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Michigan State University
215 Farrall Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: 517-355-4720
Fax: 517-432-2892
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Taking a More "Sensor"tive Approach
by: Dr. Dan Guyer
The Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department (BAE), along with the USDA-ARS Engineering Unit located at MSU, have been involved with a developing national effort to bring focus and resources to automation and sensor applications for specialty crops. The goal of this effort, entitled the Technology Roadmap, is to significantly reduce production input costs, such as time, labor, spray material, etc. In this age of global competition for markets, greater potential for profitability gains likely exist on the input/production end of the spectrum than increasing prices. The agricultural industry, especially most fruit and vegetable specialty crops, face challenges of availability of labor and profitability; and this was true even before the current heightened issues surrounding immigration. Sensing and sensors hold promise as tools to help these industries remain globally competitive.
Sensors are definitely not new to agriculture. Some examples include the monitoring of environmental parameters and events which can be incorporated into models to help producers conduct more effective irrigation or pest control programs. Sensors are being used in conjunction with field crop harvesters to monitor yield and combined with information in Graphical Information Systems (GIS) to help producers manage their field on a higher resolution or more precise scale. Additionally, researchers and commercial electronics companies have worked to incorporate various types of sensors into the postharvest grading and sorting of fruits and vegetables and MSU and USDA-ARS have been very much involved in such research and development including concepts to optically evaluate internal characteristics of commodities.
The BAE department and USDA-ARS unit at East Lansing are looking to expand their sensor development capabilities beyond postharvest applications and work toward developing projects in the area of sensor applications to increase production efficiency which is in the scope of the Technology Roadmap. This could involve sensors that support automation aimed at worker efficiency or could be sensors that improve site specific knowledge about a production site and in-turn help reduce production inputs such as spray material. A grant through Project GREEEN works with various Michigan commodity industries to more specifically identify areas where sensors could potentially reduce their input costs. Such sensors will likely have a biological component and thus their development will require understanding in electronics as well as plant, insect, and/or environmental physiology, parameters and their relationships. It is envisioned such sensors might have the capability to automatically monitor pest populations or monitor specific tree health and provide this information to a centrally located information gathering site. Dealing with biological conditions and the related significant variability will be a challenge; however, reducing input costs are of important value to the agricultural industry in Michigan and the U.S.
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