Italian agriculture has always been recognised worldwide as an excellence; in particular, in the last year, the IV Gamma supply chain, with the use of greenhouses, has showed its increasing relevance.
Being a relatively niche market, innovations tend to arrive with a certain delay, causing backwardness in the employed technologies and procedures. An example is the phytosanitary treatment which is highly inefficient: most of the product is wasted, finishing on the ground, contaminating groundwaters, damaging the soil, and making it less productive for the future.
The goal of our project is to renew the phytosanitary process, making it optimal for the greenhouse treatment and reducing the overuse of chemical products.
Our idea relies on three main aspects, movement, sensors and advanced boom; which compose the real-time intelligent treatment machine, an agricultural machine of new generation that is able to carry the treatment in autonomy, exploring and analysing in real-time the characteristics of the plants, and modifying its configuration to optimize the treatment.
The expected outcomes of adopting our solution are twofold:
• A reduction in the operating costs, in particular labour, phytosanitary and fuel, making this idea a profitable one.
• Positive environmental benefits, such as the reduction of energy usage and the savings of CO2 emissions, water, and phytosanitary products.
PRINCIPAL ACADEMIC TUTOR
Matteo Matteucci, DEIB, Politecnico di Milano
OTHERS ACADEMIC TUTOR
Eng. Giulio Fontana, DEIB, Politecnico di Milano
Prof.ssa Anna Carbone, DISAT, Politecnico di Torino
EXTERNAL INSTITUTIONS
Dipartimento Scienze Agrarie e Ambientali – Universita’ degli Studi di Milano
EXTERNAL TUTOR
Prof. Davide Facchinetti, Disaa, Università degli Studi di Milano
Prof. Domenico Pessina, Disaa, Università degli Studi di Milano
TEAM MEMBERS
Gabriele Coppola, MSc Mechatronic Engineering, PoliTo
Fabio Salvai, MSc Mechanical Engineering, PoliTo
Luigi Bono Bonacchi, MSc Mechanical Engineering, PoliMi
Simone Parisi, MSc Mechanical Engineering, PoliMi
Lorenzo Fedeli, MSc Management Engineering, PoliMi
Stefan Šušnjar, MSc Engineering Physics, PoliMi