A New Remote and Automated Control System for the Vineyard Hail Protection Based on ZigBee Sensors, Raspberry-Pi Electronic Card and WiMAX

A new inexpensive vineyard protection against hailstorm has been realized and tested. The system has been designed and organized in such a way to perform autonomously local activities to physically control the protection of the vineyard but also to transmit information toward a remote control. Each row has an “umbrella” designed by the authors which, unlike other commercial solutions, protects the product without hindering all the mechanical activities typical of a modern vineyard. Locally the single umbrella uses an electronic card for the management and a ZigBee mesh telecommunication network to transmit data to a central control unit which manages the protection. Because of its efficiency, a Raspberry-Pi control card has been chosen as central unit. Finally, a WiMAX connection was chosen to remotely control the system, thus allowing the authors to overcome distance limitations of commercial Wi-Fi networks. The system has been realized and tested for some months in field also during a hailstorm. The results of these tests proved how the system is easy to use and effectively protects against hail; moreover the authors proved the high reliability of the mechanical components which allow the authors to lower the maintenance costs.