Browsing by Author "Alaiso, Sami"
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- Decision support system for agricultural contracting
School of Electrical Engineering | Master's thesis(2012) Alaiso, SamiA trend towards using more sophisticated information technology can be observed in agricultural applications. This trend has shifted and will continue to shift the focus towards precision farming, or more generally precision agriculture. In this thesis, a Decision Support System is proposed for the purpose of improving the efficiency of agricultural contracting in general. The work can roughly be divided into two parts. Firstly, a portable user interface is proposed for the purpose of informing and advising the operator. This is achieved using a client/server architecture using the 3G network for data transfer. Secondly, a heuristic algorithm for determining the optimal order of visits to job sites is developed based on the underlying mechanics of the contracting process. The user interface software was developed and implemented on an Android-capable device in Java programming language. Java was the choice for all other supporting software also. These include the server backend and ordering interface over the internet. For optimization purposes, a model of the contracting process was derived based on interviews with six contractors. The optimization algorithm was developed to be as general as possible so that it can be applied for most common crop farming tasks. The supported features are shortest path, time windows and resource constraints. The algorithm also allows dividing tasks into multiple subtasks with precedence constraints. Based on an existing meta-heuristic called Ant Colony Optimization, several modifications were made in order to be applicable for the constraints imposed by the derived model of the process. During the fall of 2012 data was collected from the operations of one test contractor. The data was analysed in detail, and a problem scenario was formed based on the collected data and solved using the developed algorithm. This yielded a route slightly shorter than the one actually taken. - Teollisten prosessien suorituskyvyn seuranta
Elektroniikan, tietoliikenteen ja automaation tiedekunta | Bachelor's thesis(2008) Alaiso, Sami