Sensors - Agri-EPI Centre - Engineering Precision Innovation

Sensors

The use of sensors is an increasing part of novel farming technology. Feeding back data for analysis on a wide range of different areas, both for plant and animal monitoring and analysis of behaviour in different environments. Supporting the evolution of modern farming techniques, at Agri-EPI we explore and deliver precision farming engineering, technology and innovation in UK agriculture across soil, crops and livestock.

Agri-tech solutions for sustainable farming

At Agri-EPI Centre, we help to develop robust and commercially viable solutions to empower more sustainable farms. From bespoke validation trials to system and product development, we are a collaborator of choice for agri-tech developers, start-ups through to established companies.

We are open to new projects and partnerships that use agri-tech in both funded and private research which are focused on the health and welfare of soil, crops and animals in order to:

• increase efficiency

• enhance environmental sustainability

• ensure productivity and farm business sustainability

We provide a set of services to assist in the creation of agri-tech products through either commercial or grant funded projects. We assist in the development process through a strong technical team combining with a world class set of equipment and facilities.

Balancing productivity with environmental and business sustainability is a challenge at farm level, which will only become more scrutinised. We believe healthy soils provide a foundation for a resilient agri-food sector.

Relevant and affordable agri-tech has a part to play in supporting a sustainable farming system, whether its software to automate data capture, manage inputs and outputs for better decision making or hardware to optimise current processes, increase efficiencies, reduce emissions and provide precision application.

Agri-EPI is here to help with your tech development and offers the following resources.

Read more below:

Sustainable farming brochure

Spectral imaging for the agriculture industry

Spectral imaging as a general concept combines characteristics of imaging and spectroscopy technologies. Optical spectral imaging particularly makes use of visible, near infrared and short-wave infrared spectral range, has been demonstrated to be a very powerful tool in identifying, classifying, and mapping specific targets across whole scenery image in various application scenarios.

Spectral Imaging is especially useful in the agricultural domain, where crop/vegetation in different conditions has unique spectral characteristics. With more robust and rugged imaging product integrated with various platforms, agri-tech has been undertaking revolutionary improvements for remote sensed inspection. Multispectral imaging, hyperspectral imaging, and SIF (solar-induced fluorescence) imaging can be broadly derived depending on spectral bands and resolution needed.

Eliot Dixon, Head of Engineering at Agri-EPI Centre said:
“We have established a strong sensing team within the company, able to deploy a range of spectral imagers into agriculture including some exciting unique capabilities. With our contextual farm data, storage facilities and analysis tools this is a key data service for developers which is available to all.”

Multispectral Imaging
The advantage of multi-spectral imaging is that it extends human sight sensitivity beyond visible spectrum. Some wavelengths that are widely recognized for particular applications, such as normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI), can be deployed into multi-spectral imaging. Nonetheless, it has been proven to be very useful in many other fields, greatly empowering advancement of agriculture. And the adoption of UAV has made it possible to make large-scale mapping and thus better agricultural management.

Agri-EPI Centre has invested MicaSense Altum sensor covering RGB, NIR, Red Edge and LWIR, which can be operated easily on VTOL UAV platform.

With this multi-spectral imaging system, several important vegetation indexes such as red edge, NDVI, can be quickly collected and mapped across survey fields.

Hyperspectral Imaging
Hyperspectral imaging captures images at hundreds of wavelengths, creating a detailed spectral signature of objects and materials. Compared to multispectral imagery, hyperspectral imagery measures energy in narrower and more numerous bands, thus giving much more information on target. Hyperspectral image data is a datacube, where each pixel holds full spectrum across the range. Since spectra are as unique as ‘fingerprint’ to target, hyperspectral imagery can unveil features that multispectral may miss out.

Agri-EPI Centre has invested in a range of hyperspectral imaging systems. Read below for more:

Spectral imaging brochure

Virtual fencing for livestock: Nofence

Nofence began in a small Norwegian town named Batnfjordsøra, many years ago when their Founder and CTO, Oscar Hovde, set about making his idea of virtual fencing for livestock a reality. As the concept grew, so did the interest. The man with a plan soon became people with a purpose: getting animals out on pasture where they belong. And with the help of their customers whose input, innovation, and patience continue to be an integral part of their product development, Oscar’s idea blossomed. Today, NoFence are a team of international professionals with a set of shared goals: to support livestock farmers, improve animal welfare, and restore the fertility of our soil.

Nofence has created the world’s first virtual fencing for livestock: using GPS and cellular communication technology built into special collars to help farmers graze animals on pasture without the need for traditional penning and electric fences. Their vision is to improve animal welfare and make it easier for farmers to rear animals, as well as promote sustainable food production and help people to make better use of pasture resources throughout the world.

NoFence is one of the many agri-tech innovators in residence at Agri-EPI Centre’s Midlands Agri-Tech Innovation Hub, where the availability of all kinds of agricultural expertise and access to commercial farms for trials and research offers practical benefits to their agri-tech solutions. Since joining the Midlands hub in April 2021, Nofence has expanded with 7 new employees and has increased its customer base from 25 to over 400 at present. From distributing their first 400 collars in 2021, they are now at over 6500+ and have been featured on BBC Countryfile, BBC One show and GB News.

