AGRO4-5G, which stands for Agro-4.0 based on 5G, is a Vertical Experiment for the IMAGINE-B5G Spanish test-facility from the partners QAMPO. It is one of 15 projects that were selected for the first Open Call of Imagine-B5G.
Precision agriculture allows us to anticipate and base our crop management decisions on measurable and objective information, avoiding making decisions based solely on intuition.
QAMPO provides farmers with remote and real-time information about the status of their crops, such as root activity, soil humidity, nutrient levels, and weather conditions. This information is obtained by combining data from sensors and stations installed on the fields, climatic stations, soil analysis, and satellite images. QAMPO processes this data and provides it with a context, so that farmers can make informed and timely decisions based on objective and measurable data, rather than intuition.
QAMPO also tests the feasibility of using 5G technologies in agriculture IoT deployments, by evaluating aspects such as energy consumption, coverage, network performance, and management capabilities. By using 5G, QAMPO aims to improve the reliability, scalability, and efficiency of the IoT devices and data transmission. During the project they will provide, install, and maintain 8 ground stations to get data related with roots activity, humidity and nutrition; and 4 weather stations to get data related to the more useful weather parameters in terms of agriculture management. These stations will be deployed at Matanza (Soria), Madrid, and Valencia.
The proposed solution will impact IMAGINE-B5G in different ways:
- Management level: leverages advanced 5G features, such as network slicing and Network as a Code, to adapt the communication needs of the IoT devices according to the crop context. This allows for remote and dynamic configuration of the network parameters, which reduces the operational costs and improves the efficiency of the data transmission.
- Societal level: promotes the inclusiveness of rural areas, where mobile network coverage is often poor or absent. By providing access to smart agriculture services, QAMPO encourages the younger generations of farmers to stay in their lands and benefit from the technological innovations.
- Technical level: a comprehensive Agro 4.0 solution that covers the entire value chain of the smart agriculture system, from the sensors that measure the crop parameters, to the algorithms that analyze the data and provide recommendations, using advanced 5G features, such as network slicing and ultra-reliable low-latency communication, to ensure that the data transmission and processing meet the requirements of the agricultural applications.
- Vertical Area(s): these experiments and pilots are needed to explore other aspects of the Agro 4.0, such as real-time control, wireless operation, noise immunity, cable reduction, and microtube elimination. These aspects can improve the efficiency, quality, and sustainability of the agricultural processes and attract more stakeholders in the Agrotech sector to adopt the 5G and 6G features.
This project has already started its work in the IMAGINE-B5G first open call. If you want to learn more about this and the other selected projects stay tuned to our website and our social media channels.
