Connected Forklift Testing for Performance Optimization

A Case Study

Context

The client is a leader in material handling and industrial Forklifts and Trucks.
The client is connecting forklifts & trucks to offer digital value to the end customers.
The connected forklifts are expected to raise productivity by improving machine and drive performance, and benchmarking with performance data. The cost reduction is driven by lowering operational costs and reducing damages. The safety and compliance is managed through pre-inspection, speed control and shock monitoring.
However, the connectivity team faced the challenges of validating the application on the edge and cloud for:
- 2 different brands of the vehicles
- Vehicle variants with different functionalities
- Command and control features
- Continuous enhancements to add complex features
- Increasing scale

The client used in-house simulators for each vehicle brand with manually operated dials for variant-specific signals and control functions to validate the cloud applications.
Testing for functionalities with data and communication from the devices was manual. They had automated the user-focused workflows. This led to more time & effort, consistency issues and extended schedules.
The device apps teams used a bench setup for testing the device app.
Hardware wasn't available to testers in distributed global locations, especially the cloud teams, leading to integration testing always happening very late in the cycle.
Load testing was done using custom scripts which worked until a few thousand devices running simple scenarios.
The customer started noticing performance issues in production often.
The simulator had to be constantly enhanced to accommodate the ever-changing communication specifications for both vehicle brands. It always lagged the protocol version release, leaving the dev and test teams in the dark until the simulator was enhanced.

The client easily created test scenarios for vehicle-to-cloud and cloud-to-vehicle communications by virtualizing various vehicle brands and models in Doppelio.
Rapidly tested with increased test coverage by incorporating communication specification changes and maintaining a library of device versions without writing code.
They integrated Doppelio tests with their automation framework, which previously handled only user flows, to achieve end-to-end automation tests that run as part of the Azure CI/CD pipeline.
Device virtualization included the VM Doppel version of Doppelio, which runs actual device software as part of the virtual device with simulated peripheral inputs. This makes the device accessible to a broader set of testers globally, enabling early integration tests.
The customer can easily perform load tests at large scales, gaining visibility and meeting reporting requirements for new contracts without losing time. They used load tests with virtual devices to validate cloud cost estimates regularly.
Going beyond their expectation, Doppelio platform enabled them to troubleshoot field issues. They can now hypothesize the root cause, model it in Doppelio, and validate it. This makes fixing and validating the issue much easier and faster.

Increased test coverage without writing a single line of code

Easily perform load tests at large scales and stay within KPIs

Faster performance at lower costs with complete transparency

Get to know more about how we've solved diverse challenges when it comes to IoT Testing.