Sensing technologies for integrative monitoring of agricultural production

Project aim: Research on the project is dedicated to the development of computational models for integrative monitoring of agricultural production based on data obtained from diverse sensor technologies. The objectives of the project include several complementary aspects coming from the following questions: what is the crop distribution across territory of APV, what is the current state of crops in certain areas inferred by the appropriate vegetation indices and what yields can be expected.

 

About the project: Knowledge on environmental factors, especially those related to plant development in different stages has been recognized as one of the main areas of application of new sensor technologies. In the context of achieving successful and highly efficient agricultural production, the lack of adequate technical solutions and accompanying integrated systems are key obstacles to wider adaptation of sensing technologies for monitoring and analysis of various crop parameters.

 

Such systems based on the new sensor technologies for the continuous monitoring of agricultural production would enable the introduction of innovations and raise its competitiveness. Therefore, the main practical task to achieve integrated monitoring of agricultural production is the usage of available and development of new sensor technologies, as basic sources of diverse, but at the same time very valuable information of interest for many aspects of agricultural production. An equally important element for the successful implementation is the development of appropriate subsystems intended for access, efficient, timely and purposeful distribution of the obtained information to the actors in the process of agricultural production.

 

Sensor technologies that can be used in agricultural production are very diverse, both in terms of complexity and degree of integration, as well as in terms of implementation, use, number of devices, principles of operation, maintenance, availability and above all characteristics. In this project, the emphasis will be on combining information obtained remotely (remote sensing) by satellite, with information obtained from various sensors by direct measurement on the ground (proximal sensing), such as: probes for measuring electromagnetic conductivity, thermal, optical and multispectral cameras as well as derived indexes (e.g. NDVI, EVI, NDWI and others). In this way, the integration of agricultural surveillance systems will be enabled using satellite observation, characterization of variability and soil structure using sensors, mobile phones and GIS technology intended for the integration and distribution of information.