University Spin-off Creation by Spanish Researchers in Agricultural Engineering

This paper describes how a team of university professors and graduate students created a technology-based company (spin-off) to as a means to deliver their research findings to the agricultural sector. The spin-off company was based on the use of new methodologies, equipment, instrumentation and sensors initially developed for various research projects. Successful field tests and positive feedback from farmers initially prompted the development of the spin-off. The spin-off progress has been observed and recorded from the idea phase through the company start-up until the second round of financing (October 2007 to January 2010). Since limited time scales are commonly found in agriculture, the spin-off company provided a way to deliver timely research results to the agricultural community. Although university research results may eventually end up in the agricultural sector, in many cases this process requires a lot of bureaucracy and time. Spin-off companies can be flexible tools to transfer this knowledge and technology to the agricultural sector, as well as providing direct career opportunities for graduate students and PhD students

Design of a Soil Cutting Resistance Sensor for Application in Site-Specific Tillage

One objective of precision agriculture is to provide accurate information about soil and crop properties to optimize the management of agricultural inputs to meet site-specific needs. This paper describes the development of a sensor equipped with RTK-GPS technology that continuously and efficiently measures soil cutting resistance at various depths while traversing the field. Laboratory and preliminary field tests verified the accuracy of this prototype soil strength sensor. The data obtained using a hand-operated soil cone penetrometer was used to evaluate this field soil compaction depth profile sensor. To date, this sensor has only been tested in one field under one gravimetric water content condition. This field test revealed that the relationships between the soil strength profile sensor (SSPS) cutting force and soil cone index values are assumed to be quadratic for the various depths considered: 0–10, 10–20 and 20–30 cm (r2 = 0.58, 0.45 and 0.54, respectively). Soil resistance contour maps illustrated its practical value. The developed sensor provides accurate, timely and affordable information on soil properties to optimize resources and improve agricultural economyMinistry of Science and Innovation RTA2006-00058-C03-0

Safety functional requirements for “Robot Fleets for Highly effective Agriculture and Forestry Management”

This paper summarizes the steps to be followed in order to achieve a safety verified design of RHEA robots units. It provides a detailed description of current international standards as well as scientific literature related to safety analysis and fault detection and isolation. A large committee of partners has been involved in this paper, which may be considered as a technical committee for the revision of the progress of safety development throughout the progress of RHEA project. Partners related to agricultural machinery, automation, and application development declare the interest of providing a stable framework for bringing the safety verification level required to be able to commercial unmanned vehicles such as those described in the RHEA flee

Apoyo a la toma de decisiones para la mejora de la gestión en explotaciones agroforestales

La agricultura actual se encuentra inmersa en un proceso acelerado de actualización y adaptación a un modelo digital de trabajo que se extiende imparable a lo largo de toda la cadena agroalimentaria. Parte de esta evolución viene marcada por la incorporación de las TIC (tecnologías de la información y la comunicación), y por la disponibilidad de nuevas soluciones de hardware y software que están cambiando la forma de trabajar en el campo mediante la monitorización de las labores agrícolas y el análisis de los datos generados en las explotaciones

Phenotypic Variation and Bistable Switching in Bacteria

Microbial research generally focuses on clonal populations. However, bacterial cells with identical genotypes frequently display different phenotypes under identical conditions. This microbial cell individuality is receiving increasing attention in the literature because of its impact on cellular differentiation, survival under selective conditions, and the interaction of pathogens with their hosts. It is becoming clear that stochasticity in gene expression in conjunction with the architecture of the gene network that underlies the cellular processes can generate phenotypic variation. An important regulatory mechanism is the so-called positive feedback, in which a system reinforces its own response, for instance by stimulating the production of an activator. Bistability is an interesting and relevant phenomenon, in which two distinct subpopulations of cells showing discrete levels of gene expression coexist in a single culture. In this chapter, we address techniques and approaches used to establish phenotypic variation, and relate three well-characterized examples of bistability to the molecular mechanisms that govern these processes, with a focus on positive feedback.

Estudio, desarrollo y aplicación de técnicas de agricultura de precisión en maquinaria agrícola

Precision agriculture applied to machinery is today one of the most important working fields regarding agriculture innovations. These tools are meant to be a propeller of the future of farming, well needed in order to face the challenges of modern society, a global increasing food demand while providing a sustainable management of natural resources. Available technology on this field covers a wide range of possibilities. During the last 10 years, together with the expansion of electronics and digitalization, the offer of products and technics have become quite rich and it generates, in some cases, difficulties to farmers in order to choose the more adequate solution to their production scenarios. For this reason, this doctoral thesis will focus on the study, develop and validation of two of the most important disciplines in precision agriculture: GNSS guidance and site-specific application. Today’s most important and extended technology in precision agriculture is the use of GNSS guidance systems. Those systems allow the vehicle to be driven automatically, by taken control of guidance interface, resulting in important reductions of the overlap between parallel passes. This reduction impacts directly the time invested on the task, but also all the inputs used. However, the maximum precision reached will depend on the GNSS technology used, as a combination of the receiver installed on the vehicle and the external signals used to enhance the calculations. How to evaluate and classify the technology used to improve GNSS positioning and recommendations on the specific use of them in determinate agriculture applications will be the scope of this thesis. A second field of work is focussed in one of the most promising technologies within precision farming, site specific application. This doctoral thesis has developed a procedure to achieve the characterization of soil properties along and across the profile, allowing a variable tillage. This results not only on important saves during the task but also on better and sustainable soil management. Site specific application of herbicide has been as well part of studies, where significant saves on chemicals were achieved thanks to the assessment and development of a combined, chemical and mechanical, weed control implement commanded by a RTK-GNSS system

Evaluación de la precisión de un sistema de ayuda al guiado de tractores por GPS

El principal objetivo perseguido es el de reducir la atención del operario para realizar la conducción, de forma que pueda centrarse en la tarea que está realizando. Aunque se han mejorado las características y confort de la cabina, con el tiempo, también se han ido incrementando la velocidad y anchura de trabajo y la potencia de la maquinaria. Por lo tanto, sigue siendo interesante desarrollar sistemas de guiado que realicen esta actividad con la precisión de un conductor experimentado, pero con la ventaja de no fatigarse después de horas de trabajo. Dentro de los sistemas que utilizan la tecnología DGPS, encontramos dos grandes grupos: • Sistemas de guiado automático de vehículos, que reducen al mínimo la intervención del operario en el control de la dirección, pero que tienen el inconveniente de apoyarse en otros sistemas complementarios para aumentar la precisión, con el consecuente incremento del coste. • Sistemas de ayuda al guiado, formados generalmente por la combinación de receptores DGPS de bajo coste y sistemas de barra de luce