Read the Nofence case study below for more information:

Nofence 

 

Kayleigh Breen joins Agri-EPI Centre as Agricultural Laboratory Technician

Agri-EPI has recently hired an Agricultural Laboratory Technician to join their technical team. Kayleigh Breen comes from an academic background in Applied Bioscience and Forensics and previously worked in science-based roles for over 5 years. These were based largely in the pharmaceutical industry at companies such as AMRI and Sartorius and extended to Covid-19 testing during the pandemic.

Kayleigh’s role is helping to develop the current laboratory and technical facilities which are based in Agri-EPI’s Northern Agri-Tech Hub using existing instrumentation or bringing in new equipment where required. Some instrumentation already in place includes the Voice200 Syft Mass Spectrometer capable of highly sensitive, selective and non-discriminatory semi/ volatile organic compound analysis of air, water and soil samples, the TA.XT Plus 100C Texture Analyser capable of analysing various food, soil and animal feed samples for things such as consistency and shearing resistance, and also the NIRFlex N-500 FT-NIR Spectrometer used to analyse food, beverage and animal feed samples for moisture, macronutrients and protein content.

Her aim is to provide in-house and on-site testing of various sample types depending on project and partner requirements, such as soil, water and air samples, extending to animal products such as wool or faecal sample analysis.

Kayleigh said:

“This will be a substantial undertaking, but I am looking forward to the challenge and am keen to transform the lab into something that will actively benefit the business and projects moving forward.”

Tackling Ash Dieback Disease with agri-tech

Ash Dieback Disease (ADD) is a destructive disease of Ash trees, especially England’s native Ash species, that threatens forestry productivity and biodiversity in the UK. ADD was first detected in the UK in 2012 and is forecast to eventually kill 80% of UK ash trees, at a predicted cost of £15bn, with £7.6 billion being the estimate for the next 10years (Hill et al., 2019).

As one of England’s most useful and versatile native tree species, Ash provides an important commercial revenue stream to Ash growers who produce Ash across the UK. Ash timber is strong, durable, and flexible, with a wide range of practical uses such as tool handles, flooring, furniture, and joinery. Ash provides valuable habitat for a wide range of dependent species. It grows in a variety of soils and climatic conditions. The ‘airy’ nature of its foliage allows light to penetrate to the woodland floor, encouraging ground plants and fauna. Several insects, other invertebrates, lichens, and mosses depend wholly on Ash for habitat.

A collaborative project between Agri-EPI Centre and Vertinetik will use emerging technology to develop predictive models of ADD and other tree diseases, which can be integrated with decision support systems to inform management of England’s Ash trees. The project aims to provide an affordable solution to benefit smaller woodland owners in identifying disease infestations and taking proactive intervention measures to protect the economic and ecological value of Ash trees.

Kalique Dugarte, Co-founder of Vertinetik said:

“We are living through a period of climate crisis. Farmers and woodland owners sit at the front row among those having to experience it first. Changing weather patterns and alien invasive pests and diseases all represent new challenges to the preservation of woodlands. The severity of this challenge can be illustrated by Ash dieback and how an entire native tree species is under threat. So there is a call for action.”

“At Vertinetik, we believe in UAVs as a powerful low-cost alternative to the massification of technologies previously available to big budgets. Thanks to our project we will lower frictional costs to facilitate the mapping and monitoring of ash trees, record the state of the trees, and thus help farmers and woodland owners better manage ash dieback and plan routes to recovery and restoration of trees.”

On 6th June, Agri-EPI will host an online workshop in collaboration with Vertinetik about their project aimed at tackling the devastating impact of Ash dieback disease.

The workshop will provide the opportunity to brainstorm solutions that meet the needs of woodlands owners and learn more about the aims of the project. Speakers, including Kalique Dugarte, Kadmiel Maseyk and Joseph Fennell from Open University, and Simon James from Smallwoods, will provide an overview of the nature of the disease, the use of remote sensing for disease and stress detection, and the challenges of managing woodland areas affected by Ash Dieback.

Find out more here.

Automation and robotics for agriculture at Agri-EPI Centre

Agri-EPI, the centre for precision innovation in farming, is a first choice for agri-tech developers, from start-ups right through to established companies, to help with creating robust and commercially viable agricultural solutions.

Our team believes that it is vital that new agricultural technologies are both relevant and robust, build on well described initial design goals created from a strong understanding of the needs of farmers and their operations. If that is not done, then there will be delays in the development of the product and eventually quality, which will have ongoing negative effects on the trust of farmers in the product. Short testing cycles compound that problem, so the data used to design and build the systems needs to be of very high quality.

Our offer
Agri-EPI offers a wide-ranging set of facilities, equipment, and services. Our farm network is a key part of this, enabling the testing spaces and long-term interaction with farmers which we rely upon. Within the engineering team, we support the farm network and projects through our data engineering, data analysis and robotics specialisms.

Key resources include:

  • Multi-modal agricultural data
  • Spectral imaging and sensing
  • Agricultural data analysis
  • System simulation
  • Development / Robotic platforms
  • Data and robotics in agriculture consulting

Find out more here:

Engineering R&D brochure