Unique radar-drone used for subsurface water detection for precision agricultural irrigation

Project Information

AGRI-DRONE

Grant agreement ID: 774303

DOI

10.3030/774303

Project closed

EC signature date 16 May 2017

Start date 1 May 2017

End date 31 August 2017

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

ADANT SRL
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AGRI-DRONE (Unique radar-drone used for subsurface water detection for precision agricultural irrigation)

Reporting period: 2017-05-01 to 2017-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Precision Agriculture (PA) is having a tremendous growth thanks to the use of new drones capable of improving crop yields and lowering production costs (CAGR drones for PA between 40 and 50% between 2015 and 2020). The major agriculture challenges are 1) Selection of the best land use destination; 2) Rationalization of raw materials use (in particular water, fertilizers and pesticides); 3) Reduction of inspection times. Indeed, currently there are no systems to directly measure soil moisture with drones: all the systems used are derived from parameters on the vegetation state. AGRIDRONE will be the first drone in the market to mount on a drone a P-band sensor capable of creating soil moisture maps, thus allowing great benefits to European agriculture.
The FS confirms the uniqueness of our solution, its technical feasibility and commercial profitability even in the worst scenario. AGRIDRONE 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; Components identification; Detailed technical plan to increase TRL to 9; Analysis of risks and design of a mitigation and contingency plan.
KEY PARTNER SEARCH: We spotted all the technical and commercial stakeholders necessary to carry out the project and to launch AGRIDRONE on market. Furthermore, we have identified end users for field tests and defined their implication.
COMMERCIAL AND EXPLOITATION PLAN, including: Market analysis, end user’s segmentation, main competitors, commercial barriers; definition of commercial strategy, FTO analysis, definition of IPR strategy.
FINANCIAL PLAN, including: Description of the consortium demonstrating the capability to carry out the project, business projections, business model, production costs analysis; price policy; benefits for end users and 3 sales scenarios.

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)

AGRIDRONE will be a giant leap for agriculture by creating for the first time a sensor which fit to commercial drones able to measure soil moisture. This will be a revolution for both the world of agriculture and the institutions responsible for territory management: indeed, AGRIDRONE will have a tremendous economic and environmental impact by generating at the fifth commercialisation year up to 1.3 B EUR of benefits while saving 463 M m3 of water, 35,500 tons of fertilizer and 588,000 tons of CO2.Furthermore it will help institution to improve water bodies and to defend against fire and landslides.

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