Soil Monitoring – Smart Agricultural Sensor Network (VIDEO)

monitoring

A JakajimaTV talk with Susanne Oertel, Senior Scientist, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology IISB, hosted by Pieter Hermans. The FutureIOT consortium focuses its research activities on two distinct fields of action „City.digital“ and „Agriculture.digital“.

The FutureIOT consortium focuses its research activities on two distinct fields of action „City.digital“ and „Agriculture.digital“. Aim of the Bavarian research network is the joint development of comprehensive IoT solutions for practice-oriented solutions.
Further development and integration of individual technologies in the area of communication, sensor technology, localization, information security, and IoT plattforms, are intended to master the existing challenges in the city as well as on the countryside.

The sub-project Soil Sensor Technology (soil monitoring) covers the IoT value chain from sensors via sensor networks until cloud-based data analysis.

We present a solution for smart agricultural sensor networks focusing on components and a tailored control unit for realization of the EDGE layer in agricultural IoT systems.
Our approach includes low-cost screen-printed electrochemical sensors together with a stand-alone, ultra-low power microcontroller unit (MCU) with a high-precision analog front end.

The electronics unit enters a deep sleep upon idle status reducing the current consumption down to minor micro amps, resulting in a battery lifetime of several years. The data from the sensor system can be combined with other data on the end device which also allows data transmission into an IOT platform.

The presented system proves the functional requirements for accurate, inexpensive and user-independent electronic determination of the disposable nitrogen level in elutriated soil.

Projectgoals:

Continuous, on-site monitoring of nitrogen content (nitrate, ammonium ions) in soils by electromechanical sensors integrated in a handhelf device connected via Bluetooth with an app.

Wireless radio transmission with data transfer from different soil depths by Low power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technology out of soil using of commercially available sensors for soil humiduty and conductivity.

This project is supported by the Bavarian Research Council via the framework FutureIOT including over 30 partners from industry and research.

Susanne Oertel will be speaker at the ONLINE Smart Farming Conference, 9 October 2020. for more information go to the conference program.

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