ABSTRACT:
Monitoring and controlling of soil environmental characteristics play a vital role in the future of agriculture and food production. The traditional approach was to measure most of these factors manually taking measurements and checking them at various times to collect readings and record at real-time. The paper focuses on the development of a wireless monitoring system that considers these factors (soil temperature and relative humidity) to measure water vapor content in an environment using the farm belonging to Hallmark College, Ore-Ofe Estate Oluyole Extension, Ibadan, Oyo State as a case study. This was achieved using ZigBee technology to monitor and record the values which can be controlled and studied in order to optimize them to achieve maximum plant growth and yield. The system comprises of a Sensor Station and a Coordinator Station. The Sensor station is equipped with a temperature and humidity sensor which is used in measuring the soil parameters. The communication between the sensor station and the coordinator station is achieved using ZigBee wireless modules technology. The sensor station can be configured to have a threshold value for both temperature and humidity. One important aspect of designing a wireless network is the reliability of how data is transmitted. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the system will not lose packets during transmission. An integrated LCD is used for real time display of data acquired from the various sensors. This sensor network system will be useful for several agricultural applications such as Sirrus and Agrivi.
Keywords:
Wireless Monitoring System, Soil humidity and temperature, ZigBee, Sensor
