INTELLIGENT OPTICAL NERVES FOR PRECISION AGRICULTURE

Dynamic micro-environmental monitoring has the potential to be a key precision horticultural capability for increasing production and quality of crops in the tightly controlled environments of greenhouses while increasing the overall energy efficiency of production. IFOS proposes a scalable, multi-functional, distributed fiber-optic sensor network for precision greenhouse monitoring applications. In IFOS' innovative approach, a single optical interrogator can be configured to support up to thousands of sensors distributed on tens of optical fibers with tens to hundreds of sensors along each fiber. This project will develop a network for multi-point measurement of air temperature and humidity. In Phase I, IFOS will demonstrate the feasibility of performing quasi-distributed temperature sensing with sub-degrees-Celsius resolution and humidity measurement using an innovative sensor configuration. In Phase II, IFOS will demonstrate a full-scale system in a greenhouse and validate the system's measurements against conventional temperature and humidity sensors. A key focus of the IFOS program will be establishing the expected increase in productivity as a function of the number of sensor points. The resulting product will increase agricultural efficiency and yield across a variety of horticultural applications, improving the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture and horticulture while reducing energy use. The IFOS technology will also enable next-generation horticulture systems, including vertical gardens and fully automated greenhouses.