Agriculture autonomous monitoring and decisional mechatronic system

Abstract

The article aims to present a complex mechatronic system for Agriculture 4.0 — Automatic Autonomous Monitoring and Decision System for Agriculture (SAAMDA) for potato or vineyard crops. If the implementation of monitoring systems using aerial drones equipped with specialized near-infrared (NIR) inspection systems are already part of the specific themes of the current technological revolution, the solution proposed by the authors is to develop an automated decision and monitoring system, relatively inexpensive, through using customized systems (particular Unmanned Aerial Vehicle structure with modified GoPro Hero 3 Black digital video camera). The proposed system, first of all, unlike existing systems, provides recommendations and decision-making elements for farmers based on crop monitoring, and is also available as a cost accessible to as many users as possible. The price-versus-resolution compromise is compensated by the decision-making algorithm that allows the identification of optimum moments to specific phytosanitary treatments and the harvesting period. At the end of the article, the results of the monitoring and decision system are presented into comparative manner, using the simplified architecture proposed by the authors, versus the results of the advanced monitoring systems, with a series of conclusions.