The decline in sugarcane yields, the realisation that productivity increases can be achieved through more efficient use of existing land resources, and the need to better manage cane harvest and transport operations are enough reasons to justify the increasing interest in the applications of new information technologies into the sugar industry. The paper describes some of these applications, with emphasis on their role in monitoring, modelling and managing cane harvest transport system, and how this can improve its productivity. Integrated GPS/GIS, mobile communications, and high-speed computations enable the accurate and effective collection of great volumes of operational data with implications for mapping, scheduling, and modelling of in-field cane transport.
Abstract