Starting in the soil and reaching into the digital cloud, technologies developed through the IoT4g ERC will collect, share and analyze data in order to improve farming practices, maximizing a farm’s productivity while minimizing its waste and ecological impact. Center researchers will create miniature soil-based sensors and swarms of aerial and ground-based robots, as well as new ways of networking them together in communication-constrained environments. The researchers also will develop high-level data science techniques that will allow data from different sensors in the field to be integrated with data from weather reports and commodity markets, synthesizing it into actionable information. Collectively, the IoT4Ag Center will educate students, engineers, agriculture professionals and other members of farming communities through audience-specific lessons and hands-on classroom, laboratory and field activities. Bringing together academic, government and industry partners with the farming community, the center will create an innovation ecosystem that ensures the rapid translation of IoT4Ag practices and technologies into commercial products and economic impact.
Research Areas
The IoT4Ag Center is divided into three integrated thrusts, with teams of researchers working on sensing, communication/energy and response technologies.
Members of the “Agricultural Sensor Systems” team will develop miniature sensors designed to be planted alongside crops or placed on top of the soil. These sensors will be considerably less expensive than current systems for monitoring micronutrients and other soil conditions, but be sowed like seeds and even provide data on the scale of an individual plant. They will also develop fleets of robots that will gather data from the air or ground; autonomously monitoring the health of plants with a suite of data-rich sensors, predicting crop yield and quality of produce.
Forming a network out of this diverse suite of sensors presents its own challenges, especially in the unique environment of a farm. Signals will need to travel from below the soil surface, to farm equipment, and from there to the cloud, and do so over long distances in remote locations with no pre-existing cellular networks to rely upon.
Members of the “Communication and Energy Systems” team will develop methods for establishing and maintaining these lines of communication, along with energy technologies to keep sensors and robots running with minimal human interaction.
Finally, members of the “Agricultural Response Systems” team will develop models that will integrate data from a farm’s network of sensors with that from the wider world. By providing situational awareness informed by plant physiology, weather patterns, socioeconomic trends and evolving agricultural techniques, farmers will be able to implement measures targeted at the performance of individual crops.
Facilities & Resources
Partner Organizations
University of Pennsylvania
Purdue University
University of California - Merced
University of Florida
Abbreviation |
IoT4Ag
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Country |
United States
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Region |
Americas
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Primary Language |
English
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Evidence of Intl Collaboration? |
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Industry engagement required? |
Associated Funding Agencies |
Contact Name |
|
Contact Title |
|
Contact E-Mail |
Website |
|
General E-mail |
|
Phone |
|
Address |
Starting in the soil and reaching into the digital cloud, technologies developed through the IoT4g ERC will collect, share and analyze data in order to improve farming practices, maximizing a farm’s productivity while minimizing its waste and ecological impact. Center researchers will create miniature soil-based sensors and swarms of aerial and ground-based robots, as well as new ways of networking them together in communication-constrained environments. The researchers also will develop high-level data science techniques that will allow data from different sensors in the field to be integrated with data from weather reports and commodity markets, synthesizing it into actionable information. Collectively, the IoT4Ag Center will educate students, engineers, agriculture professionals and other members of farming communities through audience-specific lessons and hands-on classroom, laboratory and field activities. Bringing together academic, government and industry partners with the farming community, the center will create an innovation ecosystem that ensures the rapid translation of IoT4Ag practices and technologies into commercial products and economic impact.
Abbreviation |
IoT4Ag
|
Country |
United States
|
Region |
Americas
|
Primary Language |
English
|
Evidence of Intl Collaboration? |
|
Industry engagement required? |
Associated Funding Agencies |
Contact Name |
|
Contact Title |
|
Contact E-Mail |
Website |
|
General E-mail |
|
Phone |
|
Address |
Research Areas
The IoT4Ag Center is divided into three integrated thrusts, with teams of researchers working on sensing, communication/energy and response technologies.
Members of the “Agricultural Sensor Systems” team will develop miniature sensors designed to be planted alongside crops or placed on top of the soil. These sensors will be considerably less expensive than current systems for monitoring micronutrients and other soil conditions, but be sowed like seeds and even provide data on the scale of an individual plant. They will also develop fleets of robots that will gather data from the air or ground; autonomously monitoring the health of plants with a suite of data-rich sensors, predicting crop yield and quality of produce.
Forming a network out of this diverse suite of sensors presents its own challenges, especially in the unique environment of a farm. Signals will need to travel from below the soil surface, to farm equipment, and from there to the cloud, and do so over long distances in remote locations with no pre-existing cellular networks to rely upon.
Members of the “Communication and Energy Systems” team will develop methods for establishing and maintaining these lines of communication, along with energy technologies to keep sensors and robots running with minimal human interaction.
Finally, members of the “Agricultural Response Systems” team will develop models that will integrate data from a farm’s network of sensors with that from the wider world. By providing situational awareness informed by plant physiology, weather patterns, socioeconomic trends and evolving agricultural techniques, farmers will be able to implement measures targeted at the performance of individual crops.
Facilities & Resources
Partner Organizations
University of Pennsylvania
Purdue University
University of California - Merced
University of Florida