The AI and machine learning innovations taking John Deere to the next level of precision agriculture
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
Power/Energy Data Monitor
PEM353 – Square. Practical. Accurate – Energy data, limit value monitoring and power quality
The new LINETRAXX® PEM353 addresses applications in low-voltage main distribution boards (LVMD), data centres and building installations. As a modern display instrument for electrical quantities, it is equally suitable for monitoring power quality and energy data.
With its standardised enclosure (DIN 96 x 96 mm), it is intended for front panel installation. The compact size of just 7 mm facilitates almost seamless integration.
In the context of energy data monitoring, the PEM353 provides the measurement quantities for real energy, and does so with outstanding accuracy (class 0.5 S). Active, reactive and apparent energy levels are counted for each phase, and as a cumulative value. This allows recording up to three single-phase resources. Other types of energy, e.g., meters for compressed air, water and gas, are recorded via pulse counters. The package is completed with the recording of daily energy values for the preceding two months and monthly energy values for the preceding three years.
Focus was also placed on easy operation. The backlit LC display is equipped with a clear text display: Measurement parameters are clearly legible.
Quick and intuitive operation – i.e., without a long familiarisation period – is possible via the four buttons and the button function displayed directly above.
The PEM353 measures all significant power quality parameters such as
· THD (Total Harmonic Distortion), TOHD (Total Odd Harmonic Distortion), TEHD (Total Even Harmonic Distortion), TDD (Total Demand Distortion)
· Individual harmonics up to 31st order
· k-factor, peak factor and power factor, and
· Unbalance.
The fourth current input can be used either to monitor the central earthing point (CEP) or for N conductor measurement. This enables any possible overload of the N conductor to be detected at an early stage by 3n harmonics. This reduces the risk of fire, and the risk of overvoltage on single-phase consumers, which may result from a break in an N conductor.
The comprehensive equipment features of the PEM353 make it suitable for power quality monitoring and energy data monitoring, and it also serves to improve reliable plant availability by monitoring the N conductor or the CEP.
Bender India Private Limited, Navi Mumbai. Tel: 022-27788501/8502. Email: info@bender-in.com
Modular Fuse & Relay Holder System
An ideal solution, particularly for custom-built vehicle series – it is possible to set up the central electrics in the smallest of spaces
A new fuse and relay holder system in the Elparts product range makes design work easier for users and developers in vehicle engineering in particular. The modular system features fuse boxes with improved contact and boasts an impressively space-saving construction. It enables users to configure the vehicle electrics entirely to their own particular requirements.
What are the benefits of this modular system?
· Improved contact system and space-saving, modular construction
· Impressive savings potential in the harness when using jumpers for high currents
· New lamellar contact system for high currents (individual contact up to 60 A; busbar up to 125 A), and
· Fuse boxes and relay sockets can be combined with the supporting frame to create a central electrical system.
The system can be universally used for all vehicle models; planners and constructors can configure features innovatively and modularly. No special tools are required for fitting.
Method of operation
The fuse boxes for standard blade fuses and standard ATO fuses are available in normal, tall and flat variants as complete sets, including individual contacts and lids. What’s more, customers can put together a fuse box to match their own particular requirements. The respective variants needed to do so can be ordered as individual components. The contacts are available as individual plug terminals and also in the form of a busbar with and without shackles for jumpers.
The option of bridging ensures that the fuse boxes can be assembled in a compact form. Three bridging variants are possible: 1-way, 2-way and 3-way. Much the same applies to the holders of the fuse box, which are available in 2-way and 3-way variants. Alongside the ATO boxes mentioned above, fuse boxes for mini-blade plug-in fuses and mini automatic circuit breakers can also be ordered. The mini fuse boxes enable many fuse protection devices to be installed in the smallest of spaces.
Thanks to this system, users, planners and developers working in vehicle engineering have innovative configuration options at their disposal for setting up the central electrics.
Herth+Buss Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co KG, Germany. Tel: +49 6104 608317. Email: niklas.schiege@herthundbuss.com
The CITADEL CTD-ES incorporates proven inductively coupled conductivity sensor technology with a platinum resistance thermometer and micromachined silicon pressure sensor to provide highly accurate and stable readings.
