107 research outputs found
Drones in Vegetable Crops: A Systematic Literature Review
In the context of increasing global population and climate change, modern agriculture must enhance production
efficiency. Vegetables production is crucial for human nutrition and has a significant environmental impact. To
address this challenge, the agricultural sector needs to modernize and utilize advanced technologies such as
drones to increase productivity, improve quality, and reduce resource consumption. These devices, known as
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), with their agility and versatility play a crucial role in monitoring and spraying
operations. They significantly contribute to enhancing the efficacy of precision farming.
The aim of this review is to examine the critical role of drones as innovative tools to enhance management and
yield of vegetable crops cultivation. This review was carried out using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic
Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) framework and involved the analysis of a wide range of research
published from 2018 to 2023. According to the phases of Identification, Screening, and Eligibility, 132 papers
were selected and analysed. These papers were categorized based on the types of drone applications in vegetable
crop production, providing an overview of how these tools fit into the field of Precision Farming. Technological
developments of these tools and data processing methods were then explored, examining the contributions of
Machine and Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Final considerations were presented regarding practical
implementation and future technical and scientific challenges to fully harness the potential of drones in precision
agriculture and vegetable crop production. The review pointed out the significance of drone applications in
vegetable crops and the immense potential of these tools in enhancing cultivation efficiency. Drone utilization
enables the reduction of input quantities such as herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides, and water but also the prevention
of damages through early diagnosis of various stress types. These input savings can yield environmental
benefits, positioning these technologies as potential solutions for the environmental sustainability of vegetable
crops
A multi objective approach to short food supply chain management
Conventional supply chains, involving several stages and various intermediaries, are affected by some wellknown forms of inefficiencies and drawbacks. Besides the increase of market price consequent to multiple marginalization, such supply chains generally suffer of significant post-harvest losses and product waste. In this context, short food supply chains have been recently proposed as different systems capable of delivering higher quality products while promoting sustainability and efficiency. Across the EU, a growing number of consumers choose to buy food products on local farmers' markets, associating local products with higher quality standards (freshness, nutritional value), healthy eating, more environment-friendly production methods and lower carbon footprint. Such elements seem to confirm a higher performance of short food supply chains (SFSCs) compared to traditional (long) chains in terms of sustainability and quality of products. Nevertheless, the performance of SFSCs is significantly affected by the local contexts and the market situations in which they operate. In particular, although SFSCs are localized in relatively small geographical areas, the elimination of intermediaries, such as distributors/packagers, and quality preserving processes generally results in shorter shelf-life of products. The management of such systems, hence, is focused on the problem of ensuring superior quality of local product at reasonable costs, without the possibility of employing advanced packaging solutions. Therefore, due to their peculiarities, SFSCs require proper logistic policies to cope with these problems, taking into account the variability of demand and the effects of seasonality. This paper in particular focuses on the logistics of SFSCs and proposes a methodology for optimal inventory management, with the aim to preserve the shelf-life of the products, and to ensure supply chain efficiency. The methodology developed is based on a multi-objective approach to inventory management in a serial two-echelon system. A numerical application is proposed in order to prove the effectiveness of the model
A novel system for measuring damaging impacts on table olives
The consumer today demands high quality products; fruit with defects or in poor condition generate dissatisfaction and a consequent reduction in consumption. In recent years, interesting systems have been used (i. e. "artificial fruit") in order to identify the cause of damage during mechanical harvesting and/or post-harvest operations. In this paper, the authors present a new system designed to measure the impacts received by table olives in the processing stages from harvesting to packaging. The device is an instrumented sphere designed and implemented by the Agricultural Mechanics Section of the Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Palermo, Italy. It contains a triaxial Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensor capable of acquiring acceleration from a few mg to 400 g (where g is the gravitational acceleration). It has a microcontroller with software developed for the specific application, a 16 bit A / D converter that allows a resolution of a few mg, a mini-USB port for connection to a master, which is connected to the PC via a common USB port. The master communicates with the sphere to download the data and to adjust parameters such as the data acquisition frequency, which can reach up to 1 kHz (50 Hz, 100 Hz, 400 Hz and 1 kHz). Preliminary tests performed on the functionality of the acquisition system show that the information obtained by the instrumented sphere are useful for identifying the stresses the fruits are subjected to during harvesting and post-harvest
Assessing the Effectiveness of Pruning in an Olive Orchard Using a Drone and a Multispectral Camera: A Three-Year Study
The uses of precision oliviculture have increased in recent years to improve the quality
and quantity of extra virgin olive oil. In traditional and intensive systems, biennial pruning is often
applied to balance and maintain plant vigour, aiming at reducing management costs. This study
presents the results of a three-year experiment with the objective of quantifying the effects of biennial
pruning on the vegetative vigour of olive trees, investigating the geometric and spectral characteristics
of each canopy determined with multispectral images acquired by UAV. The experiment was carried
out in an olive orchard located in western Sicily (Italy). Multispectral images were acquired using a
UAV in automatic flight configuration at an altitude of 70 m a.g.l. The segmentation and classification
of the images were performed using Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) based on the Digital
Elevation Model (DEM) and orthomosaic to extract the canopy area, height, volume and NDVI for
