Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence for Smart Sustainable Agriculture

The main objective of this thesis work involves the improvement and disseminationof digitization in agriculture. In fact, in the near future, the agricultural sector iscalled upon to face a significant challenge due to increasingly scarce resources, extreme weather conditions, population growth, and the reduction of cultivable land. One solution is to transition from the old concept of agriculture to Smart Agriculture, with the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Despite the investments made in recent years to connect rural areas to the internet, a barrier to the digitization of agriculture is represented by limited radio connectivity in rural areas. Radio networks are essential for easily connecting sensors/actuators over large areas and enabling new modes of interaction between the real world and the digital world. The purpose of this research is to bring the Cloud closer to the agricultural environment, by developing IoT systems for data collection and processing directly in the field, at the edge of the network, in order to rationalize the natural resources employed, reduce pollution, and optimize agricultural production, also with the assistance of artificial intelligence. The basic idea of this research is to develop decision support systems that minimize traffic generated towards the Internet and both the costs and energy consumption of the devices used for monitoring and controlling farms.