Professor Bas van de Wiel, researcher in the 4TU Plantenna project talked to BNR about the FruitFrost project in which sensors are used to measure the temperature of plants and small windmills keep the ground frost-free. This is a lifesaver for farmers and horticulturists who presently have to leave their beds at night – often with their whole family – to save the plants. Hopefully, sensors will soon be able to indicate automatically whether help is needed and, ideally, take the necessary action themselves.
Listen to the podcast on BNR (in Dutch)
Plantenna – Internet of Plants
In Plantenna, one of the research programmes under the 4TU umbrella 'High Tech for a Sustainable Future', plants are fitted with sensors and linked together in an ‘internet of plants’. The readings collected are used for climate and weather monitoring and to achieve higher crop harvests through more efficient fertilisation and irrigation. Read more about this research group made up of scientists from the four Dutch universities of technology and led by Professor Peter Steeneken.
There is also a short animated film about the programme.
You can read more about FruitFrost in the article Towards a physics-based understanding of fruit frost protection using wind machines
Bas van de Wiel is Professor of Atmospheric Physics at TU Delft.