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Smart farming based on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies enables crop farmers to collect real-time data related to irrigation and plant protection processes, aiming to increase production volume and improve product quality, predict diseases, while optimizing resources and farming processes. Digital Ecosystem Utilisation (in short CYSLOP) is a use case of the Internet of Food and Farm 2020 (IoF2020) project that aims to demonstrate IoT solutions in vegetable farms in Cyprus and Slovenia. More particularly, this chapter is focused on the pilots taking place in Cyprus. The use case objectives are (i) to drive IoT uptake in countries where IoF2020 was not initially present, (ii) to prove the sustainability of those IoT interventions cost-wise and environmentally wise, and (iii) to unveil their potential for postfarm and/or consumer-oriented applications. In this chapter, however, the writers concentrate on (a) studying the current state of the art in IoT in agriculture, their applications and implications, (b) analyzing the prospects and problems of smart farming through a case study of installation of IoT devices in Cyprus, under the IoF2020 project, (c) discussing business models associated with smart farming proposed solutions, and (d) presenting technical approaches to expand multivendor IoT offerings, regionally. The selected pilot areas are located in the mountainous Limassol district where the cultivations under study are aronia, goji berries, and raspberries (four plots), and in coastal Ammochostos district with two plots of open-field strawberries and cherry tomatoes (under hydroponic cultivation). The expected environmental, economic, and social impacts involve efficiency improvement in terms of pesticide and water use reduction between 5% and 10%, respective cost reduction of 10%, reduction of farm visits by 20%, and more than 20 newly deployed IoT devices. Lastly, by incorporating innovative traceability technology, this use case is among the first to integrate information from the entire food value chain (from farm to fork) to a marketplace, offering elaborate value propositions to users. The aim of this work is to guide the reader through the multidisciplinary approach needed for a successful IoT agrifood project execution, to unveil the complex technical, business, and support relationships that these inherit, and to pave a way to make it a sustainable and replicable case for the digital transformation of the local sector.

The goal of this study was to evaluate a radio program as a source of agricultural information and examine the relationship between specific socioeconomic characteristics and listenership. The find...

This article presents the design aspects and development processes to transform a general-purpose mobile robotic platform into a semi-autonomous agricultural robot sprayer focusing on user interfaces for teleoperation. The hardware and the software modules that must be installed onto the system are described, with particular emphasis on human–robot interaction. Details of the technology are given focusing on the user interface aspects. Two laboratory experiments and two studies in the field to evaluate the usability of the user interface provide evidence for the increased usability of a prototype robotic system. Specifically, the study aimed to empirically evaluate the type of target selection input device mouse and digital pen outperformed Wiimote in terms of usability. A field experiment evaluated the effect of three design factors: (a) type of screen output, (b) number of views, (c) type of robot control input device. Results showed that participants were significantly more effective but less efficient when they had multiple views, than when they had a single view. PC keyboard was also found to significantly outperform PS3 gamepad in terms of interaction efficiency and perceived usability. Heuristic evaluations of different user interfaces were also performed using research-based HRI heuristics. Finally, a study on participants’ overall user experience found that the system was evaluated positively on the User Experience Questionnaire scales.

This paper presents a taxonomy of design guidelines for robot teleoperation developed from a focused literature review of robot teleoperation. A list of user interface design guidelines was assembled, open card sorting and a focus group were used to classify them, and closed card sorting was employed to validate and further refine the proposed taxonomy. The initially obtained set of 70 guidelines is grouped into eight categories: platform architecture and scalability, error prevention and recovery, visual design, information presentation, robot state awareness, interaction effectiveness and efficiency, robot environment/surroundings awareness, and cognitive factors. Agricultural robots were used as an application case study for implementation and field evaluation. The proposed guideline taxonomy was used heuristically to evaluate the usability of an existing user interface of a teleoperated agricultural robot.

Teleoperation of an agricultural robotic system requires effective and efficient human-robot interaction. This paper investigates the usability of different interaction modes for agricultural robot teleoperation. Specifically, we examined the overall influence of two types of output devices (PC screen, head mounted display), two types of peripheral vision support mechanisms (single view, multiple views), and two types of control input devices (PC keyboard, PS3 gamepad) on observed and perceived usability of a teleoperated agricultural sprayer. A modular user interface for teleoperating an agricultural robot sprayer was constructed and field-tested. Evaluation included eight interaction modes: the different combinations of the 3 factors. Thirty representative participants used each interaction mode to navigate the robot along a vineyard and spray grape clusters based on a 2 x 2 x 2 repeated measures experimental design. Objective metrics of the effectiveness and efficiency of the human-robot collaboration were collected. Participants also completed questionnaires related to their user experience with the system in each interaction mode. Results show that the most important factor for human-robot interface usability is the number and placement of views. The type of robot control input device was also a significant factor in certain dependents, whereas the effect of the screen output type was only significant on the participants' perceived workload index. Specific recommendations for mobile field robot teleoperation to improve HRI awareness for the agricultural spraying task are presented. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.