A Smart Agricultural System Based on PLC and a Cloud Computing Web Application Using LoRa and LoRaWan

Abstract

The increasing challenges of agricultural processes and the growing demand for food globally are driving the industrial agriculture sector to adopt the concept of ‘smart farming’. Smart farming systems, with their real-time management and high level of automation, can greatly improve productivity, food safety, and efficiency in the agri-food supply chain. This paper presents a customized smart farming system that uses a low-cost, low-power, and wide-range wireless sensor network based on Internet of Things (IoT) and Long Range (LoRa) technologies. In this system, LoRa connectivity is integrated with existing Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), which are commonly used in industry and farming to control multiple processes, devices, and machinery through the Simatic IOT2040. The system also includes a newly developed web-based monitoring application hosted on a cloud server, which processes data collected from the farm environment and allows for remote visualization and control of all connected devices. A Telegram bot is included for automated communication with users through this mobile messaging app. The proposed network structure has been tested, and the path loss in the wireless LoRa is evaluated.

Toward improving water-energy-food nexus through dynamic energy management of solar powered automated irrigation system

“…LoRa-gateway is connected to the network, and it sends the data to the personal computer (PC) for forecasting the soil moisture value using the framework published in Ref. [ 28 ]. A weather station is installed on the campus, connected to the LoRa gateway, sends the weather satellite data.…”

Optimal Differential Control for Accurate Positioning of Medical Electronic Wristband

“…The microcontroller adopts STM32F103RBT6, encapsulates LQFP48, has a length and width of 7 mm, and has three serial ports [26]. In the design, serial port 1 communicates with LORA module and serial port 2 is used as debugging serial port to print information.…”

IIoT Low-Cost ZigBee-Based WSN Implementation for Enhanced Production Efficiency in a Solar Protection Curtains Manufacturing Workshop

“…ZigBee technology has been chosen for the wireless connectivity of the sensor nodes due to its intrinsic characteristics, which adapt perfectly to the application within this environment: the very high number of nodes that can be connected to the network (up to 64,000), making it easily scalable; the mesh topology and the dynamic autoconfiguration of the network, which provide robust routing for the sent packets and protection against interference and node failures; and the higher duty cycle compared with other low-power wireless technologies (such as LoRaWAN), which provides the possibility of sending a higher number of packets if required. It is worth noting that the presented methodology could be applied to any wireless communication technology, such as LoRa, NB-IoT, Bluetooth, or ESP-Mesh [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ], for monitoring tasks, as long as the requirements of the application are satisfied, and considering that the radio planning study will need to be adapted to each technology’s characteristics.…”