Grain spoilage reduction using analytics and sensors

Graincare: Grain spoilage reduction using advanced analytics and sensors

Background

Rice is the second most produced food grain in the world with a world production of nearly 500 million tons of rice per year. Once harvested, the grains present in most cases a water level content higher than that required for its optimum conservation. Drying is intended to sufficiently reduce the moisture content of the grains to ensure favourable conditions of storage or subsequent processing of the product. If the moisture level is not correct during storage and production, it could lead economic losses due to germination, mold development, proliferation of insects and other.

Objective

The main objective of this project is the design and development of a robust, low-cost, simple and automated paddy monitoring system to estimate moisture level inside the grains during storage phase. The moisture content of paddy is to be estimated by correlating it to the ambient moisture and temperature level provided by the units.

Benefits

The technology developed is based on the use of wireless sensor nodes to measure humidity and temperature around the warehouse and report continuously to the cloud, and predict moisture content. This avoids human intervention, improve the storage process and reduce the spoilage of paddy. The system meets the need of precision farming allowing continuous and detailed monitoring of crops.

Brunel Innovation Centre's Role

• Sensors suite development
• Encapsulations design and prototyping
• Moisture determination algorithms
• Sensors locations optimization
• Assistance in field deployment

Project Partners

• Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology
• TN Foodgrains Marketing Yard 
• Nquiringminds 

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Related Research Group(s)

Brunel Innovation Centre - A world-class research and technology centre that sits between the knowledge base and industry.

Project last modified 12/10/2023