Rome, 13 July 2023 - Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome (UCBM) and ENEAIn partnership with University of Naples Federico II, they developed and tested sensors fiber optic tailor-made to apply directly on plants and fruits to monitor in a non-invasive way growth and health. From the results published in various scientific journals[1], solutions emerge for aagriculture planet e smart which uses technology to increase the quality and quantity of crops, in a global scenario increasingly characterized by climate changes e demographic growth.
“This research project was born from a collaboration between three research units of theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma – 'Biomedical measurements and instrumentation', 'Food sciences and nutrition' and 'Nonlinear physics and mathematical models' - and the ENEA Research Center in Frascati”, underlines Emiliano Schena, full professor of Mechanical and Thermal Measurements of UBCM. “The objective – he adds – is to develop 'wearable' technologies aimed at monitoring the microenvironmental and physiological parameters of the plant which find application in the field of precision agriculture. Through these technologies we want to extract information that allows us to improve plant management, from the optimization of agricultural production to the monitoring of plants, including ornamental ones".
The sensors created by the research group have different characteristics based on the parts of the plants where data is collected (stem, leaves or fruit). The scientists worked on very popular crops, such as tomatoes, melons and courgettes, and other plants particularly used by industry, such as tobacco.
“For this study we created two different fiber optic sensors: the first with an elongated shape was positioned on the stems of a tobacco plant and a tomato plant grown in the laboratory, while the second ring-shaped device was applied around a melosine and to one zucchini grown outdoors,” he explains Michael Caponero, researcher of the Laboratory ENEA of Micro and Nanostructures for Photonics and co-author of the study. “In both cases – he continues – the sensors demonstrated anHigh sensitivity in detecting plant growth, such as the elongation of the stem in the case of tobacco and tomato and the variation of the circumference in the case of the fruit, both in protected conditions and in the field, where we have recorded significant variations in environmental conditions in terms of temperature, humidity and lighting, even They are monitored thanks to appropriately functionalized fiber optic sensors”.
Fiber optic sensors are increasingly emerging as efficient and reliable tools for non-invasive monitoring in agriculture: they can be made to measure to make them easily anchorable to the different parts of the plant. Furthermore, they are biocompatible and have a very flexible structure as they are made of silicone-coated optical fibers. Their performance is guaranteed by ahigh sensitivity to deformation, which in the case of plants corresponds to their development, fromreliability of the signal and the miniature size as well as from a reduced weight.
“Our sensors have proven to be able to monitor all these fundamental aspects for plant development, in 'symbiosis' with the crop itself,” he adds Caponero.
The Biomedical Measurements and Instrumentation Research Unit of UCBM she worked in particular on the creation of wearable sensors based on optical fibers. They use polymer matrices that allow the sensor to be anchored to plants. These sensors allow you to monitor parameters such as relative humidity or temperature but also to extract useful information on the health of the plant, such as how much it is growing, and overcome some of the limitations currently present in the technologies used today in precision agriculture. “The instruments currently in use do not allow continuous monitoring of parameters or high performance in terms of time, space, sensitivity and accuracy,” he concludes. Schena.
So far, various remote sensing applications have been used to control plant growth, such as spectroscopy or drones, which however are not very suitable for timely, accurate and continuous monitoring; in fact, for a farmer who wants to optimize plant development it is essential to know in a timely manner the influence of environmental factors on crop productivity, such as soil humidity and temperature which influence the efficiency in the use of water from part of the plants. Drought and waterlogging can also cause a deficit in the absorption of energy and mineral nutrients, leading to a decrease in plant growth and the nutritional value of its edible parts.
Currently, appropriately functionalized fiber optic sensors are mainly used in the medical field, through hi-tech clothing that allows continuous and real-time monitoring of some fundamental parameters for human health, developed by the ENEA Laboratory of Micro and Nanostructures for Photonics, in collaboration with UCBM, in the context of TECHEA project - Technologies for Health
[1] IEEE Sensors Journal, Biosensors and Bioelectronics e Sensors.
