AgTech-RFP-111422
LINCOLN, Nebraska — Many farmers and agricultural professionals see digital farming as the way of the future. Managing farms using sensors, drones, robots, artificial intelligence, advanced data analytics and more will efficiently feed the world’s growing population, expected to reach 10 billion by 2050. is the key to
But to unlock the full potential of agricultural technology, you need a tool most fields lack: a high-speed internet connection.
A multidisciplinary Nebraska research team led by computer engineer Mehmet Can Vuran is trying to change that. The team includes Shuai Nie, Qiang Liu, Christos Argyropoulos, Yufeng Ge and Santosh Pitla. With his $1 million grant over his three years from the National Science Foundation, the team is designing next-generation wireless networks for the agricultural sector. The network will facilitate a suite of digital farming technologies to power the businesses of countless farmers. Currently, at least two-thirds of farmers say they don’t have a good internet connection to do their jobs, and 25% of his farms in the US have no internet at all.
AgTech-RFP-111422
“We started redesigning the wireless network according to the constraints and requirements of the agricultural sector,” said Vuran, Jensen chair and professor of computing. “Today, the best farmers and researchers can do is acquire wireless technology from what is available in nearby urban environments. Try to use a connection, it’s like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”
This is a mismatch because the two environments are very different. Urban connectivity leverages the vertical infrastructure inherent in cities. High-rise buildings, street lamps and traffic lights house the necessary equipment. The agricultural sector lacks this robust vertical infrastructure, making it much more difficult to build networks.
field net
Additionally, agricultural fields are subject to harsh environmental and weather conditions that can disrupt wireless connectivity. Crop type, growth stage, and even plant water content can also affect the signal. Vran’s group has devised a wireless architecture called Field-Nets to address these challenges.
The cornerstone of their approach is the introduction of millimeter wave technology on farms. The technology is increasingly being used to support his 5G connections in urban areas, transmitting signals in the bandwidth of the uncongested radio frequency spectrum. Ample bandwidth means signal transmission is fast, gigabits per second, with minimal interruptions.
Last summer, Vuran’s group conducted some of the first experiments with mmWave technology in agriculture. These studies showed how easily corn and soybean growth can influence delicate high-frequency signals whose wavelength size is only a few millimeters long.The resulting dataset is publicly available To help other researchers and practitioners. Funded by the NSF, Vuran’s team will develop the computational power and complex algorithms needed to support a robust and reliable connection.
edge computing
Another key strategy for Field-Nets is edge computing. It is a type of network architecture that brings computing and data storage closer to the data source. Cloud computing is a challenge because rural environments lack what is called a backhaul (high-speed connectivity between remote sites and the core network). This is a problem because, in the future, precision farming devices will likely generate as much data as a typical urban environment.
Vran’s solution is to push processing to the “edge” of the network. In this case, this means moving processing to the farm. As farm robots, sensors, and other devices generate data streams, they are processed and stored on-site to protect farmer data privacy.
The team also ensures that the Field-Nets infrastructure is used only when and where it is needed. Abundant spectrum is currently available in rural areas, but this will change as digital agriculture gains momentum. It can create a digital divide between
“We understand and design for this potential divide from the beginning. We need to adopt an advanced spectrum-sharing solution from the ground up,” said Vuran. “There is no need to redesign spectrum sharing solutions that have been done in some urban environments later. We are learning from that history.”
Bridging the Digital Divide
The project advances Vuran’s long-term research mission of bridging the original digital divide: the gap between urban and rural areas. Of his 24 million Americans without high-speed internet, 80% live in rural areas. Gaps in internet access exacerbate gaps in prosperity, education, health care and more as societies become increasingly dependent on digital tools.
This work represents an increasingly important convergence of computing and agriculture. Husker researchers are prioritizing stronger partnerships between these two fields to maintain their position at the forefront of agricultural innovation.
“Computer scientists and agricultural engineers will increasingly have to work together, and this is one of the first funded projects to represent this union,” said an associate professor of biosystems engineering. One Pitla said.
Pitra, an expert in agricultural robotics, is developing small autonomous robots that plant seeds and spread fertilizer. Since he entered college in 2014, the technology works without a connection, but with a reliable wireless infrastructure, robots can reach their full potential.
“Connectivity solutions can really amplify what we do, facilitate and facilitate a lot of things, especially logistics and operational efficiencies,” he said.
The research group will use Pitla’s technology to test the Field-Nets infrastructure.
The project includes partnerships with members of the Nebraska agricultural community, farmers, and industry members to enable Husker students to train in a highly interdisciplinary environment.
