Sensor Applications
The Sensors Technologies Program integrates
with most other programs in CSREES. Nearly
all aspects of production, processing, and
management in agricultural and food systems
(including forestry and natural resources)
involve measurement of product/resource attributes
(such as quantity, quality, size, condition)
or their environment (such as food impurities,
or agricultural/forest air, water, and soils).
Rural economies and their infrastructures
are also affected. Their biometric activities
include inspection, monitoring, tracking,
inventory, and valuation. The number of measurement
variables—and their measurement frequency
and level of detail—demands automated,
high-resolution, and rapid technologies.
In the interests of efficiency and wise stewardship,
increasingly voluminous data are collected
that must be further analyzed, interpreted,
and applied to support intelligent decision
making. Advances in biometrology and information
technologies are required to address our
need for timely and reliable information
that has temporal and spatial relevance.
Food safety and quality represent one of
the greatest public issues/concerns nationwide.
Safety and quality depend on inspection and
monitoring methods that can detect contaminants
and discriminate defective (or poor quality)
products. Whereas manual, microscopic, or
bio-assay inspections cannot be performed
quickly and accurately on 100 percent of
any food product, sensor and instrumentation
technologies currently under development
and testing promise to offer inspection capabilities
that are accurate, fast (in real time), and
consistent. These technologies can range
from detecting: internal bruising of apples
to 10 cells of Listeria (a particularly
virulent food pathogen) to insect infestations
in a ship's cargo of grain.
Environmental quality is another area where
sensor-based monitoring can be helpful. For
example, animal feeding operators can use
air quality monitoring around confined animals
to keep ammonia or odor emission within acceptable
limits. Water monitoring for nitrogen and
phosphorus runoff from agricultural lands
can help regulate freshwater algae blooms
and costal-zone hypoxia. An ability to quickly
and accurately measure carbon sequestration
in soils can facilitate more widespread application
of a carbon-credit and trading marketplace.
These types of measurement activities create
special problems, however, because the elements
being measured are molecular and they need
to be quantified over large land areas. Nevertheless,
these applications are scientifically possible;
it remains to develop the engineering and
technology capability to make them economical
and practical.
Remote sensing and animal health and feeding
applications are covered by the Precision
Farming program page.
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