Wireless Sensor Network Design for Monitoring and Irrigation Control: User-centric Hardware and Software Development

Abstract

<jats:p>Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are increasingly becoming a critical tool for growers and researchers. We describe how the technology has advanced, starting with a commercially available WSN node and pushing the technology to make the data more meaningful, actionable and to add advanced irrigation control functionality. User features such as spatial views, custom charts, real-time data access, remote access, irrigation control, alerts, and plant models help create an advanced WSN system that is user centric. Growers and researchers were involved in the design process by directly communicating with the design engineers, and continuously using and testing new features, resulting in a user-centric design and experience. The results of this research are being rolled into a new line of commercial products and is continuously evolving based on user feedback and interaction.</jats:p>

Implementation of Wireless Sensor Networks for Irrigation Control in Three Container Nurseries

“…This computer runs the SensorWeb GUI software, which can display the data and allows users to adjust irrigation settings. SensorWeb also allows users remote access over the Internet (Kohanbash et al, 2013).…”

“…In phase two, nR5 nodes were added to enable both monitoring and control of irrigation. Using the nR5 node afforded both nurseries the ability to display data using SensorWeb (Kohanbash et al, 2013).…”

“…WEB-BASED GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE. SensorWeb, developed by Carnegie-Melon University as part of this project (Kohanbash et al, 2013), allowed growers to view irrigation and environmental data while in monitoring-mode and send irrigation schedules to the nR5 node(s) when irrigation control was implemented. Throughout the entire project, growers and researchers constantly provided feedback on hardware, and more importantly software bugs and strengths, to create a GUI that best served the growers and allowed for software customization based on grower needs (Kohanbash et al, 2013).…”

“…These controlled research studies have demonstrated the utility of sensor-controlled irrigation. The subsequent step in facilitating adoption of this technology has been the on-farm implementation of soilmoisture-based irrigation hardware and software developed as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Specialty Crops Research Initiative (SCRI) project (Kohanbash et al, 2013;Lea-Cox et al, 2013).…”

Automated Irrigation Control for Improved Growth and Quality of Gardenia jasminoides ‘Radicans’ and ‘August Beauty’

“…Irrigation volume can be reduced using q threshold control while still producing salable plants for a variety of ornamental crops including Hibiscus acetosella 'Panama Red' (Bayer et al, 2013), Gaura lindheimeri 'Siskiyou Pink' (Burnett and van Iersel, 2008), Hydrangea macrophylla 'Mini Penny' (van Iersel et al, 2009), and Lantana camara (Bayer et al, 2014). To date sensor-controlled automated irrigation has largely been used in research; however, wireless sensor networks capable of controlling irrigation are being developed for practical implementation in commercial production (Kohanbash et al, 2013) and have been trialed in nurseries (Belayneh et al, 2013;Chappell et al, 2013b).…”