New sensing devices and technologies are the key in addressing numerous challenges that agriculture and entire agrifood ecosystem are facing today. Namely, to produce more food for the ever-growing population, agriculture must become more efficient but, at the same time, sustainable and environmental-friendly. To address this challenge, a number of biophysical parameters need to be monitored and measured constantly, thus providing valuable data needed to optimize the entire process. In addition, the corresponding actuating technologies responsible for applying various measures (e.g. irrigation, fertilization) need to become more precise and allow variable rate inputs with a resolution down to an individual plant. However, the existing sensing and actuating (S&A) technologies have reached their limits and new avenues of research need to be addressed.
Recently, metamaterials and metasurfaces as two-dimensional (2-D) class of metamaterials, have emerged as a paradigm for arbitrary manipulation of EM waves, and thus as media which supports non-conventional propagation. Composed of specifically designed arrays of meta-atoms, metasurfaces can alter every aspect of light beams. These alterations are very sensitive to small changes in the surrounding media, which makes metasurfaces a very promising platform for sensing applications. On the other hand, acoustic non-conventional concepts including acoustic spoof propagation (ASP) and acoustic metasurfaces recently emerged as promising candidates to overcome the drawbacks of conventional acoustic sensors. Namely, they are very sensitive to change in the parameters of the surrounding media, and thus they represent novel paradigms promising for advanced sensing solutions.
NOCTURNO brings together a consortium with specific expertise in the fields listed above and creates synergies that advances two promising research directions for sensing applications - non-conventional EM/optical and acoustic propagation and supports their transformation into innovative products.
The objectives of the project are:
1. To advance high-impact multidisciplinary scientific knowledge through international and intersectoral collaboration on four related predefined research topics:
1a. Sensors based on non-conventional propagation of acoustic waves with the aim to develop new generation of sensors needed in agriculture such as various gas sensors.
1b. Actuators based on non-conventional propagation of acoustic waves with the aim to develop novel drip irrigation systems capable of delivering water to arbitrarily selected individual plant;
1c. EM/optical sensors based on metasurfaces with the aim to develop novel biosensors,
1d. Advanced manufacturing technologies including 3D printing, laser-micromachining technology, focused ion beam and e-beam lithography with the aim to provide practical solutions for the fabrication of novel acoustic and metasurface-based sensors and actuators.
2. To foster the creation of innovations and concrete products needed to address burning challenges in the agrifood sector today
3. To enable researchers to acquire new soft skills, support their career development and empower them to actively take part in shaping Europe’s future
4. To disseminate NOCTURNO achievements to the widest audiences thus ensuring its maximal impact
The major outcomes of the project are the prototypes of sensors and an actuator, together with the new fundamental knowledge. During the whole project duration, 15 prototypes have been proposed, while there have been more than 20 advanced topics that have been investigated. We have realized 92.14 PMs during the whole project implementation, while 35 journal, 17 conference papers, and 1 book chapter have been published. Four workshops were organized together with six internal trainings devoted to scientific and soft skills. Dissemination activities ensured a strong dissemination of the project results and their high visibility. The project website and social media accounts were launched in M1 of the project, where the website has had around 50 thousand visits by almost 22 thousand visitors during the whole project duration.
