The proliferation of smart home products has set high expectations among consumers for product appearance, functionality, and simplicity. Today’s pool installers, managers, and owners are no different. They expect instant and often remote access to their pool data for health monitoring (water quality, temperature, chlorination level, debris, etc.) and predictive and scheduling capabilities such as best time to heat according to local regulations and power utility costs.

Since the client has an extensive installed customer base as well as a growing sales funnel, the new product needed to take into account those existing products and their supported components, sensors, and datastreams, while also tapping the latest advances in real-time controller systems, telemetry management, IoTs, and cloud computing, among other capabilities.

To start, Orthogone assembled a dedicated team including a software architect, embedded-software designers, a hardware engineer, simulation and automation specialists, a project manager, and a test engineer.

Orthogone worked closely with the client to write comprehensive requirements to identify and define the best software and test architecture approach. Given the solution’s technical complexity and the client’s go-to-market schedule, the team decided that a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) was essential. This included implementing a simulation solution for software validation, and automated testing to catch defects early. As a bonus, the product simulator can also be used to train pool installers and operators.

At the center of the project, Othogone architected the core product controller to be as modular as possible. For example, it needed to connect major modules such as a Pool Operations Manager, a Client Device Controller, a Telemetry Manager, network and firmware managers, and an Edge API.

The Edge API is essential for enabling the integration of multiple IoTs and user-friendly UIs for both pool operators and homeowners. For instance, pool professionals are expected to have full autonomous access to every device and pool function, while a family member might only have access – via an indoor console or smart device – to basic operations like changing pool lights, adjusting temperature, and selecting cleaning schedules.

With AWS IoT Greengrass as the core development environment, Othogone opened up a world of possibilities for the client to enable and market such attractive capabilities as voice-activated controls and energy-efficient heating automation.