Technology

The hardware and software that complement the real sensor – the plant.

Our field devices record the plant and environment basics so the cloud-based algorithm can interpret what the plant is telling you.

Transp-IR Solution

Data

Transp-IR records temp, humidity and solar radiation from the plant and the environment.

Information

Transp-IR software converts data into the Plant Water Index.

Knowledge

Transp-IR informs the grower with the Plant Water Index for each Transp-IR device.

Wisdom

The grower schedules irrigation based on the Plant Water Index and their experience.

Canopy devices

Each field device collects the basic data the plant would consider in determining how much it should transpire. That data is transmitted via 4G to a cloud service every 10 minutes throughout the day.

Each device is geotagged based on GPS coordinates creating a geospatial time series for each device that can be exported for numerous offline use cases.

Temperature and Humidity: At the heart of the field device are two infrared sensors that record leaf and ambient temperature as well as the relative humidity near the vines. The IR sensors have a 35^ofield of view that only tracks the temperature of the leaf canopy and not the surrounding soil. Two sensors are utilised looking in opposite directions at the vines to ensure proper recording of leaf temperatures throughout the day.

Solar radiation: As solar radiation is a key component of how well a plant is regulating its stomata, a solar panel is installed on the top of the unit recording solar radiation levels as well as recharging the battery.

4G and GPS: Each device is equipped with a combination 4G cellular and GPS chip providing both widespread communications coverage and pinpoint location accuracy of the unit.

Science behind the algorithm

Canopy temperature is a robust indicator of plant water status or stress as it relates to the canopy’s transpiration rate, which in turn is related to leaf stomatal conductance.

New crops or cultivars are only included in Transp-IR after a full season of research is conducted and then incorporated into the algorithm.

Stomatal conductance is crop and cultivar specific, therefore our algorithm is tuned to this specificity.