INGENIEUR
INGENIEUR
and machine learning , into the agricultural setting . To modernise and enhance agriculture , it is essential to understand the relationship between the industrial and agricultural revolutions . This phenomenon can be attributed to the synchronicity between agricultural revolutions and industrial revolutions in recent times [ 3 ]. The progress in agriculture is closely aligned with advancements in science and technology , and it is swiftly integrating IR4.0 technologies to develop a new model known as Agriculture 4.0 . Agriculture can be envisaged as a kind of industrial production , able to tag on the benefits from the successive industrial revolutions . Smart farms are the initial sign of IR4.0 happening in farming . Smart farms are similar to smart factories that pursue the interconnection of modern technologies such as the Internet of Things ( IoT ), robots and sophisticated systems like Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) and machine learning within agricultural fields . Modern vegetable production is a type of sophisticated agriculture in which intelligent technologies and systems aid in carrying out tedious jobs such as planting , crop monitoring , pesticide applicating , and harvesting . Grading processes can be helped by smart machines and intelligent systems .
Seed Sowing Robot
Planting begins with getting seedlings ready in the media before moving them to the production area . This is called the plant nursery system . The nursery uses a variety of media , and MARDI uses Ezgrow technology , which is a peat block designed specifically for the nursery . Moist peat , cocopeat , slow-release fertilisers , and other components necessary for plant growth make up Peat Block Ezgrow , a comprehensive media formulation . All plant types , including foliage , fruit , and flowering plants , can benefit from peat block Ezgrow .
The Ezygrow peat blocks may be automatically seeded with vegetable seeds thanks to a seedsowing gantry system . The “ 3-axis Cartesian ” robotics system ( see Figure 1 ), which is the foundation of the seed-sowing gantry system , determines the planting of seeds according to media co-ordinates . The mechanical , electrical , and control systems make up the system . Round ,
Figure 1 : Seed sowing gantry robotics system
coated seeds in a variety of sizes can be sown with this equipment . It is also possible to utilise the seed-sowing gantry system for other plant seeds , like those from fruits and flowers . Peat blocks of ¾ inch , 1 inch , and 1.5 inches can be seeded . For IoT systems with connectivity components installed in the Human Machine Interface ( HMI ) control system , the seed-sowing gantry system is also available .
Smart Crop Monitoring System
In practice , farmers usually make visual assessments for crop monitoring to guarantee that tomatoes are selected at the ideal level of maturity for commercialisation . With IR4.0 , one way to improve the effectiveness of current traditional methods is through the deployment of AI technology . The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry ( MAFI ) has developed a categorisation model for establishing the tomato ripeness index specifically for greenhouse tomato cultivation through the IR4.0 project initiative . Through the use of patterns or trends in the data it learns from , AI technology enables computers to make decisions that are similar to those made by humans . Data is essential to the development of any AI model and an AI model ’ s accuracy may drop in the absence of appropriate data , making the model less capable
44 VOL 99 JULY - SEPTEMBER 2024