Open Access

Waldemar Raaz, Elias Böckmann, Elisabeth Götte, Gabriele Hack, Daniel Jahncke, Daniel Mentrup, Dennis Pape, Julio Pastrana, Thomas Rath, Leon Rehling, Niklas Stukenberg

• In the research project "Smart Checkpots - Optimized Plant Protection for Ornamental Plant Production", an automated, mobile monitoring system for pest infestation and beneficial insects as well as for temperature and humidity measurement is being developed. The system consists of “swarms” (representing a variable number) of networked Checkpots placed like “artificial plants” directly in the crop during the entire production process. Each Checkpot carries a yellow sticky card, a camera and a climate sensor and records an image of the yellow sticky card along with the current temperature and relative humidity at a selectable interval. These data are used for visualization of pest occurrence and fungal infestation risk as well as input parameters for decision support models for plant protection measures. An integrated radiometric recording of the Checkpot positions, based on Bluetooth Low energy 5.1 technology, ensures the permanent allocation of the collected data to the monitored crop sets, and enables a set-accurate decision on measures. This conference paper presents the results of the implementation and review of this concept. It is focused on the accuracy of position data acquisition during a three-hour parallel operation of three Checkpot prototypes in two horticultural enterprises with errorfree data transmission to a central computer every quarter of an hour. For image and climate data, only the basic feasibility had to be proven. Furthermore, first concepts concerning data and user interfaces were developed.