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Innovation & Technologie Angebot

Portuguese non-profit R&D organisation offers modular and distributed weather/abiotic sensing based on a wireless network for precision agriculture, focused in viticulture.

Country of Origin: Portugal
Reference Number: TOPT20191104001
Publication Date: 4 November 2019

Summary

Developed by a Portuguese non-profit R&D organisation, the system allows wireless monitoring of temperature, humidity, leaf wetness, soil moisture, solar and UV radiation, rainfall, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction. The technology is available to be transferred to a company that provides services in environmental monitoring or the internet of things (IoT) for agriculture, under a licence agreement or technical cooperation agreement.

Description

An RTD institution focused on technology transfer in the areas of electronics, automation, robotics and instrumentation is offering a licensing agreement or technical cooperation agreement for a solution that uses wireless monitoring for precision agriculture. The RTD team has been working in precision agriculture in national and European projects for more than 10 years.



The offered system is a solution based in a wireless sensor network (WSN) that allows for the detailed monitoring of abiotic parameters covering the entire length of the vineyard. This product is intended for medium and large-sized vineyards. The number of nodes is defined according to the specificities of each vine (size, gradient of the terrain, sun exposure, among others), as well as the set of sensors to be installed in them.



Main application scenarios:

•	Identify the points of the vineyard with the highest risk of pests;

•	Identify irrigation needs of the vineyard;

•	To carry out the environmental characterization of the various sectors of the vineyard permanently or temporarily.



In comparison with traditional weather stations, this solution was designed to be compact and easily integrated into vineyards, without any impact on the handling procedures, in order to provide a distributed and scalable sensing solution with integrated actuators in the nodes.

Advantages and Innovations

Main benefits: modular system; scalable system; low impact in crop handling; compact; no recharging maintenance by using solar panels.



The technology advantages and innovations in relation to competitors are:

- Monitoring parameters such as: air temperature, air humidity, leaf humidity, soil moisture, solar radiation, UV radiation, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, wind speed and direction;

- Smart actuators to remotely or automatically control irrigation systems, fertilizers or others;

- The modular system allows to replace, add or remove sensor modules without stopping or shutting down the node (sensor modules hot swapping);

- Due to its compact size, it is possible to install anywhere being integrated in the vineyards without impact in the handling procedures;

- The system is fully automatic scalable, there is no need to program or reconfigure to install new nodes on the network (coverage capacity areas above 100 Ha);

- The solution doesn’t use wires which makes it easy to install, re-install or reconfigure;

- No maintenance for battery replacement or recharging (using solar panels as small as a credit card).



The modular system is unique and an International Patent was applied.

Stage Of Development

Prototype available for demonstration

Stage Of Development Comment

The system has been applied to the largest grapevines producers in Portugal, one with 10 node sensors reaching 5 hectares and other with 8 nodes reaching 4 hectares.

Requested partner

The organisation is interested in a licence agreement (looking for licensees to use the technology for an agriculture use) or technical cooperation agreement with a technology company that can further develop and launch the solution to the market.



The partner sought must be a company that provide services in environmental monitoring or IoT for agriculture.