Engagement Data to Guide Product Development

What is SmartThings Analytics?

With our recent update, once you become Works with SmartThings certified, you can use SmartThings Analytics to gather useful data about how your products are being used in the field with PII-safe engagement data. The best part: you can see information like the number of registered and active devices, where your customers are located, and the SmartThings Capabilities that are most commonly used — which helps inform how customers interact with your products.

Leverage these insights to optimize your products and product roadmap.

“In the past, we were unable to obtain engagement data after purchase, but now, the Analytics Dashboard has helped us create actionable insights.”

Maude Shen, Software Product Manager, WiZ Connected

Why Should Developers and Product Teams Use SmartThings Analytics?

We are always looking for ways to better connect partners with our millions of users.

We know it can be difficult to collect user engagement data — especially for partners who manufacture Hub Connected devices.

Last year, we announced our first version of Analytics, which included Registered and Active devices. After obtaining Works with SmartThings certification, partners can easily access SmartThings Analytics from the Console.

Since receiving positive feedback on the first version of Analytics, we’ve continued to improve performance and expand the type of data partners can access. New this year, we are providing both country-level data and Capability level use. With Capability data, you can answer questions about the most commonly used features of your product, like “Are users actually changing the color of their lights?”

Leverage these insights to drive better outcomes for your products and users, and optimize your products based on real user interactions.

Key Features of SmartThings Analytics

• Real-world Usage Data: SmartThings Analytics makes it easy to know if your users are engaged with your products by providing real-world usage data, which we’ve built in a way that gives you actionable data while still protecting the privacy of users’ data.
• User-friendly Interface: With an intuitive and user-friendly interface, the Analytics tool ensures a seamless experience for product owners and developers of all levels.
• Multiple Ways to Gain Insights: Easily search by an individual product or your entire catalog, within one country or within a region. Or choose to go back as far as 7, 30, 90 days, or with a custom date range. Lastly, see which SmartThings “Capabilities” are being used — there are plenty of ways to get actionable engagement data to drive product decisions.

Product Questions that SmartThings Analytics Answers

• Where am I getting most of my product sales? In which countries do I have the most active user base?
• What features / SmartThings Capabilities do my customers use the most? Which are used the least?
• How many active devices do I have compared to registered devices?
• How are the active devices and registered devices trending over time?
• Did device registrations go up after our recent marketing campaign? Or after the event where we showcased our brand?

How to Get Started with SmartThings Analytics?

Ready to view Analytics for your device(s)? Here’s a quick resource guide to help you get started and show you the features:

1. Begin by Accessing Analytics

Analytics is only available to partners who have Works with SmartThings (WWST) certified products.

Visit the SmartThings Developer Console and navigate to the Analytics section, accessible at SmartThings Developer Console.

Keep reading for a screen-by-screen walkthrough, or check out this video.

If you have a WWST certified product(s) , but do not have access to the Console, email us at partners@smartthings.com.

2. Set Up Your Search Parameters

With Analytics you can search by:

Product(s): Search by one product or all to see a portfolio view of how your products are being used.

Date: See the last 7, 30, or 90 days of data, or choose a custom data range.

Location: View data by county or region.

3. View Data for Insights

Registered Devices: View devices that are registered with SmartThings.

Active Devices: View devices with an event or an online status in the last 24 hours. Devices may go from the inactive state to the active state and vice versa.

Capabilities: See SmartThings Capabilities that are being used for your product or products. Get a glimpse of which capabilities are the most used.

Geo Location: View by country or region.

See where your products are being used by country or by region.

Any of these fields can be made full-screen or zoomed in on. The data can also be exported as a CSV.

Our latest update with Analytics represents another avenue for providing more value for WWST Certified partners. Access to this variety of usage data is critical to understanding how consumers use your products.

Ready to gain more product insights? Navigate to Analytics in the Certification Console to see these insights and apply them to your product strategy.

Want to integrate your device with SmartThings? Visit https://developer.smartthings.com to access tools like Edge Builder and Test Suite, and then leverage our Certification Console to get your device(s) certified.

This is the first time worldwide that the technological solution, based on robotics and advanced computing, developed by Comau, has been tested in real installation conditions in an EDP solar park.

EDP, a global company in the renewable energy sector, will test the construction of its first photovoltaic solar park under real life installation conditions on a large scale with the automation technology Hyperflex.

The project, named AutoPV, is located in Peñaflor, Valladolid, Spain and will use automated solutions in 3MW of the total 122MW of installed capacity, through a robotic solution.

With an ambitious portfolio of solar projects globally and a growing focus on technology and the hiring of qualified professionals, EDP’s innovation area identified an opportunity to automate some of the construction operations of a photovoltaic park.

In 2022, EDP began an in-depth study of the technological automation solutions and, after several analysis phases, moved on to the implementation of the project in July of this year.

“EDP is at the forefront of the global trend of automation in the renewable energy sector. By investing in a solution as innovative as this, we contribute to making the construction of solar parks faster, more efficient, safer and more sustainable.

We believe that technology and innovation are a decisive ally in accelerating the energy transition, that’s why this is a strategic axis of investment and growth for EDP on a global scale”, says António Coutinho, CEO of EDP Innovation.

By investing in the automation process, EDP aims to achieve greater efficiency in the construction of solar parks, significantly accelerating the project schedule, with the expectation of reducing the assembly time of the solar panel structure by up to 50 percent.

