Precision Agriculture. for Smart Farming solutions

Transcription

1 Precision Agriculture for Smart Farming solutions

2 What is Precision Agriculture? An integrated agricultural management system incorporating several advanced technologies The technological tools often include Sensor Networks, the Global Positioning System (GPS), Geographical Information System (GIS), Yield monitor and Remote sensing

3 What is Precision Agriculture? Precision Agriculture allow to manage specific field areas based on variable parameters within the field. These parameters are monitored on regular basis and used to drive intervention Managing each crop production input like fertilizer, limestone, herbicide, insecticide, seed, etc. - On a site-specific basis, reduce waste, increase profits, and maintain the quality of the environment

4 Benefits of Precision Agriculture Maximize profit Reduce labour / production costs Reduce water consumption Reduce waste Reduce usage of herbicide and insecticide Optimize usage of fertilizer and limestone Maintain quality of the environment

5 What is Precision Agriculture? Farming capability is improved up to square foot Standard Management Precision Management Large scale intervention capability (acres) Up to 1/100 acre intervention capability

6 Building block of Precision Agriculture Monitoring and Data Collection Farming Data Analysis with DSS platform Management Decisions

7 Data Collection Remote Sensing with Sensor network /Drones: - Soil Moisture - Humidity - Temperature - Solar radiation - Hydric stress values Weather Data Soil Sampling Crop Condition Yield Monitoring Irrigation Testing Boundary Mapping Identification of pests

8 Data Analysis Analysis of data collected to determine the parameters variability affecting crop Identification of the causes of variability Does the varied parameters affect the crop yield / quality? Need intervention?

9 Management Decisions Is it possible to change/mitigate the variability? Will the change increase yield, increase quality, decrease inputs? Is the change profitable? Need variation to programmed activities?

10 Impact on Farming Applying the variations needed: - Change Rate Irrigation - Change Rate Pesticide Application - Change Rate Fertilizer Application - Change Rate Seeding/Planting

11 Precision Agriculture in practice Technology needed: - Network Sensor (on field) for each parameter to be measured - Programmed Drones or Planes flights or - Satellite data (but very expensive) - Access to Wheather forecast data - DSS platform to analyse data and suggest intervention - Field devices like PDA with GPS or mobile phones

12 What GST Italia can do for you GST Italia has developed specific integrated solution for Precision Agriculture, based on specific needs for single crop like high end Wine production, Grain, Coffè or Greenhouse cultivation. The solutions has been developed in collaboration with Research Institutes like CNR (Centro Nazionale Ricerca) and Ibimet (Istituto di Biometeorologia) Aim of GST Italia is to invest in R&D in order to keep developing innovative solutions for Precision Agriculture market. Let s see some examples

13 Precision Viticulture GST Italia, CNR and Ibimet: Development And Application Of An Autonomous And Flexible Unmanned Aerial Vehicle For Precision Viticulture

14 Introduction Combine high spatial resolution imagery, quick turnaround times and low operational complexity and costs High spatial resolution imagery Quick turnaround times Low operational complexity and costs Generate useful remote sensing products for vegetation monitoring Remote sensing platforms based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) represent a tool that providing low-cost approaches to meet the critical requirements of spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions Remote sensing platforms based on UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAV) High spatial resolution imagery Precision Viticulture AIMS OF THE INVESTIGATION Develop an open source/low cost tool for mapping vineyard vigour areas Two additional preliminary research activities have tested the capacity of the UAV system to evaluate diseases and biochar effects on vine vigour

15 Material and Methods System deployment Research activity 1: Vigour map production Research activity 3: Disease monitoring Research activity 2: Evaluation of biochar effects on vine vigour

16 Material and Methods 1 System Deployment Modified Mikrokopter Hexa-II Open source project that is available with pre-assembled flight boards Global positioning system (GPS) unit This UAV is a six-rotor aerial platform capable of vertical take-off and landing and flight autonomously to a user-defined set of waypoints Payload 1 kg (10 min of continuous operation) Tilting cradle for the sensor attachment (correcting the effects of roll and pitch)

17 Material and Methods 2 Vigour map production It is equipped with a Tetracam ADClite multispectral camera (green, red and NIR), can cover an area of 1ha with a ground resolution of 5cm /pixel It was tested in 2011 on Monteboro vineyard located in Tuscany. Images acquired through the camera were georeferenced, orthorectified and digitally processed in order to provide an NDVI map Vigour map was derived based on the NDVI data Aerial measurements of vigour can be used to estimate differences in harvest fruit yield and quality Altitude Area Resolution 100 m 77*57 m (0.44 ha) 3.7 cm 150 m 116*86 m (0.99 ha) 5.6 cm

18 Material and Methods 3 Evaluation of biochar effects on vine vigour Biochar is fine porous substance obtained from the pyrolisis of biomass that can be used as soil amendant To detect the effects of biochar on vine vigour, multispectral airborne 30 cm resolution images were acquired in 2010, while UAV 5 cm resolution images were collected in 2011