Data is output continuously via RS-232 or RS-485. All Citadel CTD-ES sensors are mounted in the flow, with no pumps or other artificial flushing devices required. Precise internal fixed references provide continuous calibration for increased long-term reliability
Key Features:
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?Non-electrode ceramic inductive conductivity sensor
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High measurement accuracy without the need for pumps
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Lightweight yet durable construction
Applications
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Environmental Monitoring
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Ocean Observing Networks
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Climate Change Research
Differential Scanning Calorimeter DSC7000 Series : Hitachi High-Technologies GLOBAL
1. Highest sensitivity, superior baseline stability and repeatability
New sensor achieves tripled sensor sensitivity by the multiple thermocouples (compared to the conventional products of Hitachi High-Tech Science).
New furnace which is composed of 3 layer insulation wall and the optimized heating and cooling structure suppresses the influence of baseline fluctuation, and increases temperature following capability. These achieve world' s leading performance of DSC sensitivity less than 0.1 µW (RMS noise less than 0.05 µW) and baseline repeatability ±5 µW. It enables the more reliable. (DSC7000X)
2. Superior Temperature Followability
New furnace delivers the expanded temperature range up to -80 to 500°C in case of using the Electrical Cooling Unit. Cooling control performance enables down to -50°C at 10°C/min linearly. (DSC7000X)
The Auto LN2 Gas Cooling Unit improves the cooling efficiency and the amount of LN2 used decreased.
3. Improved Cooling Performance
Newly designed cooling systems including Auto LN2 Gas Cooling System and Electronic Cooling System are available for the DSC7000 Series. The cooling performances of both systems are improved.
4. Excellent Expandability and Option Line-Up
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The auto sampler can be attached easily. The reliable routine measurement can be achieved by the combination of the Auto Sampler and the Mass Flow Controller.
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The photochemical reaction measurement can be achieved by attaching UV irradiation unit.
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The DSC7000 series can observe a sample with a continuous image during the measurement by the Real View Sample Observation Unit.
Aspen Plus - Process Simulation for Chemicals
Advance the performance of your chemical processes using best-in-class simulation software for bulk, specialty chemical and pharmaceutical industries to optimize throughput, quality and energy use.
This innovative and powerful modeling technology includes:
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Best in class database of pure component and phase equilibrium data for conventional chemicals, electrolytes, solids and polymers
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Integrated solids, batch and custom processing unit modeling
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Faster troubleshooting, online performance monitoring and real-time optimization
Exciting new features help you:
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Improve column performance by detecting weeping and flooding
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Create a digital twin of your plant for data driven decision allowing increased efficiency
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Easily model batch and continuous processes using the same flow sheet
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Boost Bulk Chemical Quality and Throughput. Improve production rates, yield, energy efficiency and quality through rigorous process modeling tools.
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Reduce CAPEX with rapid optioneering. Implement a model-based system that seamlessly integrates all design and project cost estimate functions, concurrently, delivering a lower-CAPEX project sooner
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Restore smooth and optimal column performance. Increase column efficiency and resolve issues faster with interactive hydraulic visualization of distillation.
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Ensure safety, operability and controllability. Hone your understanding of operational changes through dynamic insights with trusted accuracy and built-in templates to get started.
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Optimize energy Use. Predict and eliminate energy waste though use of an integrated design and modeling tools.
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Drive down costs through project design reuse. Licensors can reduce the cost and time of designing and releasing bid packages with an integrated estimating platform leveraging reusable modular templates.
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Improve operational decisions with model-backed intelligence. Increase throughput and operating efficiency through data-driven decisions enabled by plant-calibrated predictive models in an operator-friendly interface.
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Optimize production and rapidly develop new grades. Improve production rates, yield and quality through rigorous optimization of the polymer process.
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Minimize costs without compromising safety. Reduce conservatism and engineering time using the complete overpressure protection solution with expert-trusted solutions and guided workflows.
