts with rich context. Bobb builds ML modelling datasets easier than ever before, so you get a jump start in your ML explorations.
Once your data is gathered and your model is built and running, send its outcomes straight to Bobb. Bobb’s Data Engine stores every result and computes valuable statistics on your ML processing. Bobb’s Rules Engine turns ML recognitions into actions, notifying, switching and logging according to your needs.
JFDI uses Bobb in these ways to model and verify the behaviour of new sensor devices. Even when a human tester is used, we can gather the context to make sense of the data. Before each action the tester performs, a simple push button or remote control tells Bobb the kind of action being tested, and Bobb notes that fact alongside the following data gathered. Thus we get easy-to-use tagging of incoming data with metadata.
Wherever you have data, Bobb helps you use that data faster and more effectively than ever before.
We used:
- Bobb
- Bobb sensors
- Bobb custom plugins for special sensors
- Machine Learning
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Bobb turns off dangerous equipment when people forget
People were always leaving the grills on in the kitchen. What started as a pleasant lunchtime toasted sandwich could quickly become a health and safety nightmare. The workshop was the same story with soldering irons, heat guns and hot glue guns. We needed a solution.
Bobb monitors power consumption. Bobb knows when things are switched on and how long they’ve been. Bobb can turn things off if they’ve been on for too long. Or when no presence has been detected in the vicinity of the appliance for a while.
So… Bobb can switch the grills and soldering irons off. Bobb can tell whoever needs to know as soon as it happens by voice or push notification.
Bobb looks after the safety of your staff because they’re only human.
We used:
- Bobb
- Some Bobb rulesBobb
- Z-Wave, TP-Link or Wemo power monitoring sockets
- Bobb Local
- Bobb Announce
- Bobb Notifications
- Bobb presence sensors
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Bobb makes the incompatible compatible
Intelligent building automation products all work on different protocols and with different hubs. Unless two manufacturers are particularly friendly, you cannot get their kit working together. And some manufacturers hate each other.
Bobb doesn’t care about all this politics and protectionism. Bobb is architected to be open. With an appropriate plugin, Bobb will talk to anything. And JFDI is committed to making Bobb speak to everything.
We currently support Philips Hue, Smart Things, Apple Homekit, Zigbee, Z-Wave, generic 433MHz RF, Belkin Wemo, TP-Link Kasa, Sonoff Tasmota, ESP Easy and a whole lot of other techs, including JFDI’s own Bobb sensors.
There’s no other Smart Building technology with such broad coverage. Bobb is the glue that creates united Smart Environment systems from multiple manufacturers’ kits.
We used:
- Bobb
- Some Bobb rules
- All sorts of Smart Building kit
- Bobb Local
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Bobb takes actions on incoming data
Sure, we designed Bobb for IoT and Smart Building data.
But Bobb doesn’t care what kind of data’s coming in. Bobb can gobble up all your data. Sensors, financial data, market feeds, and any stream of data.
And all that data gets enhanced by Bobb, with real-time stats and periodic history. When something changes by more than a certain amount, reaches zero or rises above or below zero, or something changes faster than it should, your rules can fire—your rules, with your conditions and your actions. Notify people. Announce stuff. Store more data. Switch things on or off. Send data to another system. Whatever you want to do whenever something significant appears.
And all this without programming. Bobb is a data processor extraordinaire and a simple no-code way to automate everything. Best of all, Bobb lives in the cloud, and you can do everything from anywhere with a powerful, easy-to-use web app.
Make Bobb the core of all your business systems.
We used:
- Bobb
- Bobb data connectors
- Bobb rules
- Bobb notifications and other actions
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Bobb enables multilayered security
You wouldn’t log into online banking with just a password. Multi-factor authentication has become ubiquitous on the web, but Smart Buildings lag behind. Don’t just rely on a smart lock; ensure your smart building knows who’s unlocking the front door. With Bobb, security can be as multi-layered as you like.