each plant. This study showed that the technology and image analysis processing used were able to
estimate vigour parameters at different canopy densities, compared to field measurements (R2 = 0.97
and 0.96 for canopy area and volume, respectively). Furthermore, it was possible to determine
the amount of removed biomass for each plant and vigour level. Biennial pruning decreased the
number of plants initially classified as LV (low-vigour) and maintained a vegetative balance for MV
(medium-vigour) and HV (high-vigour) plants, reducing the spatial variability in the field
Influence of grape transport and destemming systems on the quality of Chardonnay wines
The winemaking technology plays a very important role in enology as it directly influences the characteristics of wine. In particular, grape transport and destemming are critical steps in winemaking for the wine quality. The aim of this study was to compare two different processing lines of Chardonnay grapes to evaluate their effects on the quality of the final product. In particular, grapes receiving, transporting and destemming were performed using different machines in order to evaluate their influence on the quality of Chardonnay wines. The use of a receiving hopper equipped with a belt conveyor, followed by a destemmer equipped with partially coated rubber beaters, allowed to obtain Chardonnay wines of overall higher quality than using a receiving hopper equipped with a screw conveyor, followed by a destemmer equipped with steel beaters. The results were supported by chemical analyses on musts and wines and by the sensory analysis of the wines
A wireless sensor network for vineyard management in Sicily (Italy)
Wine quality depends on many factors, such as the choice of variety, stock, training system, pruning as well as environmental parameters and cultivation techniques performed in the vineyard. Monitoring the micro-climate of grapevine allows to conveniently perform the most important cultivation techniques (soil management, pesticide treatments, green pruning, harvest) thus reducing the operating costs of the vineyard, and increasing the overall quality of the grapes. The aim of the present study is to monitor the micro-climate of grapevine in order to control spring period hazards, to reduce the operating costs of the vineyard and to increase the quality of grapes. For this purpose a Wireless Sensor Network was used, and a comparison was performed between the data measured by wireless sensors and data provided by a fixed meteorological station of the local government agency (SIAS - Regione Siciliana). The results obtained here showed that, with reference to temperature, the data measured by wireless sensors are considerable different from the data of SIAS measuring station especially for temperatures above 20°C. With reference to relative humidity, there are no differences between the two types of sensors. Our study showed that the microclimate of the vineyard may be considerably different from the climate of the macro-area closest to the plot. Monitoring the micro-climate may thus be crucial as it may represent the key to a rational management of the vineyard, also with regard to a reduction of the costs of certain cultural operations. Keywords: vineyard, temperature, relative humidity, Wireless Sensor Network (WSN
Risk exposure to vibration and noise in the use of agricultural track-laying tractors
Human exposure to mechanical vibration may represent a significant risk factor for exposed workers in the agricultural sector. Also, noise in agriculture is one of the risk factors to be taken into account in the evaluation of workers’ health and safety. One of the major sources of discomfort for the workers operating a tractors is the noise to which they are exposed during work. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk of exposure to whole-body vibration for the operator driving track-laying tractors in vineyard orchard and the noise level. The experimental tests were performed with six different track-laying tractors coupled with the same rototilling machine. The results showed that the vibration values of track-laying tractors coupled to rototilling machine, referred to the 8-hour working day, were always higher than 0.5 m s-2, the daily exposure action value established by Directive 2002/44/EC of the European Parliament. The daily noise exposure levels always exceeded the exposure limit value of 87 dB(A) established by Directive 2003/10/EC of the European Parliament. The ANOVA repeated measures model showed that the factor ‘site’, namely, the soil characteristics, did not influence the vibration level on the X and Y-axes of the tractors measured, regardless of their age. In the Z-axis, the vibration level was enhanced as the soil structure increased. As tractor age increased, the influence of soil characteristics was less important. In term of the age of the tractor and the number of hours worked, it was possible to identify three risk classes, which were up to 3,000 hours worked and offered a low risk; from 3,000 – 6,000 hours worked with a medium risk, and over 6,000 hours with a high risk level
Design and implementation of a smart system to control aromatic herb dehydration process
Drying is a process aimed at reducing the water content in plant materials below a limit
where the activity of microbes and decomposing enzymes deteriorate the quality of medicinal and
aromatic plants. Today, the interest of consumers towards medicinal and aromatic herbs has registered
a growing trend. This study aims at designing a low-cost real-time monitoring and control system for
the drying process of aromatic herbs and evaluating drying ecacy on the microbial community
associated with the studied herbs. Hot-air drying tests of sage and laurel leaves were carried out
in a dryer desiccator cabinet at 40
C and 25% relative humidity using three biomass densities
(3, 4 and 5 kg/m
2
). The prototype of the smart system is based on an Arduino Mega 2560 board,
to which nine Siemens 7MH5102-1PD00 load cells and a DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor
were added. The data acquired by the sensors were transmitted through Wi-Fi to a ThingSpeak
account in order to monitor the drying process in real time. The variation in the moisture content of
the product and the drying rate were obtained. The system provided a valid support decision during
the drying process, allowing for the precise monitoring of the evolution of the biomass moisture
loss and drying rate for laurel and sage. The three dierent biomass densities employed did not
provide significant dierences in the drying process for sage. Statistically significant dierences
among the three tests were found for laurel in the final part of the process. The microbial loads of the
aromatic herbs after drying were influenced by the dierent leaf structures of the species; in particular,
with laurel leaves, microbial survival increased with increasing biomass density. Finally, with the
drying method adopted, the two species under consideration showed a dierent microbial stability
and, consequently, had a dierent shelf life, longer for sage than laurel, as also confirmed by water
activity (aw) values
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