Research suggests autonomous, intelligent system is capable of warming fruit tree canopies, preventing frost damage.
Research suggests autonomous, intelligent system is capable of warming fruit tree canopies, preventing frost damage.
Spring frosts can have devastating effects on apple production, and a warming climate may be causing trees to blossom early, making them more susceptible to the damaging effects of extreme cold events. Growers’ attempts to prevent the flowers from freezing by attempting to heat the canopies of their orchards largely have been inefficient.
To deal with the worsening problem, Penn State researchers devised a frost protection cyber-physical system, which makes heating decisions based on real-time temperature and wind-direction data. The system consists of a temperature-sensing device, a propane-fueled heater that adjusts its direction and angle automatically depending on wind direction, and an unmanned ground vehicle to move the heating system through an apple orchard.
Recently published in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, the findings show that the cyber-physical frost-protection system greatly reduced damage to apple tree buds in two tests conducted in low temperatures. Compared to similar unprotected orchard sections nearby, deploying the cyber-physical frost-protection system in one test more than doubled the time the test-area canopy was protected, and nearly tripled the time in another.
Read more at Penn State
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