Luke Day started his career in industry, 18 years ago, as an electrical/electronics technician, working in a diverse array of sectors, from mining process automation to robotics in the automotive industry. From early on, he designed and built many computerised instrumentation and control systems, PLC, HMI, SCADA, RTU, M2M and various telemetry systems. He went on to study further, driven by a keen interest in the field, receiving an Advanced Diploma in Industrial Automation Engineering and later pursuing an Bachelors Degree in Automation Engineering. Whilst working as a Systems Integrator and Developer, Luke took a keen interest in embedded electronics and low level software development, constantly tinkering and creating devices for fun, with new ideas popping up regularly. He founded a successful automation company in 2010, with a small expert team of engineers, releasing several cellular, remote controlled automation products for process control and water treatment. The company was acquired in 2013.

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With the advent of IoT becoming a firm reality, Luke knew what this could mean in the future for automation, and saw the writing on the wall for old business models in the big incumbent manufacturers and Systems Intergators. Having experimented with many different wireless mesh networks, developing and implementing many different prototypes for eliminating control wiring and gaining an understanding of the possibilities of 8-bit and 32-bit MCUs and other embedded electronic systems, RTOS and single board computers, seamlessly being controlled from anywhere in the world, the creative juices began to flow.

 

Fast forward to 2015 and everyone was talking about IoT, especially among automation circles, with the hype in full swing. The feedback he was getting from his non-programming electrical friends and clients, was that the control systems where like a "black box" and they felt a lack of control. There was a sense of frustration coming from end users, the people who actually paid for this technology, with the existing status quo of the big brand manufacturers and mainstream integrators controlling the life cycle of the technology. A lot of people liked the idea of IoT, but felt the risk was too high and the projects were too complex, with specialised engineering required. It was especially evident that smaller companies in industry could never afford these services and expensive systems, many times not even knowing what was possible, whilst ironically it is these smaller and medium sized companies who need automation the most, in order to survive in a competitive fast-paced world.

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There had to be a better way, surely there was a system that wasn't a closed proprietary platform, that allowed modular, easy to use, fast to deploy, end to end IoT with user friendly monitoring and control capability... Apart from if you were a developer and quite advanced with software or integration tools, not one product on the market could deliver this. Even in traditional automation, let alone IoT in combination, the tools generally have high barriers to entry and steep learning curves. Worse still, most companies were locking their customers into long-term contracts with high fees, that forces the customer to come back to the bespoke systems integrator for any upgrades or maintenance. This practice continues today.

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Luke knew this had to change and in 2016 the concept of the "SmartNode - ENVISION" and "ControlMesh API" platform was born, a platform that tightly integrates hardware, software and communications in a fully modular, scaleable and easy to use package. Many years of long days, highs and lows, a big investment and 1000s of coffees later, the technology was starting to take shape. The platform is truly end to end, but also fully inter-operable, giving the early adopters an easy to use, highly secure, but rugged hardware and software system that is optimised from the ground up for low power, wireless, IoT control and monitoring with edge intelligencce. The system significantly reduces project complexity, design and construction costs and time. The SmartNode and ControlMesh Platform puts the power in the hands of the user, where they have full control over their investment, their data and their devices.

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Luke envisioned the power of this technology and where this will go with the implementation of digital clone technology, automatic system configuration and AI plug-ins for advanced edge intelligence, big data and cloud integration, allowing massive interoperability and seamless integration with many systems and the people who use it. Luke and the team at Daytech continue to grow the capability of the platform everyday, always thinking of the people who will benefit from this technology and how to make their lives easier.