Alessandro Biglia

Monitoring of a micro-smart grid: Power consumption data of some machineries of an agro-industrial test site.

For the management of a (micro)-smart grid it is important to know the patters of the load profiles and of the generators. In this article the power consumption data obtained through a monitoring activity developed on a micro-smart grid in an agro-industrial test-site are presented. In particular, this reports the synthesis of the monitoring results of 5 loads (5 industrial machineries for crop micronization, corncob crashing and other similar processes). How these data were used within a monitoring and managing scheme of a micro-smart grid can be found in (E. Fabrizio, V. Branciforti, A. Costantino, M. Filippi, S. Barbero, G. Tecco, P. Mollo, A. Molino, 2017) [1]. The data can be useful for other researchers in order to create benchmarks of energy use input appropriate energy demand values in optimization tools for the industrial sector.

Unsupervised detection of vineyards by 3D point-cloud UAV photogrammetry for precision agriculture

Abstract An effective management of precision viticulture processes relies on robust crop monitoring procedures and, in the near future, to autonomous machine for automatic site-specific crop managing. In this context, the exact detection of vineyards from 3D point-cloud maps, generated from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) multispectral imagery, will play a crucial role, e.g. both for achieve enhanced remotely sensed data and to manage path and operation of unmanned vehicles. In this paper, an innovative unsupervised algorithm for vineyard detection and vine-rows features evaluation, based on 3D point-cloud maps processing, is presented. The main results are the automatic detection of the vineyards and the local evaluation of vine rows orientation and of inter-rows spacing. The overall point-cloud processing algorithm can be divided into three mains steps: (1) precise local terrain surface and height evaluation of each point of the cloud, (2) point-cloud scouting and scoring procedure on the basis of a new vineyard likelihood measure, and, finally, (3) detection of vineyard areas and local features evaluation. The algorithm was found to be efficient and robust: reliable results were obtained even in the presence of dense inter-row grassing, many missing plants and steep terrain slopes. Performances of the algorithm were evaluated on vineyard maps at different phenological phase and growth stages. The effectiveness of the developed algorithm does not rely on the presence of rectilinear vine rows, being also able to detect vineyards with curvilinear vine row layouts.

Temperature and position effect on readability of passive UHF RFID labels for beverage packaging

The radio frequency identification (RFID) of food items improves production process efficiency as well as optimises the management of the monitoring and the logistics along the production chain (Barge et al., 2014). Moreover, interest in UHF RFID tags adoption is growing in particular applications such as anti-counterfeiting systems. The readability of passive UHF RFID tags is well known to be critical when applied to products at high water content. Nevertheless, the effect on readability of solutions of water and other organic (e.g. ethanol, sugars, organic acids) or inorganic (salts) compounds, which are typical of food and beverage composition, has not yet been studied. Furthermore, as in the case of beverages that must be chilled for their conservation (i.e. fruit juice, fresh milk and other pasteurised beverages), the temperature can compromise tag readability. RFID systems efficiency may also be affected by tag-to-reader antenna misalignment, which often occurs for cylindrical section containers. Experimentation has been conducted to evaluate the effect of temperature, different solute type and tag orientation on the readability of a commercial passive RFID UHF tag (Lab Id UH100) applied to a HDPE (Highdensity polyethylene) bottle. To compare readability, the minimum transmitted power output that allows the tag-backscattered signal (Pmin) to be acquired by the reader was measured in standard controlled conditions. It was observed that solution temperature strongly affected the readability of passive UHF RFID labels. The correlation between temperature and readability was observed being positive or negative depending on the adopted solute type. In particular, an improvement in readability was detected for deionized water, sucrose and ethanol solutions when temperature was increased from 4°C to 25°C. Readability decreased for citric acid and NaCl solutions in the same temperature range. Reading performance was highly influenced by bottle rotation along the vertical axis, which caused both the misalignment of the tag-to-reader mutual orientation and the radio wave reflection and absorption phenomena due to the presence of the considered solutions in different positions.