Trunk Based Monitoring and Data Collection System on Real-World Orchards: A Case Study

In the context of Precision Agriculture, the importance of an effective information management system is crucial to enable the required accuracy and efficiency of tasks. Increasing the resolution of maps can improve this, up to reach the plant-based level, or even distinguish different parts or zones of the single tree. Therefore, plant/tree recognition became of paramount importance when adjusting inputs or estimating physiological properties. The research activities at the Cadriano experimental station of the University of Bologna are going towards this direction. In this paper, the monitoring system under development within the university research group is presented, describing the data collection hardware and software framework, together with the first preliminary applications and analysis coming from the system. The whole architecture exploits both the robotic platform present on site, the in-situ sensors scattered on different orchards and fields and traditional manual measurements to create a global homogeneous database that will serve as the foundation of upcoming research activities.