Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GIDROM (Drone-based integrated monitoring system for early detection of crop pathology and pest control in high tech greenhouse agriculture.)

Teaser

Target market of GIDROM project is Greenhouse (Gh) Agriculture. A main problem of Gh farmers is monitoring the Gh environment to control plant diseases. Unchecked plant pathologies cause extensive crop damage and direct losses to farmers up to 15% of yearly incomes. The cost...

Summary

Target market of GIDROM project is Greenhouse (Gh) Agriculture. A main problem of Gh farmers is monitoring the Gh environment to control plant diseases. Unchecked plant pathologies cause extensive crop damage and direct losses to farmers up to 15% of yearly incomes. The cost of pesticides and chemicals application is €2.000-5.000 / ha x year. Worldwide area dedicated to Gh agriculture production is about 800.000 ha of which 20% (160.000 ha) is situated in Europe (mainly in Spain, Turkey, Italy, Greece, Netherlands, France). The disruptive innovation technology proposed by the GIDROM project is the use of drones in Gh monitoring. The project partners ABO DATA and GLOBI HI-TECH have been jointly developing an innovative drone-based system, giving a total non-invasive, flexible and low cost approach to monitor autonomously and precisely the critical areas of the cultivar inside a Gh. The business potential of the technology is estimated > 18M€ with at least 700-800 GIDROM drone-based monitoring systems installed in Europe within 5 years from first commercialization.
Short-medium term objective (during SME Instrument Phase II) is to bring the GIDROM technology from the present readiness TRL 7 (technology demonstrated in relevant environment) to TRL 9 (actual system proven in operational environment).
Feasibility assessment goals of SME Instrument (Phase I) have been the elaboration of the comprehensive business plan and the industrialization development plan, as well as selection and contacts with end-users and business partners.
The expected outcomes of the project, after completion of Phase II, are:
1. pilot demonstration of the system for routinely monitoring of crops
2. definition of the business model for the commercialization of the technology in Europe
3. establishment of strategic alliances with key stakeholders
4. to start-up a new Company (joint venture from ABO DATA and GLOBI HI-TECH) to move towards Phase III of H2020 SME Instrument

Work performed

1. OVERVIEW OF THE WORK DONE AND RESULTS
Brief description of the GIDROM Project
The main problem of greenhouse farmers is monitoring and managing the greenhouse environment (temperature, humidity, irrigation, fertilizers pesticides and chemical spraying) to control plant diseases, since unchecked plant pathologies cause extensive crop damage and create direct economic losses. To improve crop monitoring and management, a number of commercial sensors and instruments are already in use to control heating, venting, fans, screens, nutrient dosing, irrigation, carbon dioxide supplementation and fogging or misting systems. The integration of data into Decision Support Systems (DSS) is rapidly providing better information about growing conditions and assisting in the detection of plant stress and disease. The disruptive innovation technology proposed by the GIDROM project is the use of drones in greenhouse monitoring. Small drones can hover around inside the greenhouse, navigate autonomously and collect images of the crops at different wavelengths (visible, near-infrared, thermal infrared), with a resolution high enough to detect plant diseases and pest problems at a very early stage
ABO DATA and GLOBI have been jointly developing an innovative drone-based system, giving a total non-invasive, flexible and low cost approach to monitor precisely the critical areas of the cultivar inside a greenhouse. The GIDROM system integrates hw and sw components: the IT Platform PLAT.ONE® components deal with the Cloud and are in charge of collecting, storing, managing and publishing all data coming from the “field”. The primitive data (air and ground humidity, temperature, light measuring, leaf humidity, etc.) can be used ‘as is’ in the platform and presented to the agronomist and the farmer. Using a rule based engine, data are aggregated into more significant metadata to create warning/alarms detection rules. Data are filtered and managed by the platform through pattern recognition algorithms and rule based action. The end-user (the farmer and/or the agronomist) will have access to the collected data and to their automatic (or semi-automatic) analysis through a web interface that can be accessed by fixed or mobile devices.

Objectives of Phase I Feasibility Study
Engineering and technical assessment, identification and contacts with business and technical partners, elaboration of an industrialization development plan (“Phase II implementation plan”), elaboration of a comprehensive and sound business plan
All these objectives have been successfully achieved
The activities that have been implemented and the results achieved are summarized.

Task 1.1 Engineering/Technical Activities
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We evaluated several types of drone on the market, selecting those that could be more suitable to be use inside a close greenhouse environment
Below a representative scheme of all greenhouses available in the market:

Our selection was focused on two kinds of greenhouse :

1) High-tech greenhouse for vegetables with a translucent outer shell (glass, or in some areas plastic materials), equipped with climate management systems automatically controlled by a computer (in accordance to EFSA, 2008). Drone could fly in the area below over phot impressed sized about 4 x 1,5m.

2) Low technology greenhouses , walk-in tunnels, static, with a transparent outer shell (glass or plastic roof and frequently glass or plastic walls). The size ranges from small sheds to very large buildings, generally without automatic controlled climate management systems (in accordance to EFSA, 2008). Fly space is about 2 x 2m.

The GIDROM system components (and costs) to be used in Phase II piloting trials for walk-in tunnels and high-tech greenhouses were also selected.
 
Task 1.2 Partner search and marketing activities
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The Phase I Feasibility study was implem

Final results

2. CONCLUSIONS OF THE ACTION
The GIDROM project will continue, by submitting a Phase II proposal on call “SMEInst-07-2016-2017: Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for sustainable and competitive agriculture, forestry, agri-food and bio-based sectors” at the cut-off date of 03/02/2016
During Phase I, the objectives of Phase II were better defined and focused: two main greenhouse (high-tech and walk-in tunnels) types were selected as target for piloting and demonstration activities.
With the help of CERSAA and UW, the overall concept of the system was well defined and also some greenhouse farmers (end-user) suggestions were taken into account, in order to correctly approach the technology of the system and fulfil market needs and requirements.
We confirm that the Phase II successful completion will lead to a strong impact on ABO DATA and GLOBI business, as estimated in the Phase III business plan .
Support that would be useful in Phase III could be to access to venture funding for product launch in the EU market and further expansion to US and other Extra EU markets.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.abodata.com/products/gidrom.