IoT Prototyping in Agriculture

GE OWNER: University of Ljubljana, 4P DIH
GE Associated region: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, 4th call for tenders for sub-measure 16.5: Support for joint action to mitigate or adapt to climate change and for joint approaches to environmental projects and ongoing environmental practices, SMART AGRO GRAPE project

Call Information:  

  • Call opening: 31 March 2021 
  • Call deadline ended: 31 May 2021, 17:00 (CET)  
  • Results: June 2021 
  • GE Implementation period: 1. July 2021 – 30. June 2022
  • 15 participants joined the GE IoT Prototyping in Agriculture Community 

PROPOSED SERVICE

  1. Smart agricultural IoT and AI supported platform developed by UL to correspond to needs of viticulture and vinification value-chain subjects.
  2. Common specifications defined with the group of selected SMES / Midcaps 
  3. Group of selected companies from Europe and Slovenia (SMART AGRO GRAPE project) 
  4. All selected companies will be invited to an interview with UL Expert to explain their needs and use case 

TECHNICAL FOCUS: IoT devices & data management platform

The basic objective of the project is to establish an innovative know-how, which, with joint efforts, experience and knowledge from relevant stakeholders, will address the challenge of technologically, economically and environmentally efficient approaches, technologies and practices in optimizing vineyard management within the concept of “smart vineyards”.  

UL GE technical programme will be constructed around three technological pillars that will be addressed by the GE community. 

  1. Smart Agriculture:
    • small-scale pilots, focus on vineyards 
    • monitoring, remote control and analysis (e.g. dashboards and alerts)
  2. Data collection:
    • support predictive modelling design (for e.g. soil supplements, water supply optimisation) and  
    • data sharing for direct commercial purposes (e.g. days in the sun or above average for yearly harvest on printed wine labels)
  3. Sensors:
    • Commercially available sensors: air temperature/humidity/pressure, rainfall, wind speed/direction, UV radiation, soil temperature/humidity/conductivity/oxygen meter, leaf wetness.
    • Nearby sensors (battery powered) connect (via U/NB) to central controller. More controllers (via LoRaWAN) connect to gateway (Internet) that emit the data to services.
    • Potential expanse with wine barrels monitoring.

Additionally, UL GE will address other non-technical aspects thru the use of SEROI+ (socio-economic and environmental return on investment) methodology, specifically:

  • Goals and objectives definition within end-user groups 
  • Relevant stakeholders in identification and management  
  • Co-design and co-development of new products and services that correspond to end-users (vineyards) and consumer’s needs. 
  • Identification of indicators and expected impacts