Development of an IoT gateway for precision farming

Precision farming is playing an increasingly important role in the cultivation of large agri­cultural areas in order to maximize crop yield and use available raw materials efficiently and cost-effectively. For a leading agricultural vehicle manufacturer, Sontheim has developed a telemetry system that enables precision farming for the driver and guarantees targeted plant sowing and fertilization. Taking into account the highest environ­mental requirements, Sontheim de­signed a gateway including a basic and an application firmware.

With the IoT gateway, the customer is able to detect and monitor the position of plant seeds (soy, corn, grain, etc.) sowing in real time and extremely accurately. This data is made available live to the driver via a mobile device and on the vehicle display. In the application, the user sees a map of his field to be cultivated. It shows exactly how much seed has been distributed at which location. In a second step the fertilization of the seed follows. It is necessary to apply the expensive fertilizers to the seeds in a targeted and optimized manner and to supply the grain with sufficient substrate for optimized growth. The user can access his stored operation data again. In an app, the machine operator sees in detail which parts of the field are optimally fertilized and in which parts there is still a need for optimization, e.g. by re-fertilizing. In this way, the yield can be increased and valuable resources can be saved at the same time.