Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
a group of nodes, named P2K nodes, installed on the lateral arms of the central pivot
system. The field sensor nodes communicated with the P2K nodes using low-power
radio frequency signals. The P2K nodes collected the data from the field and the central
pivot system and transmitted them to a master controller through a power-line carrier
communication. The system performance was compared with a conventional uniform
irrigation treatment to a potato field. Results showed that, with essentially equal water
consumption, the tuber yield from under site-specific irrigation management was sig-
nificantly greater by about 4% than the yield from uniform irrigation.
Many technologies are developed to support wired or wireless communications
from machine to machine, from machine to mobile or from mobile to machine, and
from human to machine or machine to human. These technologies greatly enhance
the automation of machines, and the efficiency and effectiveness of machine manage-
ment systems through an integration of discrete components within the system. Many
agri-machinery manufacturers integrate communication modules to their systems to
allow the machinery to remotely report current information such as geographical
location, fuel condition, system conditions, and accidents. The JDLinlk product line
from John Deere allows equipment managers to access daily data via the Internet to
a central server confidentially. Malfunctioning alarm messages can be delivered to
the manager through e-mails and short text messages. Some New Holland combine
harvesters have network cards developed by EIA Electronics (Belgium) that allow a
manager to remotely monitor their operations via cellular network or satellite com-
munication. A German company, RTS Rieger, developed a system to record various
operating parameters of machinery and transmit the data to a PDA (without service
subscription fee) through Bluetooth or to a web server via cellular network.
A WLAN-based, real-time, vehicle-to-vehicle data communication system was
established by Guo and Zhang (2002) to exchange information between vehicles
on vehicle states and operation control variables. Laboratory and field tests demon-
strated the feasibility of real-time, wireless data communications between vehicles in
autonomous, master-slave vehicle guidance. Charles and Stenz (2003) implemented
an autonomous tractor for spray operations in fields. During spraying, the tractor
drove fully autonomously at least 90% of the time. This tractor could also be pre-
cisely controlled by a supervisor through a radio link. Ribeiro et al. (2003) developed
an autonomous guidance tractor for spray operations in citric and olive tree fields
in Spain. A user-friendly visualization agent was developed for human operators to
remotely control and supervise unmanned tractors in a field through WLAN. Stentz
et al. (2002) developed a wireless link between tractors and a human supervisor in
a fleet of semiautonomous tractors. Each tractor had the capability to detect people,
animals, and other vehicles in its predefined path and to stop before hitting such
obstacles until it received control commands from a supervisor over a wireless link.
13.6 CHALLENGES ON AUTOMATION OF
WORKSITE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Advanced technologies of sensing, control, networking, and information manage-
ment have been bringing great changes in farm worksite management. They bring
the “field” closer to the “human” world. The reduced costs of electronics, controllers,