This model of human-machine collaboration also allows robots to perform the heaviest tasks, such as handling structures and solar panels, while workers dedicate themselves to more specialised technical functions, creating an effective balance between technological strength and human expertise.

In addition to improving efficiency, automation directly contributes to increased safety in the workplace.

This process opens up room for continuous improvement, as automated technology makes it possible to identify and implement optimisations in future projects, ensuring progressive progress and greater speed in the construction of solar parks, allowing the energy transition to be accelerated.

António Coutinho says: “The pilot in Peñaflor is just the first step in introducing automation solutions into EDP’s robust solar business plan.

“EDP’s goal is to transform this into a global and integrated process, capable of generating competitive advantages for all the company’s operations and enhancing our human capital for more qualified activities.”

The project is supported by the automation technology of Comau, an Italian company and global leader in the design and manufacture of robots and automation solutions for different sectors, such as automotive and shipbuilding.

The pilot project consists of the construction of part of the solar park using a mobile factory, called Hyperflex, which includes an automatic assembly station where the photovoltaic structure is pre-assembled, and a rover that transports and positions this structure at the final location on the ground.

This entire system is transported in trucks to the solar park, where it is then built and assembled on site. Automation with Hyperflex and the rover has three main phases: unloading and assembly from the truck, operation (i.e. structure construction) and disassembly for the next mission.

Pietro Gorlier, Comau CEO, says: “The collaboration with EDP confirms the importance and added value of automation in renewable energies and particularly, in this case, solar panel installation.

“It is also a recognition of our constant commitment to developing innovative solutions that are also flexible to respond to different requirements.

“Thanks to our advanced technology, we allow our customers and partners to experience better quality, increased efficiency, and lower overall costs, helping them contribute to making sustainable solar energy a reality.”

Currently, 98 percent of all energy produced by EDP already comes from renewable sources, including solar, where the company has an installed solar capacity of more than 4GW.

EDP, as a leader in the global energy transition, maintains its ambitious sustainability goals, including the commitment to abandon coal-fired generation by 2025, be 100 percent green by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2040.

A tiny battery designed by MIT engineers could enable the deployment of cell-sized, autonomous robots for drug delivery within in the human body, as well as other applications such as locating leaks in gas pipelines.

The new battery, which is 0.1 millimeters long and 0.002 millimeters thick — roughly the thickness of a human hair — can capture oxygen from air and use it to oxidize zinc, creating a current with a potential of up to 1 volt. That is enough to power a small circuit, sensor, or actuator, the researchers showed.

“We think this is going to be very enabling for robotics,” says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the study. “We’re building robotic functions onto the battery and starting to put these components together into devices.”

Ge Zhang PhD ’22 and Sungyun Yang, an MIT graduate student, are the lead author of the paper, which appears in Science Robotics.

Powered by batteries

For several years, Strano’s lab has been working on tiny robots that can sense and respond to stimuli in their environment. One of the major challenges in developing such tiny robots is making sure that they have enough power.

Other researchers have shown that they can power microscale devices using solar power, but the limitation to that approach is that the robots must have a laser or another light source pointed at them at all times. Such devices are known as “marionettes” because they are controlled by an external power source. Putting a power source such as a battery inside these tiny devices could free them to roam much farther.

“The marionette systems don’t really need a battery because they’re getting all the energy they need from outside,” Strano says. “But if you want a small robot to be able to get into spaces that you couldn’t access otherwise, it needs to have a greater level of autonomy. A battery is essential for something that’s not going to be tethered to the outside world.”

To create robots that could become more autonomous, Strano’s lab decided to use a type of battery known as a zinc-air battery. These batteries, which have a longer lifespan than many other types of batteries due to their high energy density, are often used in hearing aids.

The battery that they designed consists of a zinc electrode connected to a platinum electrode, embedded into a strip of a polymer called SU-8, which is commonly used for microelectronics. When these electrodes interact with oxygen molecules from the air, the zinc becomes oxidized and releases electrons that flow to the platinum electrode, creating a current.

In this study, the researchers showed that this battery could provide enough energy to power an actuator — in this case, a robotic arm that can be raised and lowered. The battery could also power a memristor, an electrical component that can store memories of events by changing its electrical resistance, and a clock circuit, which allows robotic devices to keep track of time.

The battery also provides enough power to run two different types of sensors that change their electrical resistance when they encounter chemicals in the environment. One of the sensors is made from atomically thin molybdenum disulfide and the other from carbon nanotubes.

“We’re making the basic building blocks in order to build up functions at the cellular level,” Strano says.

Robotic swarms

In this study, the researchers used a wire to connect their battery to an external device, but in future work they plan to build robots in which the battery is incorporated into a device.

“This is going to form the core of a lot of our robotic efforts,” Strano says. “You can build a robot around an energy source, sort of like you can build an electric car around the battery.”

One of those efforts revolves around designing tiny robots that could be injected into the human body, where they could seek out a target site and then release a drug such as insulin. For use in the human body, the researchers envision that the devices would be made of biocompatible materials that would break apart once they were no longer needed.

The researchers are also working on increasing the voltage of the battery, which may enable additional applications.

The research was funded by the U.S. Army Research Office, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and a MathWorks Engineering Fellowship.