Motherson Innovations to make ground communications modules

By Stuart Corner of IoT Australia

South Australian company Motherson Innovations is to manufacture the modules that will transmit user data to the IoT nanosatellites being deployed by Adelaide based Myriota.

The Myriota Module is a credit card sized device that accepts input from sensors and communicates direct to Myriota satellites.

According to Myriota’s web site the units sell for $50 each, uplink 20 bytes of user data per payload and will in future support downlink data.

They incorporate an edge computing platform, a Myriota SDK and have a simple application programming interface (API) for job scheduling, sensor input/ output, diagnostics and access to Myriota’s communication stack.

Myriota says production is well underway, with Motherson already manufacturing tens of thousands of Myriota Modules at its South Australian design and manufacturing facility, and expected to manufacture millions of units over the next five years.

Keeping manufacturing in South Australia

Myriota co-founder and CTO Dr David Haley, said the collaboration showed it was possible to keep design and manufacturing within South Australia, whose manufacturing capabilities once primarily served Australia’s — now defunct — automotive industry.

Motherson business development director for Asia Pacific, Sam Vial, said the partnership would help to sustain jobs in its South Australian facility, with products being both designed and manufactured locally.

Motherson: part of an Indian multinational

Motherson Innovations is a subsidiary of diversified Indian manufacturing company the Samvardhana Motherson Group, with operations in 41 countries.

(Editor’s note: Operating in Adelaide as SMR Technologies, the company is a large manufacturer and exporter of automotive side mirrors and other components. The company has been offering commercialising services to third parties to utilise its expertise, and incubating a number of new ventures in-house, to maintain its Australian operations.)

Motherson Innovations describes itself on LinkedIn as “the open innovations and incubating arm of Motherson group” that “aims to accelerate the development of Motherson’s advanced technologies and to enter new and attractive market segments including future of mobility and medical devices.”

Zepiro named as first customer

Myriota says Australian company Zepiro has already purchased its first order of Myriota modules for use by clients in the mining sector.

(Zepiro has only a one page web site that says it offers “an exciting new direct-to-orbit data logging and telemetry solution,” for environmental, agricultural and mining applications.)

Myriota using AWS Ground Station

In May 2019 Myriota was named as one of the first customers of Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) AWS Ground Station, a service that enables satellites to be controlled from AWS and data from satellites to be downloaded into AWS Global Infrastructure Regions using a network of ground station antennas around the world.

In February 2019 Myriota named Californian company Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems as the developer of its planned satellites.

Stuart Corner is editor of IoT Australia

Picture: SMR Technologies Adelaide

Subscribe to our free @AuManufacturing newsletter here.