PalmaFlex UmiSolo-Total

• Grant number: 22/08153-0
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: December 01, 2022
• End date: August 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agricultural Engineering - Soil and Water Engineering
• Agreement: SEBRAE-SP
• Principal Investigator: Cynthia Cristina Martins Junqueira
• Grantee: Cynthia Cristina Martins Junqueira
• Company: Spectrum Line Prestações de Serviços Eletro-Eletrônicos Ltda. - EPP
• CNAE: Atividades de apoio à agricultura ; Fabricação de equipamentos e aparelhos elétricos não especificados anteriormente
• City: Campinas
• Pesquisadores principais: Fernando Ikedo
• Associated researchers: Carlos Dias Maciel ; José Antônio Perrella Balestieri ; Vitor Pinto Ribeiro
• Associated research grant(s): 22/15386-0 - PalmaFlex UmiSolo-Total, AP.PIPE
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/13924-8 - PalmaFlex UmiSolo-Total, BP.TT; 23/03072-4 - PalmaFlex UmiSolo-Total, BP.TT; 23/00871-3 - PalmaFlex UmiSolo-Total, BP.TT; 22/15516-1 - PalmaFlex UmiSolo-Total, BP.PIPE

Abstract

The agricultural market still lacks a tool that provides accurate and integrated information relevant to the producer, such as real-time soil water storage, irrigation volume or estimated crop recomposition (considering crop phenology, the type of soil and the irrigation system, when applicable), the volume of water abstracted for irrigation or other activity and its relationship with the granted volume, the actual water losses by evapotranspiration and its relationship with the projection of natural recomposition or by irrigation, the volume of rain predicted by climatology and its relationship with the decision to use irrigation or not. Thus, this project aims to develop a platform called PalmaFlex UmiSolo-Total, which estimates in real time the soil water storage and correlates, with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, this information with the irrigation system (if any ), crop phenology, grant data for water capture and use, climate forecast, satellite images and level of reservoirs and dams, in order to provide the producer with: * Weather alerts; * Information on the evolution of the crop (growth, plant health etc.); * Current soil water storage; * Forecasting the evolution of water storage for future weeks; * Irrigation volume recommendations; * Alerts related to the volume of water resources already captured and its relationship with the grant; * Alerts on the risk of suspension of irrigation grants due to extreme weather events. To reach this solution, the products already marketed by the company will be used as a basis for development, namely, PalmaFlex UmiSolo-Básico and PalmaFlex UmiSolo-Evapo, which provide monitoring of soil water storage via soil sensors and via evapotranspiration models , respectively. The main results of this research project correspond to soil sensors and limnimeters specially developed for the monitoring platform, algorithms to increase the accuracy of climate prediction in the watershed where the crop is located, machine learning algorithms aimed at estimating storage in the soil and in the reservoirs in the near future and, mainly, forecast on the availability of water resources for irrigation based on the future evolution of the level of the reservoirs and its relation with the granted volumes for water abstraction for irrigation. Evidently, the availability of visualization and management platforms based on web interface and applications are also a result of the project. The full development of the PalmaFlex UmiSolo-Total project will lead the company to expand the number of products offered and the potential for customer service. Its availability will allow it to reach markets currently not served by current products (PalmaFlex UmiSolo-Básico and PalmaFlex UmiSolo-Evapo), expanding the company's revenue stream. Combined with the specific business plan for this so-called SEBRAE-PIPE, it will allow the company to structure a specific engineering, sales, technical assistance and marketing team for the product, leveraging sales and revenue. (AU)