The GeOSES project was funded by the Call 1 – 2020 organized by the MedITech competence center.
The project involves Eng4Life as a partner and the TerrAmore Cooperative Society as the project leader.
Purpose
The idea behind the project consists in the creation of a “smart-field” system that is able to respond to the request for the development of expert systems for the management, rationalization and efficiency of the production chain for the agrifood sector. By creating a prototype of an intelligent greenhouse on an industrial scale, associated with a web-based expert system and integrated with a cultivation simulation model that is able to simulate growth in terms of water and nutritional requirements, this project is aimed at ‘goal of developing an innovative 4.0 agriculture tool that can be managed remotely through a graphical interface. The idea is proposed in a period in which the imminent diffusion of 5G technology, simplifying and speeding up web-based connections, will allow that significant step forward towards an advanced, innovative and intelligent management capable of projecting the agrifood sector. towards a 4.0 agriculture model and therefore towards an ever greater attention to the theme of the circular economy. In fact, it is the use of tools, including low-cost sensors, including the physical-mathematical modeling of the behavior of complex systems, that allows the farm to make production more efficient and sustainable. In this perspective, the spread of “smart-field” devices is necessary as they represent that essential link within a Tech 4.0 model.
Expected results
The technological solution originates from the choice of using a real remote management system, such as the one already tested in the operating environment by TerrAmore in the specific case of cold rooms, and integrating it with new 4.0 technologies, in order to create an intelligent greenhouse prototype. In particular, the integration with technologies that have already been at least validated in an industrially relevant environment such as the robust internet connection, the industrial internet (capable of making elements of production communicate both from inside and outside the company) and the expert system related to modeling simulations, make the proposal framed as a project which, starting from a technological maturity level of 5, has a level as its final goal. The project aims in particular for the following results: avoiding waste in a logic of circular economy, increasing the quality of products, intelligently and remotely managing farm data and therefore the various field / greenhouse activities.
Avoiding waste (water, nutrients, production) and improving the quality of products are results that can be achieved by achieving the following objectives:
- the implementation of physical-mathematical models capable of using experimental parameter measurements in order to simulate the physiological state of cultivation and its interaction with the greenhouse system, and therefore estimate the amount of water needed as well as the supply of nutrients to be supply at the ideal time and in the ideal quantities.
- automatic and continuous monitoring of physical parameters such as temperature, humidity and brightness.
- the development of an expert system capable of identifying the optimal solutions relating to particular situations related to field / greenhouse activity that is able to use the data recorded experimentally and combine them with physical-mathematical simulation models.
Remote intelligent management is a result that can be obtained starting from the realization of objectives such as:
- the use of interconnected means of communication based on robust network technologies (that is, taking into account the physical limits related to the agricultural environment); use of 4.0 technologies such as the cloud for online information storage;
- the development of an activity management interface;
- the creation of a prototype of an intelligent greenhouse on an industrial scale in the perspective of the industrial internet of 4.0 technologies, or to create a prototype that provides for an interconnection between the equipment, and therefore with which it is possible to interface both from the inside and from the outside the company.
Total cost of the project: € 403.160,00
Financial contribution: € 166.082,02
