ǂThe ǂimplementation of a low power environmental monitoring and soil moisture measurement system based on UHF RFID

Žiga Korošak (Author), Nejc Suhadolnik (Author), Anton Pleteršek (Author)

Abstract

A smart sensor label based on the integration of ultra high frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and sensors is presented. The label is composed of a semi-active system that measures temperature, light, relative humidity and gravimetric water content (GWC) in the soil. The deployed system provides a simple, cost effective solution to monitor and control the growing of plants in modern agriculture and is intended be a part of a smart wireless sensor network (WSN) for agricultural monitoring. This paper is focused on analysis and development of a moisture sensor to measure GWC. It is based on a capacitance measurement solution, the accuracy of which is enhanced using several sensor driving frequencies. Thanks to the cancellation of supply voltage variations, the modeling of the GWC sensor and readout circuit was correct. The results we measured were close to modeled values. The maximum measurement resolution of the capacitive moisture sensor was 0.07 pF. To get the GWC from measured capacitance, a scale was used to weigh the mass of water in the soil. The comparison between capacitance measurement and calculated soil GWC is presented. The RFID measurement system has energy harvesting capabilities and an ultra-low power microcontroller, which uses embedded software to control the measurement properties. The microcontroller has to choose the appropriate model depending on the measured amplitude and chosen frequency to calculate the actual voltage on the sensing capacitor.

Keywords

RFID;senzorji vlage;mikrokontrolerji z nizko porabo;zajemanje podatkov;natančno kmetijstvo;relativna vlaga;UHF značka;spremljanje okoljskih parametrov;moisture sensors;low power microcontroller;data acquisition;precision agriculture;relative humidity;UHF tag;environmental monitoring;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2019
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UL FE - Faculty of Electrical Engineering
UDC:	681.586
COBISS:	17277955
ISSN:	1424-8220
Views:	173
Downloads:	60
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary keywords:	RFID;senzorji vlage;mikrokontrolerji z nizko porabo;zajemanje podatkov;natančno kmetijstvo;relativna vlaga;UHF značka;spremljanje okoljskih parametrov;
Type (COBISS):	Article
Pages:	str. 1-17
Volume:	ǂno. ǂ24
Issue:	5527
Chronology:	Dec.-2 2019
DOI:	10.3390/s19245527
ID:	13925505