Bobb can correlate data gathered from multiple sensors for greater confidence and more detailed auditing. Use RFID, biometrics like face recognition, personal device presence, smart parking sensors and more.
Bobb takes security as seriously as you do.
We used:
- Bobb
- Bobb Rules
- Smart Locks
- Bobb Local
- Bobb Presence Sensors
- Bobb Face ID
- Bobb RFID
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Family movie night made easy with Bobb
Settle down with the family for a great blockbuster movie, and let Bobb take care of the details. Bobb doesn’t care that your TV, media centre, lights, doorbell and thermostat are all from different vendors and don’t talk the same language.
Tell Bobb to set the scene by voice, using Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant. Bobb will turn the heating up a notch, the lighting down low, and the TV and media centre on. If the doorbell rings during the movie, you won’t miss your delivery – Bobb will pause the media centre, turn up the lighting and tell you by voice that someone’s at the door, even though you didn’t hear because of the latest, biggest ever Death Star being blasted into dust.
We used:
- Bobb
- Kodi on Raspberry Pi
- Logitech Harmony
- Sony TV
- Bobb Local
- A Bobb-supported doorbell, thermostat and lighting system
- Google Assistant, Alexa or Siri
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Meeting/Presentation Time with Bobb
Your meeting rooms are multifunction spaces. They need flexibility built in. But each kind of meeting demands a different selection of facilities set up uniquely. Bobb can help.
With a single button click on a remote control, Bobb can adjust your lighting, turn on the projector or TV, set the aircon a little lower, start your transcription system, and even conduct an automatic roll call.
Your meetings happen now, in the 21st century. So why use a 20th-century meeting space? Upgrade with Bobb.
We used:
- Bobb
- Bobb rules
- RF Remote control & Bobb RF
- Bobb Local
- IR Blaster
- Bobb Face ID
- Microsoft Teams Rooms
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The perfect working environment with Bobb
Working environments need to be just right to get the best from your people. Your environmental policies demand energy efficiency. So let Bobb take control.
- At 7 am every workday, preheat (or cool) the building.
- When people are present, maintain the temperature at 21C.
- When the building is empty, never let the temperature drop below 10C.
- When it’s cooler outside than inside, remind people to open the windows if they’re not open.
- When it’s cooler inside than outside, remind people to close the windows if they’re open.
- When windows are open, turn off the air conditioning.
Can your existing environmental controls do all this?
You can set all this up with Bobb in around 20 minutes.
We used:
- Bobb
- Bobb rules
- Bobb Local
- IR Blaster
- Bobb Window/Door Sensors
- Bobb Multi sensors
- Bobb Announce
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Perfect lighting at any time of day with Bobb
Our Bobb Smart Homes support four lighting modes – normal, mood, minimal and daylight, which are user-selectable or set by time and day rules.
Minimal is the default mode at night, whereas it’s the normal mode by day. When there’s someone in a room, the local lighting will be switched to the current mode. So empty spaces have lighting switched off.
But human presence is intelligently sensed, so nobody gets plunged into darkness just because they’re working late, and no waving of arms is needed*.
An empty building will have only essential, always-on lighting illuminated. Outdoor lighting can be controlled by movement or daylight times. The entrance lights will immediately switch on when anyone arrives after dark to welcome them.
Bobb creates lighting to fit any human activity.
*with Bobb sensor hardware
We used:
- Bobb
- Bobb modes
- Bobb rules
- Bobb Multi sensors
- Bobb Presence
- Philips Hue lighting
- Sonoff Wifi switches
- Generic RF sockets
Bobb is an ideal platform for:
- Smart Buildings
- Industry 4.0
- Smart Factories
- Smart Agriculture/Farming
- Facilities Management
- Smart Architecture
- Smart Parking
- Energy Efficiency
- Retrofit Smart Tech
- Design & Build
- New Build
- Smart Cities
Supported Hardware & Software
Bobb works with a vast range of hardware and software platforms that constantly expand. So if you’d like us to support something new, don’t hesitate to contact us.
