Temperature and moisture are measured physically in a very small number of spots inside the grain. Although those values are presented as charts, like in traditional monitoring systems, the actual value comes through Centaur's proprietary modeling methodology. The user can get information about grain temperature and moisture content fluctuations reported by the Centaur® sensors in the “Charts” tab (figure 1).
Figure 1. Grain temperature fluctuations captured by Centaur® smart sensors and presented in a chart through the Internet-of-Crops® platform.
Centaur® Innovation
The Internet-of-Crops® platform creates a digital twin of the actual facility and runs a simulation to create very accurate estimations of temperature and moisture for the whole grain mass. The inputs for this simulation include the type of product, the quantity, the geometry/size of the storage facility, and the weather conditions in the area. Based on the same modeling approach, a number of important grain quality-related metrics are also calculated such as dry matter loss, mould development risk, and, germination capacity.
Figure 2. Grain mass modeling running on Internet-of-Crops® platform for each storage facility (asset).
Centaur's modeling is based on physics and the laws of thermodynamics which enables the accurate estimation of temperature and moisture for the entire product volume. The actual sensors are used by the system not as a traditional monitoring system but as a reference to compare the simulated values produced by the model/digital twin at the same positions where the sensors are placed. That's why sensors' positions are specified for each asset.
The modeled values are continuously compared with the sensor readings, and the model adapts, learns, and updates the whole temperature and moisture map accordingly. This is how the Internet-of-Crops® platform creates an accurate and representative map of temperature and moisture for the whole grain mass, for each storage facility, as if we had thousands of sensors inside the grain.
Figure 3. Centaur® architecture overview: the combination of Centaur® sensors and models to create the digital twin (map of temperature and moisture), and, Centaur's aeration autopilot (aeration/cooling controller).
The Use of Rules
The user can set up rules and thresholds above which an alert will be issued (see figure 2) and/or action can be decided (e.g. turn on a fan, an alarm, etc.).
The rules are based upon the digital twin model so that the system can take into account the grain conditions for the entire grain mass. For example, if the grain moisture content is above 13% at one side of the facility then a set of actions is triggered (alert, control signal, etc.).
If unfavorable temperature and/or moisture content values are detected, the user is advised to take grain samples and/or follow one of the remediation actions proposed here. Alternatively, if Centaur's aeration autopilot is installed the user may choose to change the status of an actuator to activate the grain conditioning machinery (aeration fans, cooling units, etc.) to maintain grain condition targets of temperature and/or moisture, and avoid spoilage and losses.
Figure 2. Setting rules and thresholds on each silo to receive customized alerts based on grain conditions.