# I3 Mote: An Open Development Platform for the Intelligent Industrial Internet
## 3 Problem Statement and I3 Mote Scope  
The IoT is still not a reality in the industry. While there is a non-questionable interest to adopt new solutions for that long-awaited transformation, there are still barriers that keep the industry in a cautious position. In the past we have already seen good technology hypes which have not been materialized. In order to avoid this situation, it is time now for all involved stakeholders to analyze the current industrial needs in order to enable the new technology to position itself where is needed. Now, with some historical perspective, we identify below several weaknesses that are slowing down the adoption of IoT technology in the industry.  
First, the technology must become more accessible, attractive and, above all, easy to integrate. Only when embedding the Internet of Things becomes as simple as using a smartphone application, the industry will adopt this technology in a massive way. For this purpose, an important requirement is to be compliant with industrial standards. In particular, communication's standardization is essential to lower the entry barriers for the industry, and to improve the interoperability of different applications/systems [13].  
Second, industry needs end-to-end solutions, not partial ones. Designers of new platforms should take special care to cover complete use cases, not just a part of them. As seen from the related work  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **Power (x)** & **Wireless 2.4 GHz (o)** & **Industrial Bus (+)** & **Sensors (*)** & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \cline{5-16}
**Platform** & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline SensorTAG & x & - & o & o & - & - & - & - & - & - & 10 & - & Fully Embedded \\ Bosch XDK & x & - & o & - & - & o & - & - & - & - & - & 8 & - & Fully Embedded \\ \hline Linear/Dust & x & - & - & - & o & - & - & - & - & - & - & 1 & - & Module \\ OpenMote & x & - & - & o & - & - & - & - & - & - & 1 & - & Dev. Kit \\ OpenPicus & x & - & - & - & - & o & + & - & - & - & - & - & - & Expansion Card \\ \hline Libelium & - & - & o & o & - & o & + & - & + & + & - & * & Modular \\ MongOH & - & - & o & - & - & o & + & - & + & + & 2 & * & Modular \\ \hline I3 Mote & x & x & o & o & - & - & - & + & - & - & 6 & * & Fully Embedded \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 1: Features Summary.  
review, there are many development kits that have grown around a particular device, but few platforms have been designed as a full solution.  
Most notably, wireless platforms and industrial equipment seem to have evolved in parallel, but not jointly. Somehow, we have always had in mind to replace existing equipment (wireless as an alternative) but not to build on top of the existing equipment (wireless as added value). In terms of hardware, this has resulted in a fundamental deficiency in the wireless platforms, namely the ability to connect new platforms to the industrial equipment already in operation.  
Third, key accelerators for the industry adoption are open-source hardware and software projects. The experience has taught us several lessons [6]. First, tight coupling and parallel evolution between hardware platforms and open-source projects benefit the adoption of the standards they implement. Second, providing easy-to-use board support packages (BSP) and prototyping tools speeds up time-to-deployment and eventually time-to-market. Third, open hardware benefits knowledge transfer and industrial adoption, as companies can take advantage of already proven designs. Last, symbiotic alignment between standardization groups and open-source hardware/software projects yields better standards and speeds up their adoption.  
The I3 Mote platform has been designed to provide solutions to the aforementioned problems. This approach is based on the three following cornerstones: