Problem description
Agriculture Victoria (Links to an external site.) (AV) works in partnership with farmers, industries, communities and other government agencies to grow and secure agriculture in Victoria. The agriculture sector has historically been of great economic importance for Australia, and now more than ever requires efficient and sustainable farming solutions. The AV investigates a possibility of development of new space-based positioning method using modern GNSS technologies for operations in the production of grain, pulse and oilseeds.
In this hypothetical scenario, the AV is seeking an expert advice from geospatial professionals to develop a new space-based GNSS positioning application to enable tractors to be accurately guided along designated wheel tracks, maximising the cropping area and, as a result, improving yields. The executives at AV believe that GNSS mobile technologies and Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) can be utilized to the benefit of farmers and other stakeholders (industry, communities and government agencies). They are also interested in utilising open-source map data such as OpenStreetMap (Links to an external site.) to possibly reduce their cost of operation. The particular requirements and objectives that the AV has outlined are:
- Increase of cropping area: An increase in cropping area is often associated with higher yields. The AV aims to investigate possibility to improve accuracy and precision for seeds to be sown precisely between rows by using new GNSS technologies. How would you increase a potential cropping area by using modern GNSS technologies?
- Weed and pest management: Weed and pest problems can significantly decrease grain production in Victoria. The AV plans to investigate possibility to use GNSS mobile technologies for accurate positioning to locate pest, insect, and weed infestations in the field. Thus, infested areas in crops can be mapped for future management decisions and input recommendations.The same collected data may be used by aircraft sprayers, enabling accurate navigation over fields without use of human guidance.
Your job is to use your knowledge, skills, and creativity to further investigate one of two problems and propose and demonstrate informed solutions. You will tackle this task in groups of three where you will work as a team of industry professionals. You must ensure that the work is justly divided between you and that you are all aware of all aspects of your projects. This is a collaborative effort, so you must work as a team on all tasks in this project. You will need to deliver a project proposal, a presentation, and a project outcomes report. The requirements for these submissions are described below.
Requirement 1
Write a literature review that demonstrates the current state in the industry and science regarding your selected problem. You should include at least five references.
Requirement 2
Present and discuss your solutions for the selected problem. You should address the following for each of your solutions:
- explain in detail how your solution works with all of its steps and processes;
- describe the methods, data and sensors used in your solution;
- evaluate your solution based on the accuracy and precision of the sensors used and quality of any additional data;
- discuss how your solution compares to the ones presented in the literature review;
- state if you have met your expected project outcomes and discuss the limitations of your solution; and
- discuss future improvements to your solution - what could you do if you would have more time and money?
Requirement 3
Using a small dataset, demonstrate the methods you have developed. You should include visualisations and at least one map with OpenStreetMap as the base layer (correct copyright credit (Links to an external site.) is required). Make sure to correctly handle your data in terms of different coordinate systems. Your reports should be readable and clearly explained. You must provide legends and captions for all tables, figures, and maps that clearly describe what is shown.
