CS 501

6 March 2007

Models in Potato Pest Management (LateBlight)

Client: Professor William Fry

Sharmin Azam Christopher Brickley

Nathan CormierLedet KinfuCathryn Lao

Ashwath Murthy Abhishek Sharma

CS 501

6 March 2007

2

Models in Potato Pest Management

Purpose• Application readily available (esp. to farmers)

• Allow farmers to use complex mathematical models to make predictions on their own crops

• Predict severity of late blight (crop infestation)

CS 501

6 March 2007

3

Models in Potato Pest Management

Scope • Enhance the existing Polux software

• Additional user interface which will allow farmers to use the application

• Obtain weather data from Web sources

CS 501

6 March 2007

4

Models in Potato Pest Management

Objectives and Criteria for Success

• Connect to Web weather services to add forecasted data• Import historical weather data from the farmer • Edit weather data values • Read cultivar, fungicide and severity information from farmer • Provide late blight treatment options with editable times of fungicide

application dates • Run a simulation to predict late blight severity• Easy to use application, usability for farmers with little computer

knowledge

CS 501

6 March 2007

5

Models in Potato Pest Management

Terminology

• Late blight – devastating potato plant disease occurring on the leaves of plants (Phytophthora infestans)

• Polux – Delphi-based software application providing late blight severity simulations

• SAS – Statistical Analysis System; a SAS equivalent of the Polux late blight model is available

CS 501

6 March 2007

6

Models in Potato Pest Management

Organizations Involved • Cornell Plant Pathology

• Cornell Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

• Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP)

CS 501

6 March 2007

7

Models in Potato Pest Management

Description of Current Systems• Windows application written in Delphi

• Source code available, free development tools

• In contact with original developers

• Redesign interface of existing program

– Current system: complex, multi-tiered menus

– New system: Emphasis on ease of use

CS 501

6 March 2007

8

Models in Potato Pest Management

Polux Demo

CS 501

6 March 2007

9

Models in Potato Pest Management

Overview …• User Characteristics

– Potato Farmers • intended users • well-aware of the late blight disease, fungicide usage, and how both

affect their harvest. • basic knowledge of the personal computer and have an internet

connection

– Client • secondary user , comprehensive understanding • provide us with input regarding the software and also what features

potato farmers would normally expect from the software

CS 501

6 March 2007

10

Models in Potato Pest Management

… Overview• User operations and practices

– one broad function: to run the late blight disease and fungicide models, and display the results given certain input parameters

– Prepare and input historical weather data

– Input other data (treatment and weather forecast)

– Run simulation and view output

CS 501

6 March 2007

11

Models in Potato Pest Management

… Overview• General constraints

– Weather location

– Weather data

– Programming language

– Existing software

CS 501

6 March 2007

12

Models in Potato Pest Management

… Overview• Hardware Interfaces

– desktop computer or a laptop

• Software Interfaces – Polux source code integrated with the new software

– Microsoft Windows operating system.

CS 501

6 March 2007

13

Models in Potato Pest Management

… Overview• Communication Interfaces

– Internet in order to send requests to NWS

– program interacts with a web service provided by the NWS in order to receive forecast information

CS 501

6 March 2007

14

Models in Potato Pest Management

Functional Requirements …• Retrieve and Process Weather Forecast

– Retrieve weather forecast from the National Weather Service

– Inputs – latitude and longitude of the farm

– Processing – send a request to NWS to retrieve weather information given the latitude and longitude

– Outputs – date, time, temperature, and relative humidity on an hourly basis; rainfall on 3-hour intervals. Forecast will be from the time the request was made to the next seven days.

CS 501

6 March 2007

15

Models in Potato Pest Management

… Functional Requirements • Receive and Process Historical Weather

– Receive historical weather information from user

– Inputs – date, time, temperature, and relative humidity on an hourly basis, rainfall in 3-hour intervals. The historical data should be up to one hour before the time of the first forecast data.

– Outputs – validated inputs

CS 501

6 March 2007

16

Models in Potato Pest Management

… Functional Requirements • Receive Treatment Information

– Inputs• Emergence date• End of epidemic or simulation date• Potato cultivar – resistant, moderately resistant, susceptible• Host-Pathogen – choose from predefined list• Initial inoculum type – artificial or natural• Date when healthy plants were last seen• Date when late blight was first seen• Initial severity – in %• Dates when plants were sprayed with fungicide• Fungicide (Chlorothalonil) dose – in grams

– Outputs – validated inputs

CS 501

6 March 2007

17

Models in Potato Pest Management

… Functional Requirements• Execute Simulation

– Inputs – validated historical weather, weather forecast, treatment information

– Processing – The program will pass all inputs to Polux code which runs the simulation.

– Outputs – date and blight severity for all dates given

CS 501

6 March 2007

18

Models in Potato Pest Management

Non-functional Requirements• Performance

– Description: Run multiple tests over a short period of time – Measure: Performance comparable to that of Polux’s

• Accuracy – Description: results accurate given correct data – Measure: Test software’s results against those of original Polux or SAS program

• Installation – Description: Installation done by the user– Measure: User should be able to install software by following instructions manual within five

to ten minutes• User and Technical Documentation

– Installation and execution of program; required inputs and outputs; overview of software; list of possible errors and how to handle them

– Technical documentation for existing and new developers.• User Interface Design

– Default data should already be chosen; required data must be highlighted; use predefined lists; data type and format should be indicated; detailed error messages

CS 501

6 March 2007

19

Models in Potato Pest Management

Use Cases …

CS 501

6 March 2007

20

Models in Potato Pest Management

… Use Cases

CS 501

6 March 2007

21

Models in Potato Pest Management

Detailed Specifications …• Business Rules

– The farmer needs to have the Polux system installed on an accessible computer running Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista operating systems.

– Weather data supplied to the Polux system needs to be in a tab delimited format containing three columns: rainfall, temperature and humidity in that order.

– Weather data needs to be available every 3 hours from the website (weather.gov)

– This data needs to be interpolated to obtain hourly forecast measures

– The farmer needs to be in possession of weather related data for his farm, i.e. the rainfall, temperature and humidity levels.

CS 501

6 March 2007

22

Models in Potato Pest Management

… Data Flow

CS 501

6 March 2007

23

Models in Potato Pest Management

… Data FlowProcess Cultivar data

Process lateblight data (fungicide,severity)

Process weather data

Run Simulation

Get weather forecast

Weather data store (website)

No output due to invalid data

View simulation results

Supply data

Data

Supply

Weather forecast

Farmer

CS 501

6 March 2007

24

Models in Potato Pest Management

Conclusion

• Obtained clarity about requirements from the stakeholders

• Investigations and thoughts directed at detailed design and implementation

• Contract between the engineering team and the client

• Ready to roll!!!!