Introduction
How can we demonstrate the powerful, real-world applications of ServiceNow in a way that’s both engaging and easy to understand? As my summer intern project, I was tasked with answering this question. The result: a LEGO Mars Rover designed to showcase how ServiceNow can be the central nervous system for customer operations, seamlessly bridging the gap between physical assets and their digital records.
This project uses a LEGO NASA Mars Perseverance Rover to conduct a mission on a model of Mars. The rover navigates the terrain to collect rock samples, each of which is a tracked asset. This interactive demo provides a tangible, hands-on look at the power of ServiceNow IT Asset Management and IoT (Internet of Things) integration.
The Mission: From Physical Actions to Digital Insights
The core of the demonstration revolves around a simple yet powerful workflow: asset management. In our scenario, the assets are Martian rock samples, each embedded with an NFC (Near Field Communication) tag containing unique identification data and encoded scientific information about the rock itself.
The rover, built using a LEGO kit and a commercial smart robot car kit, is equipped with line-tracking sensors for autonomous navigation and an NFC reader. As the rover completes its mission, it interacts with these rock samples, and every interaction is a data point that needs to be captured and managed.
The key challenge is translating these physical actions—like collecting a rock sample—into real-time updates within a management system. This is where ServiceNow takes the controls.
ServiceNow as Mission Control
To make this demonstration a reality, we transformed the rover into a smart, connected IoT
device with ServiceNow as its command center.
• IoT & MQTT Integration: When the rover’s NFC reader scans a rock sample, the data is instantly
published to an MQTT broker. MQTT is a lightweight messaging protocol perfect for IoT devices. A ServiceNow-integrated listener subscribes to this broker, receiving the NFC data in real-time.
• Automated Asset Tracking: This data triggers workflows within the ServiceNow platform. A scanned NFC
tag automatically updates the status of the corresponding asset in the ServiceNow Asset Management database. For example, when the rover picks up ”Rock Sample Alpha,” its status immediately changes from ”On Mars Surface” to ”In Rover Storage,” complete with a timestamp and updated location.
• Interactive Demo Flow: The experience is designed to be interactive. A Field Innovation Officer can
guide a customer through the mission, using a phone with a dedicated innovation experience app as a checkpoint. This allows them to instruct the rover to deliver a specific sample, showcasing how ServiceNow can direct and manage physical assets based on real-time needs.
Visualizing Success: The Power of Dashboards
A critical part of managing assets is having clear, immediate visibility into their status and location. ServiceNow dashboards serve as our mission’s primary monitoring interface, providing a real-time, at-a-glance view of the entire operation. The dashboard displays key metrics, including:
• The total number of rock samples discovered.
• The current status and location of each asset (e.g., on the surface, in the rover, at the base).
• Detailed information pulled from the NFC tags for each specific rock.
When a customer or the Field Innovation Officer removes an NFC-tagged item from the rover’s storage, they can see that change reflected on the dashboard instantly. This powerful visualization makes the concept of a digital twin—a virtual representation of a physical asset—come to life.
Conclusion
This LEGO Mars Rover project successfully demonstrates that ServiceNow is much more than a tool for traditional IT tickets. It’s a robust platform capable of managing complex IoT ecosystems and physical assets with precision and real-time visibility. By taking a concept like asset management and placing it in the fun, relatable context of a Mars mission, we can clearly and effectively communicate the value and versatility of the ServiceNow platform to any audience. This project serves as a powerful, hands-on demo that proves ServiceNow is ready to manage the assets of today and tomorrow, whether they’re in a data center or on the surface of Mars.
