SBIR Phase I: Smart Sensor for Precision Agriculture

这一小型企业创新研究(SBIR)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是改善目前农业中的喷洒做法。低效的作物喷洒造成漂移，这可能会导致作物受损或在邻近的非目标作物地区使用不必要的杀虫剂。它可能会污染附近的水体或对人类健康构成问题。我们公司将通过实施闭环传感器系统来解决这一问题，该系统将远程连续和实时地确定喷涂机的效率和材料的喷涂模式。农民将受益于减少过度喷洒造成的浪费材料的成本，同时感到安全，不会受到由于喷洒不足而造成的虫害和真菌感染。最初的目标客户是大型果园、葡萄园和树木农场。这些农民通常使用喷气式喷雾器，效率很低，浪费了大约45%的材料。这些化学物质要么落在地上，污染地面，要么污染空气。采用我们建议的设备的大型农场的所有者将节省大量的化学成本，还可以避免因化学品漂移到邻近的农场、公共道路或非农业区而造成的后果。该SBIR第一阶段项目建议将一项新技术引入农业部门。这项技术以前主要是在学术界和政府部门为复杂和尖端的应用而构建的。我们希望在提供新功能的同时降低技术的规模和成本。它将被用作一种新的和改进的校准方法，取代目前乏味且经常被忽视的过程。此外，传感器将被集成为一个闭环系统，用于自动喷雾器的调整。一个完整的软件解决方案将伴随着硬件，以便让非科学社区能够接触到它。该项目将证明我们的技术在快速发展的农业技术领域具有竞争力的潜力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to improve the current spraying practices in agriculture. Inefficient crop spraying causes drift which can lead to crop damage or unwanted pesticide use in neighboring non-target crop areas. It may contaminate nearby bodies of water or be an issue for human health. Our company would solve this through the implementation of a closed loop sensor system which would remotely determine the efficiency of sprayer machines and the spray pattern of the material continuously and in real time. Farmers will benefit through reduced costs of wasted materials resulting from over-spraying, while feeling safe against pest and fungus infestation resulting from under-spraying. The initial intended customers are large orchards, vineyards and tree farms. Those farmers generally use airblast sprayers which are highly inefficient and waste about 45% of the material. Those chemicals either hit the ground and contaminate it or pollute the air. An owner of a large farm that implements our proposed device will save a significant amount on chemical costs and also avoids the consequences due to drift of chemicals onto neighboring farms, public roads, or non-agricultural areas. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to introduce a new technology to the agricultural sector. This technology has been previously built for complex and sophisticated applications in mostly academia and government sectors. We look to provide a new functionality while reducing the size and cost of the technology. It would be used as a new and improved method of calibration, replacing a tedious and often ignored current process. Furthermore, the sensor would be integrated as a closed loop system for autonomous sprayer adjustments. A complete software solution would accompany the hardware in order to make it approachable to the non-scientific community. This project will prove the potential of our technology as a competitive player in the rapidly growing ag-tech field.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.