Agricultural operation with SCADA-monitored irrigation and equipment

Agriculture Industry Reference

Eliminate Down-time and Improve Quality

Adroit SCADA, Adroit Connect and Mitsubishi Electric drives help agricultural producers monitor, control and grow their operations - from greenhouses to sugar cane irrigation.

Adroit Solutions in the Agriculture Industry

The Agriculture Industry is vast and complex, and the Adroit SCADA is ideally suited to assist in the efficient monitoring and control of even the most complicated production plant. The product's time-tested and proven reliability sees large producers using it to safely run these valuable and strategic assets.

R&D

Research and development of software for Automation, SCADA, MIS and MES solutions, all undertaken by our own in-house team.

Production

Production of industrial software products that power SCADA and automation across the agricultural sector.

Sales & Marketing

Sales and marketing of Adroit software products through a long-established dealer and partner network.

Training

Training of customer engineers and operators on every Adroit software product, on-site or at our training academy.

Support

Technical support for installed Adroit systems, keeping plants running across South Africa and beyond.

Technical Services

A professional services arm - Adroit Technologies Technical Services - that consults on and develops customised industrial IT, MIS and MES solutions for customers.

Adroit SCADA

Capabilities and Benefits

A holistic operations management platform purpose-built for the rigour and quality demands of the agriculture sector.

Process Visualisation

Real-time graphical representation of plant operations, giving operators full visibility of the process at a glance.

Process Events and Alarm Management

Capture, prioritise and respond to plant events and alarms before they become disturbances.

Quality Management

Built-in tools to enforce consistent product quality across every step of the production process.

Historical Data Logging and Trending

Long-term data capture with rich trending so operators can spot patterns and make informed control adjustments.

Fully Object-Oriented

A truly object-oriented architecture that scales from small standalone plants to enterprise-wide deployments.

Process Improvement / Built-in Auditing

Auditing functionality baked into the platform, supporting continuous process improvement initiatives.

Reporting and Analysis

Templated and ad-hoc reporting tools that turn plant data into actionable intelligence.

Integration into Business Applications

Open architecture for integration with ERP, MIS, MES and other business-critical applications.

Where We Help

Targeted Areas, Challenges, Solutions

Targeted Areas

  • Crops / Vegetables
  • Chickens
  • Dams / Reservoirs
  • Irrigation
  • Greenhouses

Challenges

  • Management Systems
  • Efficiency Monitoring
  • Remote Monitoring
  • Reporting

Solutions

  • SCADA
  • Adroit Connect
  • PLC / HMI
  • VSD / Solar VSD
  • RTU
Adroit Connect agricultural system architecture - sensors, modems, Cloud Portal and SCADA
Mitsubishi Electric variable speed drives, HMI panel and Ethernet cabling

Adroit Connect

Remote monitor and control from any device, anywhere

Adroit Technologies' ultra-intuitive Adroit Connect modems seamlessly connect and integrate with any device using the Modbus Serial protocol, giving you the power to remotely monitor and control your device from our online Cloud Platform.

The Adroit Cloud Portal is easy to use, and it also allows you to remotely control and program all the parameters of your device, while also being able to view all current and historical data. The portal can be accessed on any Smartphone, PC or Tablet device from any location with an internet connection.

BASIC

Simple app only. App access via the Adroit Cloud Portal.

SCADA

All the functionality of the BASIC package, with remote SCADA polling.

High Resolution

5 min poll times. App access via the Adroit Cloud Portal.

Low Resolution

30 min poll times. App access via the Adroit Cloud Portal.

Mitsubishi Electric solar-powered pump controller schematic

Mitsubishi Electric

Solar-powered Pump Controllers for irrigation

Mitsubishi Electric has developed a solar power-operated Pump Controller, which converts DC power to drive the AC induction motor of a water pump and controls its functioning. Its current offerings, the E12 series of drives, are more efficient, compact, and easy to maintain. These models have simple operational functions and built-in application-specific dedicated features. The operation capacity of these pump controllers (the FR-D 700 & FR-E 700 series) ranges from 3hp to 10hp. Mitsubishi Electric also offers an operation capacity of up to 60 hp with its FR-A800 series of drives.

