Connecting Field Data to Experts from All Over the World

The client has several research centres in different continents and works with expert agronomists
and geneticists from the United States, England, France, Australia and Indonesia. This project has 3
layers of challenges:
Remoteness of the site - it takes about one day to travel by car from the nearest airport
Managing multiple streams of data - from different experiments, collected by means of manual
survey and automated sensor network
Lack of infrastructure - internet connection is present, but it can be unreliable on the field,
which challenges the implementation of a fully cloud-based data system

After in-depth discussions with the researchers in charge of the programme, the project is broken
down into 2 streams: field instrumentation and field work management system, which go into a
single database with unified interface. The unified interface allows researchers to study the
complete set of attributes of the trees easily.
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case study agriculture
COCOA
Location South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Year 2013
Application Research, Operations
Client
Category
Multinational Corporation
Solutions Sentinel Infrastructure,
Sensor Network, Field Work
Management System
Background

Due to a combination of climate change, shrinking
labour pool, crop competition and rising cocoa demand,
the industry projected a significant deficit of up to 1
million ton in the year 2020.

Our client set up a centre in Indonesia to conduct
research and to facilitate knowledge transfer to cocoa
farmers. The project aims to ultimately increase
farmers productivity, improving their livelihood and
ensuring sustainable cocoa supply.
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BIOMACHINES CASE STUDY: COCOA

Field Instrumentation: Wireless Sensor Network Collecting Environmental Data 24/7

The purpose of this instrumentation is to study physiological
and microclimatological properties of cocoa trees in order
to determine the most effective agronomy practices such as
planting density and pruning. The system measures
parameters relating to weather, microclimate and soil
conditions.

BioMachines Team walked the client through the
instrumentation design process, starting from experiment
planning to on-site installation. The first milestone of this
project stream was to establish a reliable and scalable
wireless local area network that sends data from the trial
plots to the office.

The Sentinel Nodes are solar-powered. They collect data
from the connected sensors every 10 minutes and transmits
to the Sentinel Core that is several hundred meters away.
The key benefits of this wireless network system are:
Scalability: Sensors can be added to existing node and
new nodes can be added into the existing network easily.
Flexibility: During the installation process, there were a
number of changes in requirements from the client,
including changes in location and node configuration.
Due to the wireless nature of the sensor nodes and
flexibility in the architecture, these changes could be
implemented within one day.
Robustness: This project demonstrates that the Sentinel
Infrastructure is able to intensively instrument a large
area with high vegetation density using a completely
wireless solution.

















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Sensor 1
Sensor 2
Sensor 3
Sentinel
Core
(Gateway)
Local
Server
Sensor 4
Sensor 5
Sentinel
Node
Sentinel
Node
NucleuS
Field Work
Management
System
BIOMACHINES CASE STUDY: COCOA
Field Work Management System

Despite the convenience of data acquisition through an automated sensor network, it is more
economically viable to collect some types of data manually

In this case, the client has the specific requirement to track various characteristics of 40,000 unique
breeding clones planted over 20 hectares of research plots. There were local field staffs dedicated
to making observations, counting and recording notes using pen-and-paper methods.

BioMachines Team provided consultancy and training service, translating clients operational needs
into an end-to-end solution. The solution consists of the following components:
Near Field Communication (NFC) tag - a physical tag that provides digital identity to each tree
Mobile application development to facilitate data entry with easy synchronisation to the server
database
Operator training on the field to optimise workflow and user experience
The Next Step

The basic infrastructure for data collection has been established. There have been plans to expand
the capability of the system to include:
User access management system
Synchronisation between local database and cloud database whenever there is internet
connection
Mobile application with navigable map interface
Image analytics for detection of pest and diseases
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Before: Paper tag fell
to the ground,
markings fade and
trees were wrongly
identified.
After: Smart data
collection system using
NFC tag and tablet.
Trainings: Indoor
practice and field
practice.

BioMachines Pte Ltd
71 Ayer Rajah Crescent #07-05
Singapore 139951
www.biomachines.com
info@biomachines.com
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