New Trends in Automation Applied to Monitor and Control Grain Quality in Silos

One of the major factors that affects food security is the loss of stored grain due to improper storage. Around 7% to 15% of the post-harvest grain is wasted because of unsuitable storage conditions. Automation systems are the solution and they should focus on controlling the temperature, humidity, and reduce/eliminate pest infestation in the storage facilities.This paper proposes an architecture for monitoring and control grain quality in silos. First, the storage process and silo subsystems (ventilation, cooling, drying and grain transport) are explained. Then, a deep state-of-the-art on grain quality parameters is conducted. A comprehensive synthesis is made on the monitoring and control requirements for the main parameters: temperature, humidity CO
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and hygroscopic balance. Finally, a resilient and scalable two-level architecture is proposed for suitable silo control and monitoring techniques. The local transducers communicate in a LoRA network and towards the control and supervisory level PLC via Modbus. This solution is reliable, with an hierarchical approach and assures process adapted communication links.