Actual Zettelkasten · Automation & Mechanisms

3. Automation & Mechanisms

Automating Hidden Steps

ID: automation-automating-hidden-steps
Family: Automation & Mechanisms
Tagline: Remove the invisible friction that slows the day.
Quote: “Little steps add up to big delays.”

Why This Matters

Workers often spend time on small motions: typing job codes, tapping through menus, checking boxes, or confirming tasks. These steps seem minor individually but compound into serious drag.

How It Works

  • Detect location, tools, and presence without asking.
  • Trigger job context automatically from parcel and tags.
  • Let the system fill in metadata crews shouldn’t touch.
  • Keep human attention for judgment, not setup.

Reflection

When invisible friction disappears, the day flows the way it should.

  • Passive Association
  • Smart Intervals
  • Less Admin, More Work

Audiences

Field, Engineering

Edge Autonomy

ID: automation-edge-autonomy
Family: Automation & Mechanisms
Tagline: Let the device make decisions at the edge.
Quote: “Decide near the work.”

Why This Matters

Cloud round-trips slow response and drain batteries. Decisions that can be made locally should be — fast, cheap, and without waiting.

How It Works

  • Use IMU + BLE + GPS locally to determine context.
  • Wake radios only when data needs to move.
  • Buffer events for later upload without losing truth.
  • Let the badge classify motion events instantly.

Reflection

Local brains make global systems smoother.

  • Smart Intervals
  • Automate the Constraint
  • Flow Starts at the Edge

Audiences

Engineering

Passive Association

ID: automation-passive-association
Family: Automation & Mechanisms
Tagline: Connect people, places, and tools automatically.
Quote: “Let the world tag itself.”

Why This Matters

Workers shouldn’t choose job codes, equipment IDs, or context lists. Proximity and place already contain that information — if we listen.

How It Works

  • Use BLE tags to identify equipment automatically.
  • Use parcel shapes to identify job sites.
  • Associate encounters with time without asking the user.
  • Resolve ambiguity only when two contexts overlap.

Reflection

When the system understands context, crews don’t have to.

  • Context Without Effort
  • Automating Hidden Steps
  • BLE Proximity = Equipment Usage

Audiences

Field, Engineering

Smart Intervals

ID: automation-smart-intervals
Family: Automation & Mechanisms
Tagline: Wake radios with intention, not habit.
Quote: “Do less, but do it better.”

Why This Matters

Constant radio usage kills battery and creates noise. Radio wake-ups must match real-world rhythm, not rigid timers.

How It Works

  • Use IMU triggers to wake BLE scans.
  • Upload in 30-minute batches unless behavior changes.
  • Increase frequency when motion is complex.
  • Decrease frequency when still or traveling steadily.

Reflection

Save power by matching the cadence of real work.

  • Edge Autonomy
  • Automating Hidden Steps
  • One Badge, Whole Day

Audiences

Engineering

Battery as Constraint

ID: automation-battery-as-constraint
Family: Automation & Mechanisms
Tagline: Every system decision must respect the battery.
Quote: “If it dies, it lies.”

Why This Matters

Truth depends on uptime. A dead badge erases trust and breaks the chain of evidence.

How It Works

  • Budget current draw per component and mode.
  • Tune BLE interval, GPS sampling, and uploads to last a full week.
  • Use deep sleep whenever possible.
  • Let battery percentage influence sampling logic.

Reflection

Power is the real boss on the edge.

  • Smart Intervals
  • Edge Autonomy
  • Flow Starts at the Edge

Audiences

Engineering

Automate Association, Not Judgment

ID: automation-automate-association-not-judgment
Family: Automation & Mechanisms
Tagline: Let machines collect facts; let people decide what they mean.
Quote: “Automation records — humans interpret.”

Why This Matters

Systems that try to judge work quality or intent alienate users. Systems that humbly record truth empower them.

How It Works

  • Capture presence, movement, proximity, entry/exit.
  • Leave “was the job done?” to humans.
  • Reduce the burden of paperwork while keeping human judgment central.

Reflection

Good automation gives people better judgment, not less.

  • Truth You Can Stand On
  • Convivial Tools
  • Passive Association

Audiences

Field, Leadership, Engineering

Edge Is the Source of Truth

ID: automation-edge-is-the-source-of-truth
Family: Automation & Mechanisms
Tagline: Capture truth where it happens — on the worker.
Quote: “Reality begins at the edge.”

Why This Matters

Most errors happen when workers manually summarize memory at the end of the day. Raw truth must begin where the work is done.

How It Works

  • All payloads originate on the badge.
  • Cloud validates but does not invent.
  • No records created retroactively.
  • The edge produces immutable timestamps.

Reflection

Start truth at the source and everything stays clean downstream.

  • Truth You Can Stand On
  • Effortless Proof
  • Lineage Is the Ledger

Audiences

Engineering, Leadership

Presence Over Precision

ID: automation-presence-over-precision
Family: Automation & Mechanisms
Tagline: Reliable presence beats perfect coordinates.
Quote: “Done is better than exact — when exact is fragile.”

Why This Matters

GPS drift can mislead. Parcel-based presence is more stable, more contextual, and more fair.

How It Works

  • Use parcels for truth of “on-site” rather than raw GPS.
  • Smooth noisy signals.
  • Prefer reliable boundaries over perfect points.

Reflection

The field needs fairness, not false precision.

  • Parcel as Job Unit
  • Presence Becomes Proof
  • Automate the Constraint

Audiences

Field, Engineering

The World as the Interface

ID: automation-the-world-as-the-interface
Family: Automation & Mechanisms
Tagline: Let the place and tools drive the system.
Quote: “The job site is the UI.”

Why This Matters

Screens fail. Context doesn’t. When the environment itself provides intent, there is less cognitive load on the worker.

How It Works

  • Tags turn tools into UI triggers.
  • Parcels turn land into UI context.
  • Movement turns time into UI input.

Reflection

The world is already telling us the story — we just need to listen.

  • Passive Association
  • Context Without Effort
  • Flow Starts at the Edge

Audiences

Field, Engineering

Continuous Sensing, Occasional Sending

ID: automation-continuous-sensing-occasional-sending
Family: Automation & Mechanisms
Tagline: Stay aware locally, sync sparingly.
Quote: “Feel everything, transmit little.”

Why This Matters

Sensors need to track reality all day — but radios only need to speak occasionally to preserve power.

How It Works

  • Track motion and tags in real time on-device.
  • Batch data for 30-minute uploads.
  • Burst transmit only when major transitions occur.
  • Keep truth full while keeping radio use low.

Reflection

Local vigilance + rare transmission = long life + strong truth.

  • Smart Intervals
  • Edge Autonomy
  • Battery as Constraint

Audiences

Engineering