Course Description
Precision farming uses sensing and data analytics technologies to define a decision support system for agricultural systems, which aims to maximize the productivity and quality of agricultural production and minimize environmental impacts (e.g., chemical spray and irrigation) simultaneously. Precision farming brings efficient tools for managing agricultural systems that are highly spatial and temporal variable.
Athena Title
Precision Farming
Prerequisite
ENGR 2170
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course will introduce common techniques used in precision ag (or site-specific management). The course will also introduce emerging sensing, computing, and robotics technologies for field-based, high throughput phenotyping. Through this course, students should be able to: 1) Understand basic concepts of precision agriculture. 2) Understand commonly used technologies such as GPS, GIS, variable rate application (VRA), measurement systems (remote and proximal sensing), and data analysis approaches. 3) Understand potentials and limitations of the current PA to various crop production regions. 4) Develop a sense of interdisciplinary collaboration for solving challenging problems.
Topical Outline
• Overview of precision agriculture • Basic concepts of measurement methods • Global positioning systems • Remote and proximal sensing of plants • Environment sensing • Spatial variability and variable rate application (VRA) • Geographic information system • Data analysis • Robotics for precision farming