The goal of EFFiTiLL is to develop an integrated system to optimize the efficiency of soil tillage and reduce fuel consumption.
Main Objective
Software Development
Hardware Development
Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts
Active involvement of producers
The Need
The rapid rise in fuel prices, as well as production costs, lead the producers to constantly look for ways to reduce costs.
Soil treatments have the highest fuel consumption of all the operations a crop requires, often exceeding 50% of total fuel consumption.
This, combined with the social need for environmentally friendly agriculture, makes producers look for ways to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
In addition, high crop yields are related to the quality of soil treatment, which provides the environment for seed germination and root system development.
EFFiTiLL Software
EFFiTiLL will develop an innovative, integrated and market-ready system.
Specifically, EFFiTiLL will develop software to facilitate the control of operations, providing the tractor operator with real-time information in the event of inadequate tillage.
The aim is to prevent damage and improve the quality of the operation, while appropriate operating parameters to reduce fuel consumption will be proposed.
At the same time, soil data will be stored, to evaluate the quality of the treatment and calculate its cost.
Our Approach
The innovation of EFFiTiLL is the utilization of the GUTD (Gear-Up Throttle-Down) methodology, which combined with the analysis of all existing forces (traction, vertical, lateral) during the operation results in a fuel reduction of up to 50%.
As part of the project, we will develop hardware for measuring the forces as well as an application for smartphones available for Android and iOS, which will be used as an Operator Control Unit (OCU) and act as a dashboard in the operator’s tractor cabin.
This also makes it possible to use the system on older technologically tractors that do not have electronic equipment.
Impact
EFFiTiLL promises to meet the basic needs of producers such as:
- Reduce energy consumption by up to 50%
- Less CO2 emissions up to 30%
- Higher yields, due to well-treated soil
- Optimized irrigation, consuming less water
- Less use of pesticides, providing additional income for the producers
- Increasing competitiveness and allowing small producers access to smart farming solutions