The POIANA team from the University of Pisa took part with a large exhibition space at the Maker Faire Rome 2023 (19-22 October 2023).
POIANA (Platform for Observations in the Naturalistic and Environmental Field) is a joint project of researchers from DSAAAa, DICI and DII (Department of Agricultural, Food and Agro-environmental Sciences – Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering – Department of Information Engineering). The authors specialize in engineering disciplines in the fields of agricultural hydraulics and hydrology, aerospace technologies and ICT and IoT technologies. The scientific activity of the different groups concerns the expert management of water resources for irrigation purposes, mobile and satcom communication systems, radio propagation for environmental monitoring, IOT for industry, network security and green networking, micro/nanosatellites and stratospheric platforms for environmental monitoring.
POIANA is a system for monitoring agricultural areas based on a platform maintained at a height of 50-100 m using a helium balloon. The platform is equipped with environmental sensors and for remote observation of crops and soil and also acts as a data collection node from IoT sensors on the ground for measuring soil moisture and environmental evapotranspiration demand. The data is processed on board and transmitted to a ground station where it is used to control farm irrigation. The system, self-powered via solar panels, is created using open source logic, easy to install and with minimal maintenance requirements.
