# A Novel Intelligent IoT System for Improving the Safety and Planning of Air Cargo Operations
## 3 System Integration and Testing
### Field Testing  
After completing the laboratory testing procedure, the INTELLICONT system was installed on a demo ULD constructed for the project. The RMC and the power management unit were placed inside the ULD. The smoke detector was screwed permanently to the container's ceiling, and the piezoelectric sensors were placed in their predefined positions on the container's beams. In addition, four locking pin boxes were constructed, each one containing a locking pin and two sets of magnetic and contact sensors. The locking pin boxes were placed on the base plate of the container. Figure 11 depicts the integration and field testing team and the developed devices during the integration process. To connect the RMC with the power management unit and the sensors placed on the ULD, special, sturdy, and lightweight cables with locking lightweight connectors were put together and channeled around the walls of the container and through its baseplate. Figure 12 depicts part of the installed system inside the ULD. Figure 10: Battery cell voltage report by the microcontroller. After the installation of the system in the ULD, the magnetic and contact sensors were remapped to appear in the right order on the HMI application. After the hardware and cable installation, all the tests performed during the laboratory testing procedure were repeated to specifically define the functional parameters of the system and to accurately pinpoint the thresholds for the alarms triggered from the sensors' values. The field tests included testing the following:  
Testing of accurate sensor signal transfer to the RMC unit with the new and significantly longer cabling. The test showed that the cabling did not affect the sensors' signals and that data was accurately transferred to the HMI via the RMC unit with no false data due to noise or any other factor. Testing regarding the HMI and ULD connectivity and the maximum distance between the devices with the RMC unit located inside the ULD. The test was performed by establishing a connection between the ULD and the HMI and moving within the test area with the HMI in hand while getting reports from the sensors on the HMI. This test showed that within the field test area that spanned a radius of approximately 150 m around the ULD, there was no spot in which the connectivity and the data transfer between the devices ceased. Testing of the communication between the ULD, the HMI, and the robotic platform during the loading and unloading processes. For these tests, the actual robotic platform was used for moving the ULD around the cargo area. The field test team performed the entire loading and unloading process several times to test the accuracy of the data transferred by the RMC to the robotic platform, the connectivity between the robotic platform and the HMI, and the communication and the accurate execution of commands sent to the robotic platform from the HMI. Testing of the system's battery life. The battery life of the system was tested during all the kinds of scenarios that could be performed by the system, such as loading and unloading of a ULD and normal operation, in which the RMC sends periodic reports of  
Figure 11: The integration and field testing team and the RMC during integration. Figure 12: The INTELLICONT devices and the smoke detector installed inside the container. every sensor's value to the HMI. The alteration between different scenarios brought the testing conditions closer to real scenarios of the system's operation. These tests showed that the RMC system could operate for about 32 to 36 h on two, initially fully charged, battery packs. The battery percentages for both battery packs were also verified during these tests. Threshold evaluation and fine-tuning. By swapping the ferromagnetic materials used to simulate the locking pins with the actual locking pins that were located inside the dedicated boxes of the baseplate, the position sensor values were re-examined and the thresholds that indicated whether each locking pin was in the locked or the unlocked position were updated.