Proposal of automated data collection scheme for a field sensing system

摘要

Field sensing systems for agriculture are a new method to increase agricultural production. Since device price is becoming reasonable, various types of sensing systems have been proposed. Typically, conventional systems use a cellular network, WiFi, IEEE 802.15.4, etc., because a cellular network is reliable and WiFi and IEEE 802.15.4 are suitable to create a local mesh-network. Recently, some researchers focus on Bluetooth communication to collect information from sensor devices to a smartphone. However, typical conventional systems have an issue for energy consumption by an application on a smartphone because the application tries to find a sensor device continuously in a background process. Additionally, some iOS applications do not work well because iOS does not permit the continuous background processing. This paper proposes a new automated data collection scheme for a field sensing system. The proposed system employs the iBeacon function to activate a suspended application. As a result, it can realize automated data collection and can reduce energy consumption by the application. We have developed a sensor device with a temperature, humidity, air pressure and soil moisture sensors, and a special iOS application. The experimental results demonstrate that the application can obtain measurement information automatically when the smartphone exists near the sensor device.