19 Material and Methods 4 Disease monitoring Esca is a destructive disease in grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.) caused by at least three fungi and characterized by two different external symptoms, the apoplectic and leaf stripe form Many authors clearly demonstrate a drastic alteration of photosynthetic functions as well as a stimulation of defence responses in affected grapevines several days before any visible symptoms In 2011 in a vineyard of Montepaldi farm. The purpose was to investigate the correlation between the NDVI index acquired by the UAV and symptomatic plants monitored by ground based observation

20 Vigor map production The clear gradient in vegetation vigour shown by the map confirmed the empirical evaluation by the local viticulturist who divided the vineyard into two halves: the eastward half needing different management and producing a better wine than the westward Compared to satellite and aircraft, the UAV system shows a much greater flexibility, cheapness and suitability especially where small production areas have to be monitored

21 Evaluation of biochar effects on wine vigour The comparison of these two types of images highlighted that for the current investigation the higher resolution of UAV based images is very useful The results proved that the removal of both soil and shadow pixels is much more effective in UAV based 5 cm resolution images

22 Disease monitoring Preliminary results of the 2011 experiment have shown a strong correlation between the NDVI vegetation index and the severity of the symptoms The experimentation will continue in future, monitoring Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards, in order to evaluate the impact of the varietal factor, thus confirming and further exploring the results obtained in the first year The very high resolution provided by the UAV enabled a plant-scale analysis of the symptoms, confirming the irrefutable characteristics of UAV-based monitoring with respect to airborne measurements

23 Project summary This UAV platform is proposed as a tool that can meet the needs of precision viticulture in terms of remote sensing, distinguished by low cost, timeliness and flexibility of the measurements, customization of the equipment, full automation of the flight plan, and high precision quality of the data acquired The UAV system is a low cost solution, open source and fully customizable, which differs from other "turnkey" systems already on the market The system, without sensors, has a market price of 5, and the proposed camera has an affordable price (ADCLite 4,000.00) The tests performed showed that the UAV platform may provide a tool that can be implemented at the farm level even in those small businesses that are too often marginalized by technological progress

24 Future perspectives Future prospects concern the development of advanced UAV systems (OKTO) that allow a greater payload, and consequently the integration with more complex sensors in terms of weight and operation, such as thermal and hyperspectral cameras. Using the latest generation of thermal cameras with lower cost and payload would allow vine water stress to be monitored plant by plant

25 Case Study: Consorzio Tuscania A micrometeorological monitoring project aimed to forecast seasonal grapes production and drive grapes quality improvement This project has been developed in collaboration with CNR (Centro Nazionale di Ricerca) and Ibimet for Consorzio Tuscania that includes brands like Antinori, Ricasoli and Mazzei Project Goals: - Improvement of production (quality and quantity) - Forecast seasonal production - Detailed monitoring of micrometeorological parameters - Creation of a database for logging production parameters to help production forecast

26 Case Study: Consorzio Tuscania Decision Support Platform The solution Wireless connection Field wireless sensors Sensore - A Sensore - B Sensore - C Statione Master Sensore - D Field devices for data access

27 Case Study: Corporación Colombia Internacional The main target of the project developed for Corporacion Colombia International is the automation of the field activities and production management within coffee production chain The solution is based upon a technological platform that will be monitoring and logging variation of micro-climate values and provide analysis of such data in order to improve quality of the crop This solution give Corporacion Colombia International a business advantage in the export chain management and guarantee a competitive advantage to CCI in order to penetrate the Italian market where quality and traceability factors are very important

28 Case Study: Smart Farming Project Project developed for Ortinsieme / Antinori The aim of the project SMART FARMING is to study and develop a set of enabling technologies based on agronomic management techniques, smart sensors and radiometric measurements, efficiently integrated into a single system: This will be achieved monitoring real-time conditions of the soil, and plant microclimate and determining the water needs in real-time and site-specific nutrient culture system It will be implemented a decision support system (DSS) able to: - Minimize the wastage of water and fertilizer, and then to maximize the efficiency of use - Perform a scheduling of the use differentiated in time and space of agronomic inputs, in order to minimize production costs - Valuating in real-time needs for irrigation and / or ferti-irrigation in function of the specific needs of the crop which vary from area to area within the same plot

29 Case Study: Smart Farming Project Meteo data Radiometric data DSS Action Ground data History (DB)

30 Company information G.S.T. Italia SpA - info@gstitalia.it Registered Office Piazza IV Novembre, Milano (MI) - Italia Tfno Fax: Operational Unit - Firenze Via G. Matteotti, Signa (FI) - Italia Tfno Fax: Operational Unit - Bari Via Europa, Noci (BA) - Italia Tfno Fax: Operational Unit - Roma Via Orso Mario Corbino, 38/a Roma (RM) - Italia Tfno Operational Unit - Erbil Mnara City B 424 Erbil - Iraq Cel