Accurate irrigation controller with multi-sensoring and interactive cloud-based platform to evaluate real plant needs and save up to 80% of water

Project Information

RAINOLVE

Grant agreement ID: 763130

DOI

10.3030/763130

Project closed

EC signature date 7 February 2017

Start date 1 March 2017

End date 30 June 2017

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

RAIN SPA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RAINOLVE (Accurate irrigation controller with multi-sensoring and interactive cloud-based platform to evaluate real plant needs and save up to 80% of water)

Reporting period: 2017-03-01 to 2017-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Irrigation consumes lot of water. Current control systems fail to supply the right amount as they lack of important information. The most used care: 1) Timers, working with a programmed schedule; 2) Timers with rain sensor, with limited sensitivity that often do not stop the irrigation system when required; 3) Timers with weather forecast control, that do not control moisture and soil conditions and activate irrigation even if not necessary; and 4) Timers with rain sensor and evapotranspiration control, without an integrated control of all environmental parameters that cannot achieve a sufficient savings of water.
RAINOLVE will cover the lack of effective controllers providing a cheap and effective system, integrating different environmental parameters and weather forecasts. The FS confirms the uniqueness of our solution, its technical feasibility and commercial profitability even in the worst scenario. RAINOLVE has already aroused great enthusiasm in our clients, who expressed their interest on participating in the project field tests.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY, including: SoA assessment; Identification of parameters to characterize the final product; Detailed technical plan to increase the TRL to 9; Deep analysis of risks and design of a mitigation and contingency plan.
BUSINESS PLAN, including: Market analysis, end users and needs, main competitors and commercial barriers; Commercialisation strategy, identifying the most effective way for market penetration and defining IPR strategy, including a FTO analysis; and Business projections, demonstrating the capability of the consortium to carry out the project. It included: production costs analysis; price policy; benefits for end users and 3 sales scenarios.
KEY PARTNER SEARCH: We spotted all the technical and commercial stakeholders necessary to carry out the project and to launch RAINOLVE on market.
END USERS’ SELECTION FOR FIELD TESTS. We contacted some end users and defined their implication.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

RAINOLVE will allow to cross environmental data collected from sensors on field with weather forecasts, providing just the water required and remotely managed through mobile devices. There are no technologies comparable to RAINOLVE: the total water saved in EU during the first 5 years from market launch will be 400 M m3 and, considering that it will be largely spread in public parks, it will allow remarkable savings able to finance other public activities, with a favorable impact on the overall well-being of society.

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