Un sistema innovativo applicabile all'agricoltura di precisione

Nowadays manufacturers of agricultural machines produce electronic systems for monitoring field operations which are compatible with GPS systems. Unfortunately, the communication protocols and data link interfaces among the various system components are not standardised. Therefore, each manufacturer produced spare parts, which are compatible only with their own electronic devices. Thus the system components produced by different manufacturers are incompatible with each other and result very expensive. The Dipartimento I.T.A.F. (Department of Engineering and Technologies in Agriculture and Forestry) of Palermo University is developing an electronic system, which is compatible with most GPS instruments, yield sensors and electronic systems for applying variable rates of herbicides and fertilsers proportionally related to the machine forward speed. This system is essentially constituted by a software, built with the aim of: receiving and interpreting GPS position data in standard communication protocol NMEA 0183, linking them with the related crop input rates according to application maps, and transmitting control inputs to the active and monitoring systems; producing yield maps, by linking the position data with the signals transmitted by the sensors mounted on the harvesting machine.