RomAgrar

• O1. Investigation of UAV-UGV network functionality and data fusion for sustainable agriculture, including fundamental principles, design challenges, and key risks. Considering that external agricultural data may come from diverse sources with heterogeneous or inconsistent semantics, the team will explore high-level fusion within the UAV-UGV system. This approach will integrate object-specific and contextual information to characterize complex agricultural scenarios, extract insights on current and future crop states, and enable automated decision-making.

• O2. Design of an ad-hoc network architecture for challenging terrains and high-risk crops. The WSN+UGV→UAV transmission chain operates without a base station, with UAVs serving as data repeaters to relay information across areas to the nearest gateway, using IoT and Big Data technologies for efficient transmission.

• O3. Validate the architecture via real-time outdoor testing and integrate results into Cloud-based Big Data platforms. Collaboration with local farmers will identify optimal test locations. The team’s prior experience ensures efficient data integration from WSN+UGV→UAV chains into accessible Cloud databases.

• O4. Optimize the transmission chain and retest outdoors, evaluating reliability, energy efficiency, and cost. The network is modular, scalable, and reconfigurable, allowing replacement of individual modules without affecting overall functionality. 

Conclusion: The project proposes a novel UAV-assisted ad-hoc network to maintain connectivity in low-coverage hilly/mountainous areas for agriculture in Romania, optimized through real-world testing.