The proposed work aims at exploring and developing new strategies to extend mission parameters (measured as travel distance and mission duration (MD)) of a new class of unmanned vehicles, named Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs). In this paper, a new analytical model, identifying all factors, which determine the MAV power consumption, is presented. Starting from the new model, the design of a nanoarray energy harvester, based on plasmonics nano-antenna technology is proposed. The preliminary study was based on a 22,066,058 22,066,058 × 62,800-dipole rectenna array producing an output power level of 84.14 mW, and an energy value of 2572 J under a power density of 100 mW/cm² and a resonant frequency of 350 THz as input conditions. The preliminary analytical results show a possible recharge of an ultra-fast rechargeable battery on board of a MAV and an MD improvement of 16.30 min.

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Drones, a technical nickname for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are gaining more and more interest and popularity. Supported by the miniaturization and cost reduction of electronic components, a new class of UAVs called Nano-air vehicles or NAVs represent the future technology for indoor and outdoor mission. One of the main considerations when building or buying a drone is the flight time and range. The flight time is nowadays a drawback for miniature unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It is limited to a few minutes before requiring a forced recovery to replace exhausted batteries. Currently the batteries are the dominant technology, which possess limited operation in time and energy. The real viability to extending flight time (FT) of NAVs is possibly exploring new and more disruptive alternative solution able either to recharge a battery, or even to directly power the NAVs during the flight. A Plasmonic Nano Energy harvester is an attractive technology to extending the FT extracting the energy in mid-infrared radiation emitted from Earth's surface with Rectenna tuned to mid-infrared wavelengths (7 -14 ) m µ with a peak wavelength of about10 m µ . In this review the concepts emerging from this work identify and suggest how this novel harvester can constantly supply these flying objects for the whole day.

Geomatics is important for agriculture 4.0; in fact, it uses different types of data (remote sensing from satellites, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles-UAVs, GNSS, photogrammetry, laser scanners and other types of data) and therefore it uses data fusion techniques depending on the different applications to be carried out. This work aims to present on a study area concerning the integration of data acquired (using data fusion techniques) from remote sensing techniques, UAVs, autonomous driving machines and data fusion, all reprocessed and visualised in terms of results obtained through GIS (Geographic Information System). In this work we emphasize the importance of the integration of different methodologies and data fusion techniques, managing data of a different nature acquired with different methodologies to optimise vineyard cultivation and production. In particular, in this note we applied (focusing on a vineyard) geomatics-type methodologies developed in other works and integrated here to be used and optimised in order to make a contribution to agriculture 4.0. More specifically, we used the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) applied to multispectral satellite images and drone images (suitably combined) to identify the vigour of the plants. We then used an autonomous guided vehicle (equipped with sensors and monitoring systems) which, by estimating the optimal path, allows us to optimise fertilisation, irrigation, etc., by data fusion techniques using various types of sensors. Everything is visualised on a GIS to improve the management of the field according to its potential, also using historical data on the environmental, climatic and socioeconomic characteristics of the area. For this purpose, experiments of different types of Geomatics carried out individually on other application cases have been integrated into this work and are coordinated and integrated here in order to provide research/application cues for Agriculture 4.0.

Abstract. An ideal plasmonic material should respect different parameters as tunable plasma frequency, low energy loss, high chemical, mechanical and thermal stability, low cost and high integrability with existing technology. Obviously, not all these properties in a single material are reachable; this will depend on the specific application. Noble metals (especially Au and Ag) are considered the plasmonic materials per excellence, and are largely used for several applications as realizing micro-antennas for energy harvesting. However, the imaginary part of the permittivity and high-energy losses at THz frequency prevent their use imposing to find alternative materials. The permittivity response plays an important role in the design process and efficiency of a micro-antenna. In this paper the permittivity response of some metals such as Gold (Au), Silver (Ag), Copper (Cu) and Aluminum (Al) are investigated at MID-IR frequencies. Comparison among simulated dispersion curves allows us to investigate the origin of the dissipative behavior of the materials, which are an unavoidable prerequisite for any realistic application. Relationships among several parameters are under investigation. Moreover, the performance of each material is evaluated relying on quality factors Q or figure of merit (FOM) defined for each metal. Finally, the suitability and limitation of each one of these plasmonic materials will be discussed, starting with the more traditional noble metals to end up with alternative plasmonic metals at IR wavelengths.