"ICT-AGRI"-Projekt "USER-PA" (ERA-NET)

• Forschungsstelle: BLW
• Projektnummer: 10.20_5
• Projekttitel Englisch: USability of Environmentally sound and Reliable techniques in Precision Agriculture (USER-PA)

Schlüsselwörter (Deutsch)

ICT / IKT, Sensoren für Bodenbedeckung und Früchte, drahtlose Sensornetzwerke, hochwertige Nutzpflanzen

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

ICT, canopy and fruit sensors, wireless sensor networks, high value crops

Schlüsselwörter (Französisch)

ICT / TIC, réseaux de capteurs sans fil, cultures à haute valeur ajoutée

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

A number of technologies originating from ICT, has been successfully applied in agriculture. Nevertheless, sensor solutions have not been adopted into common agricultural practice. Two main gaps were identified, that this project is approaching to abridge:

1. Reliability - systems with insufficient reliability for everyday use in harsh conditions, and limited robustness of calibrations.
2. Usability - techniques were applied as isolated approaches without synergy of sensors’ data. In combination with the limited insight of the farmers with ICT, it limited their adoption.

USER proposes a conceptual framework and concrete applications for the farmer based on an innovative technical architecture, that demonstrates reliable Precision Agriculture solution. USER integrates canopy and fruit sensors with mobile vehicles and wireless sensor networks for providing spatial data for high value crops (vineyards and apple orchards). Solutions will be demonstrated to farmers and extension services.

Methoden (Englisch)

The work plan includes: (a) research and development activities in technological questions that appear crucial for the core technologies of USER-PA, (b) experimental trials to create the link between the information gathered at the achieved technological level and the agricultural needs, and (c) evaluation, dissemination and demonstration of USER-PA.

The conceptual framework proposed in USER-PA will focus in two model crops and two farming actions, to ensure focused applied research and applicability of the project outcome. The selected crops are vineyards for wine and apples. They are high value crops, have high requirements for resources (water and fertilizers) and they are either harvested selectively (apples) or the timing of the harvest is crucial for the quality of the yield (grapes and apples).

USER-PA will focus on two agricultural management tools. The project will address irrigation management by using input from canopy and fruit parameters, and harvest timing and yield management throughout the season by considering the variability of the apple fruits and grapes.

The development of USER-PA will take place in three stages. Since both vineyards and apples are season crops, the three-year project will include three growing seasons. During the first growing season, the components of USER-PA will be constructed and calibrated, each component individually. At this stage, stationary measurements will be performed, and the data will be manually transferred the FMIS. During the second growing season, the components will be integrated into one system and the performance of USER-PA will be validated. The sensing system will be put on the mobile system in the second year, and data will be acquired in motion. The third season will be dedicated to further validation of USER-PA and demonstration of its performance to farmers, extension services and other stakeholders. Demonstration will take place at the experimental sites in two countries (Swiss and Turkey) and on other sites that will express their interest to participate to the demonstration. The restriction on demonstration activities is the budget required to transfer the system and the people to the demonstration site, and their accommodation during the demonstration period. The concept will be discussed for application in smaller and larger farms, and can fit a number of crops and farming activities.

The project is divided into eight work-packages (WP). Three (WP1-WP3) address the different technological issues, four work-packages (WP4-WP7) address the agricultural issues, including evaluation and demonstration of USER-PA. One work-package (WP8) is dedicated to the project management

Projektziele (Englisch)

The main objective of the USER-PA project is to develop and demonstrate an integrated and reliable Precision Agriculture solution for orchards and vineyards considering spatial information on irrigation and harvest management.

USER-PA proposes a conceptual framework, an innovative technical architecture, and the enabling technologies that will allow to integrate canopy and fruit sensors with mobile and static data acquisition systems, and farm management information systems, targeting a system that will serve farmers. The main objective will be accomplished by meeting the following more specific objectives:

1. establish and develop technologies to sense, acquire, analyse and present to the farmer information that will enable him to manage the crop more efficiently and with reduced environmental footprint.
2. evaluate the economic advantages of USER for the farmers, and its environmental impact for greener agriculture.
3. demonstrate the capabilities of USER to farmers, extension service and other stakeholders

Kunden/Berichterstattung (Französisch)

Zugehörige Dokumente

• Fleury2013_Agri [PDF] 565 kB
• Fleury2013_Objectif [PDF] 1'959 kB
• Fleury2014_RSVAH [PDF] 1'118 kB

Publikationen / Ergebnisse (Englisch)

The project resulted with several major outcomes that can be implement immediately in practice or/and may be used in future applied research:

Agronomy
- Decrease of irrigation increased pheophytin in apple.
- Decrease of irrigation by 50% obtained the same yield with higher sugar content.    
- Decrease of irrigation with the same yield, achieved as a result of collaboration with other teams and their sensors.

Technology
- Conversion of a current, commercially available vehicle for the purpose of autonomous mobile platform, while preserving its original designs intact for common agricultural missions.
- Development of safety system for autonomous tractor.
- Novel optical fruit sensors were tested for the first time in the orchards.
- Android application was developed for non-automatic data collection as complementary tool supporting farm management information system.

Methodology
- Formalization of concept for calibration of fruit sensors.
- Reliable calibration of canopy and fruit sensors, needs longer period than what was given within the project framework (i.e. more than 2 years of field trials at the same location).
- Professional standard of safety systems for the autonomous tractor were developed.
- Exchange of specific measuring protocols due to intensive cooperation of interdisciplinary teams during fields trials.
- Demonstration on larger scale should be scheduled as satellite of other farmer / agricultural event.

Budgeting
- The framework of no central finance control resulted in differences of timetable, i.e. deliverables performance versus the planning.
- Some activities required to achieve assigned deliverables were overspent, e.g. mobile platform transportation to field trials sites, tractor conversion and sensors' integration.

Zugehörige Dokumente

• Fleury2016_ICT [PDF] 2'060 kB