Intelligent Optical Nerves for Precision Agriculture

FIELD 7: PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACTProject Title: Intelligent Optical Nerves for Precision AgricultureDynamic micro-environmental monitoring has the potential to be a key precision horticulturalcapability for increasing production and quality of crops in the tightly controlled environments ofgreenhouses while increasing the overall energy efficiency of production. IFOS proposes ascalable multi-functional distributed fiber-optic sensor network for precision greenhousemonitoring applications. In IFOS' innovative approach a single optical interrogator can beconfigured to support up to thousands of sensors distributed on tens of optical fibers with tens tohundreds of sensors along each fiber. This project will develop a network for multi-pointmeasurement of air temperature and humidity. In Phase I IFOS will demonstrate the feasibility ofperforming quasi-distributed temperature sensing with sub-degrees-Celsius resolution andhumidity measurement using an innovative sensor configuration. In Phase II IFOS willdemonstrate a full-scale system in a greenhouse and validate the system's measurements againstconventional temperature and humidity sensors. A key focus of the IFOS program will beestablishing the expected increase in productivity as a function of the number of sensor points. Theresulting product will increase agricultural efficiency and yield across a variety of horticulturalapplications improving the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture and horticulture while reducingenergy use. The IFOS technology will also enable next-generation horticulture systems includingvertical gardens and fully automated greenhouses.