Automation in the field of agriculture has grown over the last decade or more and continues to grow at a rapid pace.  Some of the areas where IT and Automation can be implemented in the field of agriculture are as follows:

• Irrigation - drip and other methods with need based nutrient supply. 

• Soil fertility and moisture at every plant level especially in Organic farming and produce.

• Monitoring of Green houses for optimum temperature, fertility or soil, moisture and general wellness for plant/crop growth.

• Vision and AI based harvesting solutions - selection by readiness of color and size. 

• Vision and AI based product sorting and packing - based on color, size, shape and weight.

• Monitoring and Automation of  Warehousing and storage.

• Monitoring and Automation of the Cold Chain and Reefer network end to end.

• Process Automation - processing of raw material at the plant, from treating, cleaning, sorting etc. of the entire raw material to the final packaging or bottling of the end product.

• Labelling, tagging, bar coding, stamping for easy differentiation and categorization etc.

• Monitoring and Automation of the last mile delivery to a network of distributors, retailers and customers. Maintaining the same standards with complete automation solutions to ensure product traceability and analysis.

Continuous sampling of input raw materials in industries like Agriculture, Food & Beverage etc. involves many iterations due to distributed sourcing, throughout the entire process, which are automated using a range of Vision based (cameras etc.) systems, Polytec NIR Spectrometers (nutrient level, composition, adulteration etc.) and Machine Vision (bar code readers etc.) for packaging and forwarding.  Polytec NIR Spectrometers with their range of distance, contact or immersive sensor heads, for real-time and sustained sampling of raw material on the field, during harvesting or on the conveyor belt based on your production and process needs helps quick interventions during the process to save costs.  Imagine your Organic produce showing traces of chemical contamination? How will you know and monitor in a continuous process? 

 

Process analytics can be used throughout the entire production chain: when inspecting incoming goods, during production (either online in the form of automatic sampling while bypassing process control, or inline in the form of automatic sampling directly during the process) and during final production. Polytec NIR Spectrometers, are easy to use and robust and based on dispersive diode array technology – a popular choice.

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Improving the production process to ensure consistent product quality is a continuous effort.  The objective is to produce the best product, using the best raw material, thereby reducing wastage, reducing costs, increasing efficiency and increasing profitability.  An optimized and well regulated process helps deliver quality products which build customer trust and healthy customer interactions.