The Forum - 08/21/2004
Field of the future: 'Smart dust' sprinkled on farming industry
By Gerry Glimour, The Forum
Tiny sensors planted in a sugar beet field south of Fargo gather data vital to helping the crop reach its harvest potential.
"It can influence everything - from the timing of fungicide or deciding whether to use it at all," says Alex Warner.
The president of fledgling Pedigree Technologies is in this field demonstrating the potential of "smart dust" to representatives of American Crystal Sugar Co.
Smart dust is the industry tag given to radio frequency identification technology taken to a new level. The same technology that will reshape the retail world - replacing UPC codes with tiny transmitters - is expected to invade all aspects of commerce through the use of wireless sensor networks.
Smart dust technology is being touted as a management tool in everything from retail, manufacturing and transportation to security, home health care and pharmaceuticals.
Warner and his backers believe it shows promise for providing cost savings and productivity gains for the Red River Valley's growers and food processors.
Pedigree operates out of Research II, the newest building in North Dakota State University's Research & Technology Park. It is one of a number of companies looking for a niche in the emerging RFID field.
RFID startups is what NDSU and local economic development officials were hoping for when they successfully wooed Alien Technologies to Fargo.
Tony Grindberg, director of the research park, says Pedigree is a perfect fit in NDSU's strategy of attracting and nurturing RFID upstarts.
"We're investing in a major way in RFID technology as part of our overall strategy. What Alex (Warner) is doing just adds value to what we are doing, and it makes sense for us to help make him successful," Grindberg says.
Alien Technologies, with a presence on campus as well as a leased production space in southwest Fargo, plans to mass-market retail RFID tags.
In their simplest use, RFID tags can be used to categorize and track items in supply chains and retail settings.
Pedigree's smart dust sensors not only provide information about location, but gather data and deliver it via antennas to the Internet.
Small, low-powered, long-lasting batteries and advances in wireless radio micro circuitry make the technology affordable, according to Warner.
Warner grew up on the farm. His father, Mike Warner, still grows sugar beets near Hillsboro, N.D. Warner studied communications and plant sciences at NDSU and earned a degree in business information systems at St. Cloud (Minn.) State University.
He worked for technology companies in Los Angeles and Minneapolis before deciding to move back to the Red River Valley.
"I made the decision right after the dot.com bust," he says. Warner says he was especially interested in U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan's proposal to nurture emerging technology in what was dubbed the Red River Valley Research Corridor.
Pedigree is backed by a group of investors that includes Derrick Oien. The former MP3.com executive is president of InterCasting Corp., a California wireless company.
Oien says Warner is on to something in applying smart dust to agriculture and food manufacturing. "So far, we haven't seen a lot of people focusing this technology on agriculture specifically. It's really an area where you could see great productivity gains," Oien says.
Pedigree landed a demonstration project contract with American Crystal. In a 16-acre sugar beet field just south of Oxbow Country Club, four sensors - mounted on posts - act as though they are leaves.
The sensors are set just beneath the knee-high leaf canopy protecting the beet.
Every five minutes the sensors read and relay to a computer, readings on temperature, humidity, leaf wetness and soil moisture.
Al Cattanach, a field agronomist with American Crystal, says accurate and timely data from a field could result in big savings for growers.
An application of fungicide or fertilizer costs about $20 an acre. Spread among American Crystal's 500,000 acres, eliminating just one treatment based on field information could result in $10 million in savings, he says.
Timely data can help growers prevent disease to plants, he says.
"It's going to be interesting to watch," Cattanach says of the technology. "Ideally, if you know what you are dealing with, you can get things controlled before they start."
The North Dakota Agricultural Statistics Service has less-specific data stations set up on a county-by -county basis. While the information can be a guide to growers, it can't tell them exactly what's taking place in their field.
"That's a macro perspective. This is a micro perspective," Warner says.
Wireless sensor networks can be set up much quicker and easier than hard-wired networks.
Pedigree has proposed setting up wireless networks this fall in sugar beet piles. The hope is that sensors can detect pockets of heat buildup before rising temperatures begin to break down sugar content, according to David Berg, American Crystal's vice president of operations.
The next step is to take the technology into food storage and processing. Properly set up, a "second-tier" wireless sensor network can not only detect problems but correct them by triggering fans or thermostats to correct conditions, Warner says.
Berg says there is already considerable monitoring going on at American Crystal's three valley beet processing plants - but all of that monitoring is hard-wired. "We could do a lot more than what we are doing now, with wireless technology," he says.
Berg says the wireless sensors could also be used on equipment, monitoring temperature and vibration to avoid breakdown during processing season.
"There are just about limitless things that could be done with this technology," Berg says. "We've done a lot of brainstorming. But the truth is, we have a lot of work to do before we turn that brainstorming into practical reality."
Readers can reach Forum reporter Gerry Gilmour at (701) 241-5560.
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