A unique conditioning experiment with IoT measuring stations was carried out in Mezőfalva.
Remote sensing systems are able to collect data on vegetation development and environmental conditions via radio frequency links at preset frequencies. From the data recorded every minute, hour or day, the grower can monitor growth, nutrient balance, water balance and risk conditions for plant diseases and pathogens in a way that is accessible via smartphone.
A Mezőfalvai Zrt. has set up an environmental parameter data collection system in the pilot area of T-Markt Kereskedőház Kft. The functioning of this monitoring system, which was implemented in the framework of the GINOP PLUSZ-2.1.1-21-2022-00229 grant project, is described below.
The network has nearly 500 sensors, connected to nearly 140 data loggers, which provide site-specific sampling of air temperature, humidity, leaf wetness, soil moisture, soil temperature, soil conductivity (EC) and other data at various depths.
1. Figure 1 – source: T-Markt Kereskedőház Kft.
The area in question is located in the Central Plain, between Nagykarácsony and Sárbogárd. The topsoil is 90-200 cm of calcareous chernozem. In the experimental 120 ha area, 4 crops were sown evenly distributed. Figure 2 shows the 2023. The sowing structure for the year is shown.
2. Figure 1 – source: T-Markt Kereskedőház Kft.
Figure 2 shows the 70 m high military radio tower “Object 52”(Figure 3) in the upper right (NE), for which the experiment contractors were granted a licence for use. LoRaWAN gateways (Gateway), 2 Kerlink iStations, required for the operation of nearly 140 metering stations, were installed on the tower.
3. Figure – photo by T-Markt Kereskedőház Kft.
A total of 108 experimental plots were established, as shown in Figure 4.
4. Figure 1 – source: T-Markt Kereskedőház Kft.
From 5. Figure shown here are two families of metering stations with different physical appearance, equipped with different sensor sets.
5. Figure 1 – source: T-Markt Kereskedőház Kft.
In addition to the measuring stations within the herd, 5 meteorological stations are installed throughout the whole area(Figure 6)
6. Figure – photo by T-Markt Kereskedőház Kft.
In the whole area, 33 measuring stations per crop were placed in the precise GNSS points established for the experimental procedure.
Figure 7 shows the measuring stations of the wheat plots at the time of the pre-deployment workshop testing.
7. Figure – photo by T-Markt Kereskedőház Kft.
The configuration of the measuring stations includes 1-7 sensors in 4 different versions.
For details of the configurations, sensors used and measured parameters, see here. (link: ASH07 Mezőfalva stations description).
In Figure 8, we have plotted the logic path that shows how the measurements from the environmental sensors become the experimental data used in the correlation analysis.
The stations in the field contain around 500 sensors, which are sampled by the data collection units every hour or every 15 minutes, depending on the configuration. These form the daily production of about. 13.000 radio frequency message packets (uplink) which are sent to the diagnostic and parameterisation application via the Gateway, network server.
Here, we filter out the faulty packets, diagnose the source of the dropped packets, and if necessary, initialize the maintenance process to fix the resulting error. In the case of a perfectly working network, the application will take about. Sends 40,000 pieces/day of parametric data to the experimental database in the cloud.
8. Figure 1 – source: T-Markt Kereskedőház Kft.
The experimental database will process all the operational data, treatments, production results and measurements from other sources. Based on measurements and yield results from different sources during the season, correlation procedures can be used to identify, define and qualify the most effective management practices.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest scale and number of network measurement system implementations in the Digital Agricultural Economy in Hungary.
Author:
Dr. Csaba Tóth
Tóth Tóth, electrical engineer, precision farming engineer
T-Markt Kereskedőház Kft.
2013 Pomáz Határ u 5/A
0626-525-500
www.smartgreen.hu
