The validation phase of an innovative platform of telecontrol systems and management of agricultural irrigation zones begins
After three years of intense work, the IoT @ AS project (Internet of Things & AgroSpaces) starts the validation phase of an innovative open and intelligent platform for telecontrol systems and management of agricultural irrigation areas, which solves the problems of interoperability , efficiency and connectivity of existing systems.
Four Spanish companies (Egatel, Odin Solutions, Isotron and Tragsa) have collaborated in this project, with financial support from the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) through the Feder-Innterconecta program.
The solutions obtained apply new communication technologies -including the Internet of Things (IoT) – and interoperable and low production cost protocols to the integral and efficient management of water and energy in agricultural environments. Its target areas are Galicia, Andalusia and Murcia, although it is proposed that innovative solutions may be implantable in the rest of Spain and internationally marketable.
Recently, the platform has been presented to the Community of Irrigators of Genil-Cabra, in Córdoba, where the first field tests have been successfully carried out through which ‘remote’ partners (OdinS, Tragsa e Isotron) that can be coordinated by an ‘interoperable software’ based on MEGA or NGSI / FIWARE developed by Tragsa and OdinS. These remote also offer the possibility of being connected through new mobile networks 5G and NB-IoT (OdinS) and via satellite (EGATEL) as has been demonstrated for the pumping station in stations where there is no other type of coverage.
Until next June, new field tests will be carried out in the Community of Regantes de Valle Inferior (Seville), to validate the solutions resulting from the project and continue studying their adaptability to the needs of each community.
Need for modernization
Agriculture is one of the most important economic and social sectors in Spain -where it concentrates more than 8% of GDP- as well as in Europe and most countries in the Americas, Asia and Africa. Hence the need to have innovative solutions that allow an efficient management of water for irrigation, capable of dealing with factors such as climate change and sustainability.
The IoT @ AS project was born in 2006 from the observation that current technological solutions do not fully cover the needs of irrigation communities and limit their capacities, by not allowing joint management of water and energy.
Through the solutions obtained, framed in the challenge of intelligent agriculture, the homogenization of the operation of the different irrigation systems is achieved through the MEGA standard, the implementation of technologies that allow monitoring them to collect data in real time to improve the decision making and remote management using wireless technologies.
