Resumen

OBJETIVO GENERAL: The present project aims to design methodologies and tools for supporting the implementation of intelligent systems for monitoring and automatically adapting the internal conditions of the grain stored into silobags, in order to improve their preservation state. This systems will be developed using modern techniques of software engineering and control engineering. It is likely that several million tons of grain will be stored in silobags on-farm and by private storage and stockfeed enterprises within the next years, in Latin America countries and also in other parts of the world. Research confirms that although silobags have some limitations, they offer growers a relatively cheap and reliable grain storage solution. Therefore, our objective consists in working towards the improvement of the silobag technology; in particular, the incorporation of computer technology would be a valuable asset. We believe that a low-cost intelligent systems for monitoring and adapting the internal conditions of the grain stored into silobags will be of great help to improve the quality standards of this type of storage system. Besides, we plan to develop advanced software engineering methodologies for the development of such software systems, which will produce additional outcomes beyond the agrotech area. Finally, due the distributed nature of the problem (several silobags spread out several kilometers) it is necessary to develop wireless communication between sensors that send the information and the computer system that receives and process the data. OBJETIVOS ESPECIFICOS: The most important tangible assets produced by the project will the following ones: • The design of humidity sensors and aeration devices specially customized to silobags; • A wireless software control system for monitoring and adapting the state of the silobags; • Mathematical models of the behavior of the humidity, temperature and oxygen levels into the silobags; • A methodology for the development of domain specific models and a software framework based on MDD for developing similar kind of systems in other related areas. At the present time the solution for restoring the optimal humidity conditions of grains consists in sending the whole volume of grains to another silo. This process naturally produces aeration and decreases the humidity. Another traditional solution, adopted in cases of very high level of humidity, consists in sending the grains to drying facilities where the grain drying process is done. This project proposes a new approach to deal with this problem. Our approach aims at offering a set of tools for drying the grains on-farm, into the same silobag where grains had been initially stored. We believe that this solution offers an efficient alternative in comparison with traditional techniques above mentioned. The proposed technique is particularly attractive for small farmers that cannot afford the cost of traditional methods for drying their grains. Additionally, the software solutions we will develop also contain a high degree of originality due to the novelty of the MDD paradigm applied on agro-technology development.