Low-Cost IoT Remote Sensor Mesh for Large-Scale Orchard Monitorization

• Main Authors: Leonor Varandas, João Faria, Pedro Dinis Gaspar, Martim L. Aguiar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-09-01
• Series: Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks
• Subjects: fruit tree diseases and pests; smart agriculture; IoT sensor mesh; LPWAN communications; photovoltaic power extraction
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2224-2708/9/3/44

Population growth and climate change lead agricultural cultures to face environmental degradation and rising of resistant diseases and pests. These conditions result in reduced product quality and increasing risk of harmful toxicity to human health. Thus, the prediction of the occurrence of diseases and pests and the consequent avoidance of the erroneous use of phytosanitary products will contribute to improving food quality and safety and environmental land protection. This study presents the design and construction of a low-cost IoT sensor mesh that enables the remote measurement of parameters of large-scale orchards. The developed remote monitoring system transmits all monitored data to a central node via LoRaWAN technology. To make the system nodes fully autonomous, the individual nodes were designed to be solar-powered and to require low energy consumption. To improve the user experience, a web interface and a mobile application were developed, which allow the monitored information to be viewed in real-time. Several experimental tests were performed in an olive orchard under different environmental conditions. The results indicate an adequate precision and reliability of the system and show that the system is fully adequate to be placed in remote orchards located at a considerable distance from networks, being able to provide real-time parameters monitoring of both tree and the surrounding environment.