With an ability to work on solar and grid supply, these controllers have advanced built-in features including MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) / optimised output frequency control, automatic restart functions, dry-run detection, flow rate monitor and remote monitoring functions.

Variable Speed Drives

ME VSDs help farms grow their operations

Three-phase power is often unavailable in rural and remote locations, which is a primary reason why farmers struggle to grow their operations. Any farm looking to run larger fans and motors to help increase storage and handling capacity has thus far been forced into using traditional solutions such as rotary phase converters, which are costly, have big capacitor banks and a high amp draw, running up electricity bills and erasing profits.

Mitsubishi Electric VSDs allow a three-phase motor to run from a single-phase electric supply without a phase converter, facilitating greater power and lower energy consumption.

Mitsubishi Electric variable speed drive family

Applications

Adroit in the field

From bananas in Mpumalanga to sugar cane in Tanzania and wine in the Cape, Adroit SCADA is trusted by some of the region's largest agricultural producers.

Umbhaba Estates - South Africa

A well-known large agricultural enterprise in Mpumalanga that supplies around 15% of the South African banana market. Using the Adroit system and the Adroit Notify and Command Agent, plant houses are alarmed and any disturbances notify the associated farm manager via SMS.

Stand-Alone Configuration - 25 000 Scan Points

Golden Macadamia Nuts - South Africa

Replaced an existing Rockwell RSView32 SCADA with an Adroit system, enabling communication with various PLC systems. The project included re-engineering existing graphics and engineering for an extra drying room added to accommodate growing supply from farmers.

Stand-Alone Configuration - 25 000 Scan Points

Klawer Winery - South Africa

Ana-Digi Systems and Adroit Technologies teamed up for the Klawer project in 2005 to deliver a no-nonsense, easy-to-use, reliable wine tank control system with world-class support and backup - ensuring Klawer remains one of the major players in producing quality wines from this Namaqualand valley.

Stand-Alone Configuration - 300 Scan Points, 1 Remote Client

Kagera Sugar - Tanzania

Sugarcane growing and sugar production operation along the River Kagera using Centre Pivot Irrigation, Reel Irrigators and Overhead Sprinklers. The plant has about 8 000 tags and 3 500 scanned I/O, with around 80 PID controllers and tuning trends monitored by the Adroit system. Trending is used extensively for control adjustments, with printers in each of three control rooms.

Stand-Alone Configuration - 5 000 Scan Points, 4 Remote Clients

Solar Powered Pump Station - Spain

Why Mitsubishi Electric Inverters?

  • Embedded logic control (PLC): a simpler architecture
  • Special functionality: Double PID to keep the DC voltage on the panels and the pressure of the pipe, at the same time
  • Lower power consumption (OEC)
  • Possibility to feed the inverter via DC or AC voltage

Adroit Technologies in Agriculture

Questions often asked.

Crops and vegetables, poultry, dams and reservoirs, irrigation systems and greenhouses - anywhere the operation can benefit from real-time monitoring, alarm management, historical trending and quality reporting.

Adroit Connect is a Modbus Serial cellular modem that links field devices to the Adroit Cloud Portal. Farmers can monitor, control and program devices remotely from a smartphone, PC or tablet, choosing BASIC, SCADA, High-Resolution (5 min) or Low-Resolution (30 min) packages.

Yes. Mitsubishi Electric VSDs allow a three-phase motor to run from a single-phase electric supply without a phase converter, facilitating greater power and lower energy consumption - far more efficient and economical than traditional rotary phase converters.

The Mitsubishi Electric E12, FR-D 700 and FR-E 700 series cover 3-10 hp pump-controller applications, with the FR-A800 series extending up to 60 hp. All include MPPT, automatic restart, dry-run detection and remote-monitoring functions, and can run on solar or grid supply.

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