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Improve transparency and lower CAPEX though use of a shared model-based estimating platform from conceptual engineering through construction.
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Deliver consistent quality of solids. Reduce capital and energy costs while ensuring consistent particle size distribution by using rigorous solids-handling equipment models integrated with fluid simulation.
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Optimize separation processes. Design and optimize adsorption processes to improve purity and throughput with deeper insights using rigorous models.
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Simplify batch process development. Optimize your batch and continuous process with a common platform from development through manufacturing.
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Restore smooth and optimal column performance. Increase column efficiency and resolve issues faster with interactive hydraulic visualization of distillation.
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Ensure safe and reliable operations. Reduce risks with dynamic analysis and overpressure protection guidance developed using expert-trusted solutions and guided workflows.
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Deliver robust and optimal HX design on time. Select the optimum heat exchanger size and rating when both cost and performance must be balanced through rigorous up-to-date integrated modeling capabilities.
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Improve operational decisions with model-backed intelligence. Increase throughput and operating efficiency through data-driven decisions enabled by plant-calibrated predictive models in an operator-friendly interface.
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Improve operational performance with real-time visualization. Increase visibility, agility and responsiveness to production problems through real-time monitoring of important business metrics via dashboards, alerting and pattern matching.
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Create process models on a solid foundation. Start your modeling efforts with confidence with the most up-to-date and comprehensive portfolio of physical property data.
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Optimize production and rapidly develop new grades. Improve production rates, yield and quality through rigorous optimization of the polymer process.
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Improve transparency and lower CAPEX though use of a shared model-based estimating platform from conceptual engineering through construction.
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Develop and transfer batch processes from lab to manufacturing. Develop and transfer batch processes from lab to manufacturing by using the recipe as process mode.
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Deliver consistent quality of solids. Reduce capital and energy costs while ensuring consistent particle size distribution by using rigorous solids-handling equipment models integrated with fluid simulation.
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Minimize estimating risk and develop bids faster through the improved consistency and accuracy of an integrated, model-based estimating system.
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Reduce CAPEX with rapid optioneering. Implement a model-based system that seamlessly integrates all design and project cost estimate functions, concurrently, delivering a lower-CAPEX project sooner
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Optimize column designs for economics and energy. Cut CAPEX and prevent issues by selecting optimal trays and packings with interactive plots built using correlations and process simulation data.
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Ensure safety, operability and controllability. Hone your understanding of operational changes through dynamic insights with trusted accuracy and built-in templates to get started.
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Boost project agility. Reduce FEED package preparation time and decrease rework by allowing engineering design changes to propagate quickly and consistently through interconnected FEED tools.
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Deliver robust and optimal HX design on time. Select the optimum heat exchanger size and rating when both cost and performance must be balanced through rigorous up-to-date integrated modeling capabilities.
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Optimize CAPEX and minimize bidding and estimating risk. Deliver bids with optimized designs faster, with less rework and errors through an integrated model based estimating tool from concept design through 3D model development.
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Train operators for startups, shutdowns and complex operational changes. Deploy trusted, maintainable operator training simulator (OTS) solutions sooner using dynamic simulation, trusted for its accuracy, across the full asset lifecycle.
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Minimize costs without compromising safety. Reduce conservatism and engineering time using the complete overpressure protection solution with expert-trusted solutions and guided workflows.
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Deliver consistent quality of solids. Reduce capital and energy costs while ensuring consistent particle size distribution by using rigorous solids-handling equipment models integrated with fluid simulation.
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Grow and expand business with additional services. Make models that match reality by calibrating them to plant data for improved design and revamp with process understanding through validation with historical data.
Applications
How 5G technology can play crucial role in agricultural growth and smart cities initiative
In the remote backwoods of Andhra Pradesh, techies from Sweden’s Ericsson, the world’s largest telecom equipment maker, are using high-end sensors to track the flow of the river Godavari to optimally distribute water to farmers for
agriculture
and minimise floods. Another Ericsson team is deploying wireless sensor networks to reuse ammonia-rich waste water for cost-effective organic farming.
