With a global population of 7.8 billion people and growing, food sustainability is paramount. Sustainable food, agricultural farming practices that help improve soil fertility and expand the Earth’s natural resources, requires in-depth crop analysis.

Traditionally, field surveying has been conducted using small aircraft and drones that fly over large swaths of farmland, gathering imagery and measuring moisture, radiation,  pesticide use, andother issues that impact overall food sustainability. These techniques can measure surface-level crop damage and obvious sources of plant stressors, but without the ability to zero in below the upper crop canopy surface, they’re limited as to what they can see. They’re also reliant on solar radiation, so their operation is limited to daylight hours.

Sigma0, a radar imaging technology startup in Des Moines, Iowa, is determined to change the efficacy of crop modeling, allowing for a deeper analysis that goes far beyond the crop canopy, using radar sensors. Their system of sensors, combined with the first-ever data platform devoted to agriculture, senses, analyzes and stores high-resolution radar imaging, revealing moisture levels deep within crops and all the way down to root level within the soil, far beyond existing surveillance capabilities.

Their radar sensors do not rely on sunlight so that they can operate at night or during cloud cover. The sensors can see below the canopy and are especially sensitive to crop structure and moisture content.

Altium software has been essential for Sigma0’s unique approach. The small team has been using Altium Designer with Altium 365, which takes Altium Designer to the next dimension of PCB design by creating seamless collaboration points across the PCB development process.

As Sigma0’s CEO and Co-Founder Alan Wilson-Langman reports, “I have everything I need with Altium Designer and Altium 365 for my business, especially the confidence that everything is working the way it’s supposed to.”

Simplifying Design and Component Management with Cloud Convenience

Developing electronic components for a system that can zero in on crop detail and work in harmony with calibrated agronomic data products requires more than just your ordinary PCB software. As Wilson-Langman elaborates, “Where Altium Designer really shines is giving us the ability to control our designs. Component search and active BOM management with Concord Pro, powered by the Altium 365 cloud platform, is great. With Altium 365, I don’t have to manually send files out. It’s been a terrific way to streamline our overall processes.”

Sigma0’s team can watch their PCBs come to life with 3D viewing capability in Altium 365. The simple web interface makes it easy for the team to showcase designs from anywhere from any web browser.

Wilson-Langman has found even more specialized ways to use Altium Designer and Altium 365. As he explains, “It’s a fantastic configuration management system, great for version control and component management. Since everything is stored on the cloud, I’ve even been using it to store documents. If I need anything, Altium 365 brings up whatever I need easily. Everything is just there, right where I need it to be.”

The synergy of Altium Designer and Altium 365 has made Sigma0’s PCB design process much easier. It inspired the team to develop even more advanced sensors to determine where pesticides are needed versus crop-dusting.