Elevator Pitch
Aquateknikk uses Node-RED and MQTT in a real-world IIoT system for land-based fish farming. With over 25 locations and 10 to 40 Raspberry Pi edge devices per site, each responsible for calculating and executing feeding. The system integrates with industrial hardware via Modbus and Moxa I/O modules.
Description
Why should you attend this talk?
Because it’s not just another IoT demo—it’s a real, deployed, and evolving industrial system that feeds thousands of fish every day using Node-RED.
This session dives into how we transformed a fragile, PLC-dependent setup into a resilient, containerized IIoT platform using Node-RED, MQTT, and edge computing. You’ll see how Raspberry Pis are a crucial part of the systems functionality , how we integrated with Modbus and MQTT, and how we built a CI/CD pipeline that supports real-world deployments.
Also some of the current challenges and obstacles that have yet not been properly sovled.
Whether you’re building smart factories, automating greenhouses, or just love seeing Node-RED in action at scale—this talk will inspire, inform, and maybe even make you laugh (yes, we use “frontend for backend and backend for frontend”
Notes
I’ve been the lead developer and system architect for Aquateknikk’s Node-RED-based IIoT solution since 2019—initially through Bouvet, and now through my own company, Hoenypot. The system is currently deployed across more than 25 aquaculture facilities, each with up to 40 Raspberry Pi edge devices running Node-RED in production environments.
This talk is grounded in a real-world industrial deployment. I’ll share practical insights into how Node-RED has been used to build and evolve the system over the years, including its integration with industrial protocols like MQTT and Modbus, the transition from PLCs to modern I/O modules, and the challenges of managing large-scale edge deployments. I’ll also cover how we’ve implemented CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps to support containerized development and enable remote updates.
In addition to technical architecture and implementation strategies, I’ll highlight both the challenges we’ve overcome and the ones we continue to face—offering a transparent, experience-based perspective that attendees can learn from.
The presentation will be delivered using a slide deck and is planned to include real-world architecture diagrams, deployment photos, and system examples. I also plan to demo the system live or show a live instance, depending on connectivity and session format.
No special technical requirements are needed for the talk.