Finland’s Nokia, too, is beefing up its R&D facility in Bengaluru to develop new-age services such as Internet of Things (IoT) and deliver apps that can be relevant across India, especially those related to agriculture, healthcare, transportation and smart cities.
At the Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona, Ericsson demonstrated two live IoT use-cases in a 5G environment, which it said, could be relevant for India.
Nitin Bansal, Ericsson’s head of network solutions for South East Asia, Oceania & India, said these cases are related to landslide disaster monitoring and farming. The first case shows how IoT networks with sensors can save lives through disaster monitoring and early warning systems, while the farming solution uses artificial intelligence to monitor temperature, humidity and CO2 levels to maintain greenhouse ventilation and ideal crop-growing conditions. These are examples of how 5G technology can be harnessed to transform the lives of farmers in India, the world’s second-largest telecom market.
5G or ‘fifth-generation’ is a fast, wireless broadband technology that will transcend smartphones and connect anything from cars, machines and home appliances at speeds 50-to-100 times faster than present 4G networks. It will offer lower lag times when transferring data. Developing India-specific use-cases would be key to the success of 5G in the country, given that the current batch of global apps such as driverless cars are ill-suited locally and more relevant to developed markets.
Globally, US carriers Verizon and AT&T are poised to start the first wave of commercial 5G launches later this year, which, in turn, will be followed by operators in Japan and South Korea in 2019. China, which finalised 5G spectrum band for trials almost a year ago, is slated to start pre-commercial 5G rollouts early next year.
The Indian government has set a rollout target for consumers by 2020, with the telecom department poised to unveil its 5G technology roadmap by June. The government has already committed budgetary support for a 5G technology test bed that will be anchored at the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai.
However, India’s operators are strapped for cash and averse to an early 5G spectrum sale. They want the government to defer it till FY20 so that there is time for the device ecosystem to develop and the industry to overcome its financial stress and consolidate completely.
“Before auctioning 5G spectrum, key preparatory issues would need to be fixed over the next one year, including the setting up of 5G standards designed for India-specific usecases in areas such as agriculture, healthcare; the issue of international harmonisation of spectrum, and collaborations between telcos and network vendors/app developers to ensure optimal use of present 4G network elements in transition, before migrating to 5G,” said Rajan Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India, which represents Bharti AirtelNSE -2.27 %, Vodafone India, Idea CellularNSE -2.54 % and Reliance Jio Infocomm.
Ericsson’s Bansal said the Swedish company “has the technical capability to offer its 5G network solutions to Indian carriers by mid-2019 itself,” but pointed out that compatible spectrum would need to be available first for its equipment to work and, more importantly, the government and industry must agree on when 5G spectrum should be auctioned in India.
The Indian government has earmarked 5G airwaves in the 3300-3400 MHz and 3400-3600 MHz bands for the next spectrum auction and has sought pricing recommendations from the telecom regulator. True clarity on the 5G spectrum bands is likely to emerge only after the World Radio Council finalises 5G spectrum allocations in 2019, based on which the ecosystem for this next-gen wireless technology will develop.
Telcos, though, are revving up their pre-deployment strategies.
Vodafone India, which is merging with Idea Cellular to create the country’s biggest phone company, said it has already brought 5G principles into its 4G networks by deploying technology that boosts the capacity of a base station by as much as seven times and cuts interference significantly.
Designing networks with the best latency is its immediate priority. The latency of a mobile broadband network is a measure of the delay experienced when a customer’s computer tries to access an internet server. If a telco runs a low-latency network, internet speeds will be greater.
“In a 5G scenario, as you connect more and more machines and you get into a world of augmented reality and virtual reality, latency becomes very important,” said a Vodafone India spokesman.
Market leader Bharti Airtel plans to leverage its digital innovation lab in Bengaluru to ring in 5G use-cases. Last month, the Sunil Mittal-led telco and China’s Huawei ran India’s first 5G network trial under a test setup at Bharti’s network experience centre in Manesar, near Gurgaon.
