Browsing by Author "Ferreira, Paulo Jorge S.G."
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- An autonomous intelligent gateway infrastructure for in-field processing in precision viticulturePublication . Peres, Emanuel; Fernandes, Miguel A.; Morais, Raul; Cunha, Carlos R.; López, Juan A.; Matos, Samuel R.; Ferreira, Paulo Jorge S.G.; Reis, Manuel José Cabral dos SantosWireless sensor networks have found multiple applications in precision viticulture. Despite the steady progress in sensing devices and wireless technologies, some of the crucial items needed to improve the usability and scalability of the networks, such as gateway infrastructures and in-field processing, have been comparatively neglected. This paper describes the hardware, communication capabilities and software architecture of an intelligent autonomous gateway, designed to provide the necessary middleware between locally deployed sensor networks and a remote location within the whole-farm concept. This solar-powered infrastructure, denoted by iPAGAT (Intelligent Precision Agriculture Gateway), runs an aggregation engine that fills a local database with environmental data gathered by a locally deployed ZigBee wireless sensor network. Aggregated data are then retrieved by external queries over the built-in data integration system. In addition, embedded communication capabilities, including Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 and GPRS, allow local and remote users to access both gateway and remote data, as well as the Internet, and run site-specific management tools using authenticated smartphones. Field experiments provide convincing evidence that iPAGAT represents an important step forward in the development of distributed service-oriented information systems for precision viticulture applications.
- A framework for wireless sensor networks management for precision viticulture and agriculture based on IEEE 1451 standardPublication . Fernandes, Miguel A.; Matos, Samuel G.; Peres, Emanuel; Cunha, Carlos R.; López, Juan A.; Ferreira, Paulo Jorge S.G.; Reis, Manuel José Cabral dos Santos; Morais, RaulPrecision viticulture (PV) and precision agriculture (PA) requires the acquisition and proce ssing of a vast collection of data coming typically from large scale and heterogeneous sensor networks. Unfortunately, sensor integration is far from being simple due to the number of incompatible network specifications and platforms. The adoption of a common, standard communication interfa ce would allow the engineer to abstract the relation between the sensor and the network. This would reduce the development efforts and emerge as an important step towards the adoption of ‘‘plug-and-play’’ technology in PA/PV sensor networks. This paper explores this need and introduces a framework for smart data acquisition in PA/PV that relies on the IEEE 1451 family of standards, which addresses the transducer-to -network interoperability issues. The framework includes a ZigBee end device (sMPWiNodeZ), as an IEEE 1451 WTIM (Wireless Transducer Interface Module), and an IEEE 1451 NCAP (Network Capable Application Processor) that acts as gateway to an information service provider and WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) coordinator. The paper discusses the proposed IEEE 1451 system architecture and its benefits in PA/PV and closes with results/lessons learned from in-field trials towards smarter WSN.
- The use of mobile devices with multi-tag technologies for an overall contextualized vineyard managementPublication . Cunha, Carlos R.; Peres, Emanuel; Morais, Raul; Oliveira, Ana A.; Matos, Samuel G.; Fernandes, Miguel A.; Ferreira, Paulo Jorge S.G.; Reis, Manuel José Cabral dos SantosThis paper describes a Viticulture Service-Oriented Framework (VSOF) which turns around context elements or tags that are placed in the field and which can be decoded by mobile devices such as mobile phones or PDAs. The tags are used to automatically associate a field location to the relevant database tables or records and also to access contextual information or services. By pointing a mobile device to a tag, the viticulturalist may download data such as climatic data or upload information such as disease and pest incidence in a simple way, without having to provide coordinates or any other references, and without having to return to a central office. This work is part of an effort to implement a large-scale distributed cooperative network in the Douro Demarcated Region in Northeast Portugal, a region in which the effort makes particular sense due to the extremely variable topography and mesoclimates. The possibility of exchanging contextualized information and accessing contextualized services in the field, using well-known devices such as cell phones, may contribute to increase the rate of adoption of information technology in viticulture, and contribute to more efficient and closer-to-the-crops practices.