Intelligent irrigation control system with soil monitoring 4.0 (SCI-MS) - ITS-3D-Probe

• Grant number: 21/03771-4
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: October 01, 2021
• End date: October 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agricultural Engineering - Agricultural Machinery and Implements
• Agreement: FINEP - TECNOVA II Program
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Cesar do Nascimento Pavan
• Grantee: Paulo Cesar do Nascimento Pavan
• Company: ITS Integração Tecnologia e Soluções em Informática Ltda
• CNAE: Desenvolvimento e licenciamento de programas de computador customizáveis
• Associated researchers: Jan Hadrava ; José Maria Passarelli Filho ; Waldir Belinazzi
• Associated research grant(s): 21/08340-1 - Intelligent Irrigation Control System with Soil Monitoring 4.0 (SCI-MS) - ITS-3D-Probe, AP.PIPE

Abstract

Agriculture is a major consumer of water and although Brazil is the country that has the highest percentage of surface fresh water on the planet, it is necessary to seek solutions to improve the efficiency of water use in agricultural activity. Conventional irrigation supply water to the plantations by segmenting the water jet into drops on the soil, resulting in a uniform water distribution. External factors such as winds, evaporation and water absorption depending on the type of soil, result in uneven water distribution to plants. Also, the excess of water can favor the incidence of diseases in the plantations. All of these factors result in a loss in crop productivity. One alternative to face these factors and their consequences is to monitor soil conditions. Through data acquisition, it is possible to map and monitor soil conditions and by applying intelligent analysis, automated control of the irrigation process can be carried out and thus optimize the distribution of water throughout the plantation. As a consequence, there is a water saving and also a lower energy expenditure to activate the irrigation system, in addition to other indirect benefits. As a final result productivity grows. New communication technologies and processing of large volumes of information available today, made possible the application of sensors using the Internet of Things or IoT. It is possible to design low-cost devices that can be deployed in large quantities and with big data processing techniques to process the information. It is the reality of the new agricultural frontier or technology for agriculture 4.0. The project presented here offers an advanced solution with the application of 4.0 technologies in agriculture. This project aims to improve and carry out field tests of the sensor for monitoring multiparametric soil - ITS-3D-Probe, which will allow its integration with the ITS product SCI-MS - intelligent irrigation automatic control system. With the ITS-3D-Probe installed in strategic locations, it will be possible to map the plantation by measuring soil temperature and humidity at different depths. So, it will be possible to control the water flow that will be applied in each part of the plantation, resulting in water and energy savings and with consequent improvement in crop productivity. (AU)