Ubiquitous SCADA Systems On Agricultural Applications

Ubiquitous computing and communications concepts are well suited for modern SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems for agricultural applications, not only to the higher levels, but also to the field level. To obtain a ubiquitous SCADA system, the integration of multiple computing and communications platforms is needed; however it raises the heterogeneity level of the system. A middleware-based environment with platform independence characteristics is then needed and will work like the integrator medium. Such environment is achieved by using the Java and Jini Technologies. Those two technologies are usually applied in the traditional computation resources and networks, utilized on the higher levels of SCADA systems, however it is also possible to use them in field level, where we can find microcontroller based systems, industrial communications such as CAN (controller area network), low cost narrow band RF (radio frequency), IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth. To support all these features a software deployment framework Jini-based was developed, to deal with the supervision and management layers of the SCADA system. Furthermore, it will manage the application´s deployment allowing the automated distribution of Jini implementation files and services remote interfaces.