The issue of protecting equipment and machinery located on open fields is quite acute for Ukraine and the CIS countries. In fact, there are no ready solutions on the market that allow ensuring proper surveillance and protection without significant financial and labor costs. This situation allows malefactors to carry out theft and damage the equipment, causing significant losses to the owners.

With this kind of a problem 4 years ago, a customer, the owner of dozens of Frigate-type watering machines, contacted Atiko. His company suffered losses from regular thefts of expensive attachments.

Difficulties in organizing a security system for irrigation machines

The customer’s main request was to develop an security alarm for attachments (sprayers) of Frigate-type machines. From the first minutes it was obvious that in order to solve this problem it was necessary to find answers to a number of questions:

  • how to power the security system? Providing distant fields with electricity is unreasonably expensive and requires large labor costs.
  • how will attempted thefts be detected? It is necessary to receive information about the incident promptly, with the exact location, for the fastest response possible.
  • which sensors are the most suitable for this task: whether they are on the market or need to be developed;
  • in what form to visualize user cabinet for the most convenient use.

These and a number of other issues were studied in detail and the most suitable options were selected and then included in the solution developed by Atiko for the customer.

Organizing a security system for Frigate-type irrigation machines

To implement a security system for irrigation machines, a LoRaWAN network was deployed on the customer’s fields. Base stations for transmitting data packages were placed at a height of 14 meters and were located on masts, which made it possible to cover an area of ​​​​more than 1000 km2 with one station. This range was sufficient for this project, so no further measurements were made.

To ensure the safety of attachments, we chose the option of tying the supporting frame and sprayers with an FTP cable. The system is made in the form of closed circuits and is triggered in the event of a break, a change in resistance, or other sabotage attempts. In case of a network integrity breach, emergency messages are sent instantly.

The circuits are connected to the relay outputs of LoRa devices, and are divided into 5 zones. This allows you to receive more informative messages indicating the location of the circuit violation.

The power supply of the devices included in the network is organized by batteries with a nominal value of 12V 18 A/h.

Additionally, “Frigate” is equipped with a 120 dB howler and a light annunciator.

Logic of the solution

The LoRaWAN device operating in class A polls the relay outputs and sends data to the customer’s server every 10 minutes, with information about the status of security zones, battery charge, and communication quality.

In the event of a chain break, the howler turns on instantly and an emergency message is sent to the security post. This message contains information about the integrity violation of the security zone. This solves the problem of quickly determining the location of the incident.

Possible additions

Realizing that the solution to the problem of organizing the protection of irrigation machines is not the only customer issue that can be solved using the LoRaWAN network, Atiko offers its customers additional devices that can be added to the described solution. Thus it is possible to equip the system with:

  • GPS-trackers;
  • Humidity sensors on fields;
  • Sensors that measure the amount of spilled water etc;

It is possible to supplement the system with individual solutions that solve the necessary tasks. The possibility of implementing a specific solution can be clarified in the feedback form or by contacting us.

Security system software

Convenience is an important element for any system. Developing a solution for the customer, Atiko developed the terms of reference, wrote and continues to improve both the server and client parts.

The client part includes the visualization of all terminal devices and their status, the transmission of alarm messages to the security post.

Today it is possible to supplement the client part with additional controlling elements. Thus, it is possible to connect class C devices that work as centrals in indoor alarm systems to organize general protection of all assets. The most common option among our clients is to connect all warehouses and other premises with the organization of connecting security only from a remote controller that saves all information about the state, time, account through which the state of security devices changed.

The described project of the security system has been operating for more than 4 years and has recommended itself from an exceptionally positive side. On its basis, other projects of security systems were implemented, supplemented by solutions that are relevant for customers. You can learn more about other solutions in agriculture in the “Solutions” tab.