smartagri
All researchIrrigation Modernization

Research area

Open Field Technology

Sensing, control and mechanisation for open fields: automatic sprinklers on coastal sand, guided tractors, pest deterrents and non-destructive crop and fruit assessment.

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Open Field Technology

Overview

Open Field Technology brings precision agriculture to the fields farmers actually work. One architecture, sensors and controllers on site with cloud analysis and apps behind them, runs through our work on coastal sand irrigation, tractor guidance, bird pest control and crop and fruit assessment.

Our approach

Every project starts in the field: we sense what is happening, model what it means, and turn the result into decisions farmers and operators can act on.

Why it matters

What changesin the field.

16.9%less water than farmers' own watering, automatic sprinklers on coastal sand
92.8%Christiansen uniformity after raising sprinkler pressure, up from 77.9%
0.946R² for non-destructive sugar content of peeled salak with portable VIS/NIR

What we do

Our work in open field technology.

IoT and weather-aware sprinkler control for coastal sandy soils
GPS tracking and auto-steering for tillage
Computer-vision bird pest detection and deterrence
Non-destructive leaf and fruit assessment

Center projects

What we havebuilt and tested.

4 projects from the center's research portfolio. Open a slide to see the system, the setup and the results.

Local and global subsystem framework for outdoor smart farming

The center's base architecture for the field: a local management subsystem of sensors, controller and actuators on site, and a global subsystem of online database, system configuration, computational analysis and web and mobile apps.

  • Simple, flexible environmental monitoring and control through smart devices
  • Reused across later work: coastal sprinklers, estate soil moisture, smart greenhouses and plant electrical signals

TeamAndri Prima Nugroho, Ph.D. (principal investigator)

WithMinistry of Public Works and HousingKyushu UniversityMaejo University, Thailand

Smart bird pest detection and deterrent

Computer vision (YOLO) spots pest birds over the crop and triggers a harmonic ultrasonic acoustic deterrent, with ANSYS simulation supporting the structure and sound propagation.

  • Video collection, annotation and augmentation, model training, then field deployment
  • Part of integrated pest management rather than a stand-alone scarer

GPS tracking to evaluate soil tillage

GPS tracking with a cycling computer, smartphone and cloud logging evaluates how well a four-wheel tractor follows its tillage lines, including position estimates against the reference path.

  • Objective tillage quality from the tractor's own track

Automatic wheel-steering tractor

Demonstrations of a driverless auto-steering tractor (FJD LandMaster navigation system) for precision farming, shown to students and farmers.

  • Mechanisation that holds the line without a driver at the wheel

Student research

Theses thatmoved it forward.

5 undergraduate theses supervised at the center, with their methods, key results and research framework.

  • Precision irrigationCoastal sandy soilQGISRed

    Coastal sand holds little water, so how evenly a sprinkler spreads it decides how efficient the irrigation is. Lab tests (catch cans, flowmeter, manometer), hydraulic simulation in QGIS/QGISRed, uniformity analysis and water-distribution heatmaps evaluate the farmers' existing system and recommend a better layout.

    77.9 → 92.8%uniformity when pressure rises from 2.11 to 3.52 m
    14–15sprinklers per lateral, the most stable layout
    • Many downstream nodes fall below the 2.109 m minimum pressure because of head loss along the lateral
    • Uniformity is 94–95% at the start of a lateral and drops to 79.8% downstream
    • Feeding water from the middle of the lateral is recommended; the groundwork for the IoT systems that followed

In practice

Open Field Technology in practice.

Related publications

  1. 2026SIMULASI SISTEM MONITORING LENGAS TANAH BERBASIS ADC DAN KENDALI IRIGASI OTOMATIS MENGGUNAKAN METODE HYSTERESIS UNTUK APLIKASI PERTANIAN PRESISIJurnal Pertanian Presisi (Journal of Precision Agriculture) · Gunadarma University
  2. 2026Variation of Irrigation Methods and Fertiliser Level in Cultivation of Shallot on Rainfed LandagriTECH · Universitas Gadjah Mada
  3. 2024Analisis Perilaku Air Di Perkebunan Kelapa Sawit Pada Tanah Spodosol dan Ultisol Menggunakan Soil Moisture Content Monitoring System (SMCMS)Jurnal Penelitian Kelapa Sawit · Riset Perkebunan Nusantara
  4. 2024Evaluation of Sentinel-1 Satelite-based Soil Moisture Products for Runoff Modelling with Karst Formation CharacteristicsResearch Square · Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Other research

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