According to the public relations office of the university: The smart farm and greenhouse management project is being implemented and patented for the first time in Iran by Dr. Yasser Attarizadeh, a faculty member of the Electrical Engineering Department at Qom University of Technology, at the university's innovation center.
Considering that the most important environmental concern is the management of existing water resources while expanding agricultural activities, the goal of this project is to automate the irrigation system in farms, greenhouses, and orchards. In this project, based on various sensors placed at different points in the farm, greenhouse, and orchard, information from all locations is collected and sent to a monitoring center via a low-power communication network. This information includes soil moisture levels, soil temperature, sunlight intensity, soil pH, and more. At this center, commands for turning the water flow on and off are issued based on the transmitted data and algorithms that are taken into account by agricultural advisors and specialists. The data received from the sensors can be used not only for irrigation but also to assess the current status of the farm.
Based on this information, it is possible to make decisions regarding actions such as pest control, soil amendment, and opening and closing canopies, among others. An important point in this network is that the installed nodes and various locations that include sensors and transmitter-receiver systems must be capable of withstanding harsh environmental conditions and also be inexpensive with very low power consumption, allowing them to operate on solar energy and small batteries. This system utilizes a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) wireless network.
This project is currently being implemented and patented.
It is noteworthy that Dr. Attarizadeh visited the olive farm of Engineer Boland Nazar, one of the top entrepreneurs in Qom Province, to implement this project.
