ISURKI, an electronic engineering company based in northern Spain and an official partner of the Swiss SoM manufacturer TORADEX, has developed and deployed, over the last four years and in close collaboration with the AZTI marine science research center, a TORADEX Apalis SoM-based range of image acquisition and processing for compact, autonomous remote stations for videometric monitoring of the Basque Country coastline.

KOSTASystem

The main core is ISURKI's embedded industrial computer, the IXORA BOX PC, built around the TORADEX Apalis TK1 SoM, which manages tasks such as image acquisition, processing, storage and 4G transmission, power consumption optimization, real-time monitoring, alarm messaging, and more. The main features of the IXORA BOX PC include an NVIDIA(R) Tegra K1 Quad-core Arm(R) 2.1 GHz processor, 2 GB DDR and 16 GB Flash. The new version 1.2 of the embedded TESDA industrial input/output board includes 4 analog inputs, 4 digital inputs and 4 relay outputs.

Advantages over the previous x86 solution

The use of TORADEX-based IXORA BOX PC embedded industrial computers has meant a cutting-edge advancement in the performance of KOSTASystem's remote stations compared to the x86 computing solution used at the start of this project, enhancing them with the following advantages:

  • Reduced power consumption, allowing autonomous operation with a minimal solar panel size.
  • Reduced cabinet size, minimizing visual impact and allowing elevated mounting to reduce the risk of vandalism.
  • Fanless operation.
  • Cost reduction.