Project description
Precision indoor agriculture leverages radio frequency tags and drones
Monitoring of temperature, humidity and plant stress in indoor farms and greenhouses currently relies on battery-powered sensors that require regular maintenance and generate significant electronic waste. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PLANT project aims to deliver an alternative – IoT battery-free radio-frequency tags powered wirelessly by a drone flying through the growing environment. As it travels, the drone will ‘wake’ tags to collect sensor readings while capturing near-infrared images to map micro-climate conditions at the level of individual plants. By demonstrating reliable energy delivery, stable navigation and multi-tag data collection in complex indoor environments, PLANT seeks to deliver efficient, high-resolution crop monitoring that reduces labour and environmental footprint.
Objective
PLANT targets maintenance-free, high-resolution monitoring in smart indoor farming by replacing battery-powered nodes with dense, battery-free backscatter tags and using a UAV as a roaming edge device. The drone beams RF energy to wake the tags, collects their readings in flight, and co-captures NIR imagery to map plant-level micro-climate. The project advances the state of the art by (i) proving reliable RF energy delivery from a moving platform in GNSS-denied, multipath-rich greenhouses; (ii) achieving stable, energy-aware navigation and beam pointing; and (iii) demonstrating collision-tolerant multi-tag backscatter in motion, so dozens of sensors can be read in a single pass. Fused sensor–imagery data produce actionable maps (temperature/humidity gradients, simple water-stress indicators), which are validated against portable references. A season-long pilot quantifies impact on maintenance effort, water use per kg of yield, and avoided e-waste.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications radio technology radio frequency
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
28918 Leganes (Madrid)
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.