NGI-UAV-AGRO (“Next Generation Internet based on 5G and UAV for precision agriculture”) project no. 461PED / 2020
Funder: UEFISCDI
Financing program: Increasing the competitiveness of the Romanian economy through RDI
Funding subprogramme: Experimental demonstration project (PED)
Research field: Energy, environment and climate change
Name of the Program from PN III: Program 2 – Increasing the competitiveness of the Romanian economy through research, development and innovation
Name of the Subprogramme: Subprogramme 2.1 – Competitiveness through research, development and innovation
Project type: Experimental – demonstration project
Project title: Next Generation Internet platform based on 5G and UAVs for precision agriculture
The total value of the Contract: 733,036.00 lei
Of which, by sources:
Source 1 – from the state budget: 6000,000.00 lei
Source 2 – from other attracted sources (co-financing): 133,036.00 lei
Contract duration: 24 months
Contracting Authority: Executive Unit for the Financing of Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation
Contractor: POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
The main purpose of the project is to develop and implement a monitoring and prevention platform for precision agriculture, platform designed using the current 5G specifications and UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) for Smart City and Smart Neighbourhood use-cases. The role of the platform resides in the soil, air and crop monitoring for communities that want to implement urban farming and/or precision agriculture in or close to residential areas, for both safer food production and air quality improvement. When designing the Next Generation Internet (NGI) platform, the use of dedicated wireless sensor networks is considered, as well as point-to-point 6LoWPAN routing for interconnecting and switching between NGI and the wireless sensor network. Crops such as vines and tomatoes will be real-time monitored to detect changes in soil and plat parameters in a timely manner, to act on soil irrigation mechanisms, to identify the stages of diseases that occur due to air and water pollution, the application of incorrect amount of pesticides, etc. Data gathered from the sensors and those recorded using UAVs will be stored in Cloud and real-time accessed by the beneficiaries via one of the applications available on the terminal electronic equipment (mobile device, laptop, etc.). Subsequently, through data fusion from sensors, decisions will be considered to prevent and combat plant diseases. Withal, alerts and recommendations will be sent to the beneficiaries on their mobile devices. The features of the NGI platform based on 5G and UAVs consider reconfigurability and scalability, low energy consumption, minimized human interaction and maximum accuracy.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department (AG) outline the importance of precision agriculture in reducing hunger and poverty while safeguarding the natural resource base and the environment addressing a number of challenges that may affect food including: plant and animal pest, disease prevention and response, management and conservation of crops.
Participants
UPB – Project director: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ioana-Manuela Marcu
email: ioana.marcu@upb.ro
BEIA CONSULT – Project manager: Dr. Eng. Cristina-Mihaela Balaceanu
email: cristina.balaceanu@beia.ro
