Catalogue of Infrastructures and Facilities

Test and validation of autonomous navigation and mapping solutions for UGVs, by quantification of the system performance metrics through comparison with millimeter accuracy ground truth data for an agricultural field with rough terrains.

Infrastructure

AgriRobot

The project focuses on enhancing mobility and enabling robots to perform precision tasks such as crop and weed management, monitoring, and recognition. The core focus is to develop a robust and highly accurate localisation and navigation system for autonomous agricultural robots, capable of operating efficiently in large, unstructured outdoor settings. A key component of this effort is the use of 3D high-precision mapping, which provides detailed characterisation of agricultural land. This 3D point cloud data is critical for understanding the varying topographies and plant distributions across the farm, facilitating more accurate navigation and task execution by robots. It also enables more efficient resource allocation and targeted interventions, ensuring better yield management and reducing waste. The entire solution operates at the edge, providing real-time data processing to support seamless robot navigation and decision-making in real-world farming scenarios.

Facility

Apple Orchards in Tres

For this purpose, LoRaWAN tensiometers are devices for measuring the soil moisture. A tensiometer consists of a vacuum gauge connected by a tube to a porous ceramic tip. The tube is filled with water. The ceramic tip is permeable, and the water in the tube saturates it. The tip is placed in contact with the soil in the root zone. Because the soil is normally not saturated, water is drawn from the tip into the soil. As water moves from the tube into the soil, a partial vacuum is created and measured by the gauge. This measurement is not a direct measurement of soil water content. Rather, it is a measurement of soil water tension (also called soil moisture tension). The level of pressure (tension) in the vacuum is an indication of the amount of energy needed by a plant to counter the strength with which the soil holds moisture and extract water from the soil. We installed in different fields for every measure point two tensiometers with different depths (30 cm and 60 cm). In this way we are able to measure the effect of water/soil moisture at different depths in the soil. Through the LoRa network we receive the soil moisture data from the sensors distributed in the field. Moreover, with the LoRAWAN valve, we are able to control water irrigation based on soil moisture data from tensiometers processed by AI algorithms. With this data and their elaboration, we are able to save water and make the irrigation process more efficient.

Facility

Vineyard in Rovere della Luna

For this purpose, tensiometer LoRaWAN are devices to measure the soil moisture. A tensiometer consists of a vacuum gauge connected by a tube to a porous ceramic tip. The tube is filled with water. The ceramic tip is permeable, and the water in the tube saturates it. The tip is placed in contact with the soil in the root zone. Because the soil is normally not saturated, water is drawn from the tip into the soil. As water moves from the tube into the soil, a partial vacuum is created and measured by the gauge. This measurement is not a direct measurement of soil water content. Rather, it is a measurement of soil water tension (also called soil moisture tension). The level of pressure (tension) in the vacuum is an indication of the amount of energy needed by a plant to counter the strength with which the soil holds moisture and extract water from the soil. We installed in different fields for every measure point one tensiometer with 30 cm depth (root depth). Through the LoRa network we receive the soil moisture data from the sensors distributed in the field. With this data and their elaboration, we are able to save water and make the irrigation process more efficient.

Infrastructure

LoRaWAN