Reliance Jio has launched its own pan-India narrowband IoT network in partnership with Samsung Networks. It is also said to be working with a string of technology partners to develop 5G usecases relevant for India, although Jio did not share details.
Plenty of companies are talking about artificial intelligence and machine learning today in vague, disconnected terms. It will certainly influence our strategy; not sure how, but everything’s coming up AI, right?
As a pleasant antidote to all that bluff and bluster, how about this from John Stone, senior vice president of the Intelligent Solutions Group at agricultural manufacturing giant John Deere? “AI and machine learning is going to be as core to John Deere as an engine and transmission is.”
Make no mistake about it, these are certainly exciting times for the 180-year-old Deere & Company. The company has in the past several months acquired Blue River Technology, a machine learning-centric startup, as well as opened up a lab in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Yet this is just the way things have been done for some time at the company – it’s just the technology has changed with it.
Than Hartsock, director of precision agriculture solutions at John Deere, has been involved with the company for much longer than his almost 17-year tenure, having grown up on a commercial grain farm in Ohio. In the late 1990s, his education – Hartsock has degrees in soil and crop science – involved working on projects around soil sensing technologies. Deere acquired NavCom Technology, a provider of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) technology, at around the same time. “It was clear, even when I was in high school, that John Deere was uniquely committed to precision agriculture,” says Hartsock.
It was the Internet of Things long before anyone came up with a proper name for it. Yet this initial investment translates to a serious advantage for the company today. “Those early investments have allowed us to, I would say, position the integration of those components into our equipment into our machines, across machines, and into our dealerships,” explains Hartsock. “It went from ‘okay, this is something Deere is doing [and] it may not be completely clear why we’re doing it’, [and] now it’s at the forefront of our company. It’s how we think about our value proposition to the industry, to farmers, crop producers, and customers.”
No stone is left unturned, no crop is left unfurled – and this is where Blue River comes in. The company provides what it calls ‘see and spray’ technology, which utilises machine learning to process, in real-time, images of weeds and crops and tell the sprayer what and where to spray. It makes for a vast improvement on anything a human can do – but it remains important to keep human expertise.
“Farmers, and their advisors and contractors – these are individuals that bring decades and generations of knowledge about the practices, about the land that they farm,” says Hartsock. “The way we see it is the technology – even artificial intelligence and machine learning – provides them the tools to essentially extend and scale their knowledge.
“Imagine the smart spraying scenario... you could imagine an agronomist, a farmer needing to come into that field ahead of time,” Hartsock adds. “What’s the state of the crop? How much input do I want to invest in this crop at this stage? The machine is going to be able to discern between weeds and crops, but I need to decide economically, agronomically, how much I want to invest.”
Hartsock will be speaking at IoT Tech Expo Global in London on April 18-19, discussing how agriculture has become a prime example of optimising on connected technologies. Inside the industry technological advancement has never been clearer – but what about outside it?
Take self-driving cars as an example. You can’t move for hype and headlines around them, but what can they actually do today? Compared to a smart tractor, one can argue it’s mostly child’s play – and Hartsock wants to make clear how smarter machines and the IoT have ‘infiltrated’ agriculture.
“When you look at a planter and a tractor, in many cases, nearly all cases, that planter or that seeder will have a sensor on every row that’s measuring every seed and every row that’s dropped into the soil,” says Hartsock. “It will have a sensor that measures the motion of the planter row unit to make sure the row unit is keeping in close contact with the soil, and if it’s not maintaining contact, the sensor informs an actuator to apply more pressure to the row unit.
“That’s just the planter,” he adds. “The tractor is equipped with many sensors around the engine and transmission, and then that tractor, like most of our large ag machines, is equipped with a 4G modem that then provides connectivity between those sensors and data that’s being acquired, and then connected to the cloud.
“Once the data gets to the cloud we give the user, the farmer, the contractor, the authority over the data to dictate control and share with other partners and other companies,” Hartsock says. “You really then have this ecosystem that evolves, develops, for usage of the data… all generated out of the work that’s being done in the field by that smart machine.”
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