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Internet-Connected
These families of devices all have native support built into Bobb as long as you’re happy to pair accounts securely.
- Google Assistant
- Amazon Alexa
- Netatmo Presence/Welcome
- Tado
- TP-Link Kasa
- Nest
- Tado
- Logitech Harmony
- JFDI Labs Sensors
- JFDI Labs Bobb Pixel Displays
- JFDI Labs Bobb Buttons
- Sonoff Tasmota 5.x
- ESPEasy 2.x
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Bobb-Local
JFDI Labs’ Bobb-Local is a device which acts as a local hub to bring together many items of home automation equipment which aren’t securely cloud or Internet connected, and connects them all to Bobb. It supports the following technologies and activities:
- Apple Siri
- JFDI Labs Personal Device WiFi Presence
- Bobb Announce
- Sound Alerts
- Z-Wave
- Phillips Hue
- Ikea Trådfri (via Hue)
- Lifx
- Belkin Wemo
- Kodi Media Center
- Device Online Status (Ping)
- Wake On LAN
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Bobb-RF
JFDI Labs’ Bobb-RF is an Internet-connected standalone device that connects your 433MHz equipment to Bobb. This includes RF-controlled sockets from many vendors. Bobb-RF can take commands from the remote controls that come with such sockets. For example, suppose a device can be reprogrammed with an arbitrary code. In that case, Bobb-RF can stand in the middle, arbitrating communications between remote and socket, providing additional automation, and allowing many other devices to be controlled from a simple and cheap RF remote control.
- 433MHz RF sockets/actuators
- 433MHz remote controls
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Bobb-IR
JFDI Labs’ Bobb-IR is a device that learns and emits commands from Infra Red remote controls to bring Bobb control to many more devices. Bobb-IR works with any 38kHz Infra-Red remote-controlled device for which you have the original remote.
- Air Conditioners
- TV & A/V equipment
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Bobb-Announce
JFDI Labs’ Bobb Announce is a series of devices which facilitate communications from Bobb to humans via voice announcements, sound alerts and visual displays. A realistic human voice can offer information or warnings from any text, play sounds, or display scrolling, colourful messages. Bobb-Announce is one of the action types supported by the Bobb Rules Engine.
- JFDI Labs Bobb-Announce Standalone
- JFDI Labs Bobb Pixel Displays
- Panel
- Ticker
- Ring
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JFDI Labs Sensors
JFDI Labs designs ultra-low-power sensors for Bobb, which can be battery-powered on a battery or mains powered for years. Our sensors can measure pretty much anything you need to measure. We also produce weatherproof long-range versions of our sensors for Smart Farming/Smart Agriculture and large Smart Building installations.
- JFDI Labs THePaLM WiFi Multi sensors (Temperature, Humidity, Pressure, Light, Movement)
- JFDI Labs WiFi Gas Monitors (CO, CO2, Methane, Air Quality)
- JFDI Labs Air Quality PM2.5 (particulates) WiFi Sensor
- JFDI Labs Car Parking Sensors
- Occupancy
- Unauthorised Occupancy
- JFDI Labs Presence/People Counting
- Personal Device WiFi Presence
- FaceID
- RFID
- Doorway People Counter model US or IR
- Device Sniffer model WF or BT
- BreathDetect
- JFDI Labs Eaudometer® Smarter Water Metering
- JFDI Labs Door/Window Sensors
- JFDI Labs Vibration Sensors
- JFDI Labs Motion Sensors
- JFDI Labs Magnetic Field Sensors
- JFDI Labs Moisture Sensors
- JFDI Labs Touch Sensors
- JFDI Labs Distance/Proximity Sensors
- JFDI Labs Ultra Violet (UV) Sensors