Deployment of a Wireless Sensor Network to Acquire Information on the Growing Environment in a Farm Field

Abstract

To produce high-quality wine in vineyards, it's necessary to understand the characteristics of the cultivation environment. This knowledge is obtained through long-term monitoring. To provide this knowledge, we developed a new wireless sensor network (WSN) that could be used to monitor the vineyard growing environment. To support the use of this data, we developed a Web-based application to help growers take advantage of the information obtained on cultivation conditions. In the WSN, we adopted the 920 MHz band that is used in the Wi-SUN standard (to replace the older 2.4 GHz band) to obtain data from a weather station and soil moisture sensors. In the WSN data-acquisition method, data was standardized using a predetermined name for each sensor and standardized measurement units. The accuracy of the acquired weather station data was verified by comparison with data from a nearby Japan Meteorological Agency weather station. The Web application let growers improve cultivation management using data on the growing environment, such as the cumulative growing degree-days (GDD), growing season temperature (GST), cool-night index (CI), heliothermal index (HI), biologically effective degree-days (BEDD), and dryness index (DI).

A Wireless Sensor Network for Growth Environment Measurement and Multi-Band Optical Sensing to Diagnose Tree Vigor

“…The reference weather station is added to the WSN and deployed next to the SE-WS700. As a result, almost all the observed data were correct, except for the precipitation and air temperature data [20,21]. …”