Browsing by Author "Morais, Raul"
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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.
- Concept study of an implantable microsystem for electrical resistance and temperature measurements in dairy cows, suitable for estrus detectionPublication . Morais, Raul; Valente, António; Almeida, José Carlos; Silva, Amélia M.; Soares, Salviano; Reis, Manuel José Cabral dos Santos; Valentim, Ramiro; Azevedo, JorgeIn cattle breeding industry, where artificial insemination techniques are employed, the successful detection of estrus onset leads to considerable cost-saving in herd management. One of the most reliable approaches is based on the determination of progesterone concentration in milk. However, these methods rely on the biosensor concept where a biological substrate is used in a chemical-binding reaction to directly or indirectly produce some effect (electrical or light) that is used at the transducer level. These methods present several drawbacks concerning real-time measurements due to the complexity of the reactions involved and reagent/waste handling. Another approach is to combine measurements of temperature and electrical resistance of reproductive tissues to predict estrus. Using a low-power microsystem with wireless capabilities it is possible to take these measurements in situ and more frequently. The proposed microsystem comprises a second-order delta–sigma modulator for analog-to-digital conversion and a class-E radio-frequency (RF) transmitter operating in the ISM-band of 433MHz to transfer acquired data to a collar. Electrical resistance is measured by using a modifiedWenner array and temperature by the on-chip temperature sensor. System (including battery and antenna) package is made of a tissue-compatible material to allow implantation in the cow’s vulvar muscle. Since estrus prediction is based on relative changes of the two correlated parameters, calibration is not necessary. Some preliminary results regarding the measuring concept are presented.
- Contextualized ubiquity: a new opportunity for rendering business information and servicesPublication . Cunha, Carlos R.; Peres, Emanuel; Morais, Raul; Bessa, Maximino; Reis, Manuel José Cabral dos SantosStating that information and services are ubiquitous, means that they are available anywhere, anytime. The development of mobile-devices with wireless network-access capabilities, together with the decrease in network-traffic costs and the proliferation of free wireless hotspots, makes the use of mobile-devices, as Internet access tools, increasingly common and attractive. With novel forms of presenting information and to provide new ways to interact with consumers, new business strategies can be boosted, in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and m-commerce. This paper describes a different approach to the relationship between customers and business-providers, based on contextualization mechanisms located in commercial products, which in turn acts as a gateway to static tag-embedded information as well as web-based information and services. A wine integrated management system, called SIGPV, is presented as a proof-of-concept, enumerating some of possible major business and CRM benefits.
- Contextualized ubiquity: a new opportunity for rendering business information and servicesPublication . Cunha, Carlos R.; Peres, Emanuel; Morais, Raul; Bessa, Maximino; Reis, Manuel José Cabral dos SantosUbiquitous information and services means that they are available anywhere and anytime. The development of mobile-devices with wireless network-access capabilities, together with the decrease in network-traffic costs and the proliferation of free wireless hotspots, makes the use of mobile-devices, as Internet access tools, increasingly common and attractive. With novel forms of presenting information and to provide new ways to interact with consumers, new business strategies can be boost, in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and E-Commerce. This paper describes a different approach to the relationship between customers and business-providers, based on contextualization mechanisms, located in user-consuming real-world objects. A Wine Integrated Management System, called SIGPV, is presented as a proof-of-concept, enumerating some of possible major business and CRM benefits.
- Enhancing tourism through viticulture enterprises in Douro Region: The Inov@Douro modelPublication . Cunha, Carlos R.; Peres, Emanuel; Morais, Raul; Reis, Manuel José Cabral dos SantosThis paper describes a business and technological model proposal, known as Inov@Douro, intended to support and to promote competitive and sustained precision agriculture practices in the Portuguese Douro Region. Our approach is based on a distributed cooperative network, tailored to meet the specific needs of viticulture enterprises which also explore tourism as a valuable national and international business source. We present the Inov@Douro model from the knowledge generation point-of-view, intended to support the multidisciplinary concept of a cooperation approach among regional partners. This model aims to represent a new working style for this unique region. As a guideline to attain the implementation of such a model, information technology and infrastructures tools are discussed in order to promote precision agriculture practices while giving valuable and dynamic tourist information to the general public.
- 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.
- Path planning for automatic recharging system for steep-slope vineyard robotsPublication . Santos, Luís; Santos, Filipe Neves; Mendes, Jorge; Ferraz, Nuno; Lima, José; Morais, Raul; Costa, PedroDevelop cost-effective ground robots for crop monitoring in steep slope vineyards is a complex challenge. The terrain presents harsh conditions for mobile robots and most of the time there is no one available to give support to the robots. So, a fully autonomous steep-slope robot requires a robust automatic recharging system. This work proposes a multilevel system that monitors a vineyard robot autonomy, to plan off-line the trajectory to the nearest recharging point and dock the robot on that recharging point considering visual tags. The proposed system called VineRecharge was developed to be deployed into a cost-effective robot with low computational power. Besides, this paper benchmarks several visual tags and detectors and integrates the best one into the VineRecharge system.
- The Inov@Douro cooperative network: shaping collaboration among Douro Region viticulture companies focusing tourismPublication . Cunha, Carlos R.; Peres, Emanuel; Morais, Raul; Reis, Manuel José Cabral dos SantosThis paper describes a business and technological model proposal, known as Inov@Douro, intended to support and to promote competitive and sustained precision agriculture practices in the Portuguese Douro Region. Our approach is based on a distributed cooperative network, tailored to meet the specific needs of viticulture enterprises which also explore tourism as a valuable national and international business source. Instead of focusing on operational issues, such as remote sensing and data transmission, among others, we present the Inov@Douro model from the knowledge generation point-of-view, intended to support the multidisciplinary concept of a cooperation approach among regional partners. As a result, this collaborative approach might be the most suited technological tool to promote precision agriculture sustainability practices based on a symbiotic cooperation with the tourism sector. The Inov@Douro model aims to represent a new working style for this unique region, where the concept of public and private information is a key feature to achieve the desired success as a knowledge network. As a guideline to attain the implementation of such a model, information technology and infrastructures tools are discussed in order to promote precision agriculture practices while giving valuable and dynamic tourist information to the general public.
- 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.
- Utilization of bioelectrical impedance to predict intramuscular fat and physicochemical traits of the beef longissimus thoracis et lumborum musclePublication . Afonso, João; Guedes, Cristina M.; Santos, Virgínia; Morais, Raul; Silva, Josa; Teixeira, Alfredo; Silva, SeverianoThe bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is a non-destructive technique that has been successfully used to assess the body and carcass composition of farm species. This study aimed to predict intramuscular fat (IMF) and physicochemical traits in the longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscle (LM) of beef, using BIA. These traits were evaluated in LM samples of 52 crossbred heifer carcasses. The BIA was performed in LM, using a 50 Hz frequency high precision impedance converter system. A correlation analysis of the studied variables was performed. Then a stepwise with a k-folds cross validation procedure was used to modelling the prediction of IMF and physicochemical traits from BIA parameters (24.5%CV47.3%). Wide variation was found for IMF and BIA parameters. In general, correlations of BIA parameters with IMF and physicochemical traits were moderate to high and were similar for all BIA parameters (ô0.50r0.50 only for total pigments, a∗ and pH48). It was possible to predict IMF and physicochemical traits from BIA. The best fit explained 79.3% of the variation in IMF, while for physicochemical traits the best fits were for sarcomere length and shear force (64.4% and 60.5%, respectively). The results confirmed the potential of BIA for objective measurement of meat quality.