IoT enabled Plant Sensing Systems for Small and Large Scale Automated Horticultural Monitoring

摘要

We report small scale and large scale sensory systems that can monitor climatic conditions in greenhouses, laboratories, or crops that affect plant growth. An ultra-lightweight flexible sensory platform using bare die CMOS chips having a light, temperature, and humidity sensor on a flexible polymer substrate is demonstrated. It is made up of flexible and transparent materials and weighs merely 0.44 gram. Thus, the standalone multisensory platform can be seamlessly placed on a plant leaf without affecting its functions. Furthermore, a strain sensor using our unique fabrication strategy with 10 fold enhanced linear strain range (22%; conventional metal-based strain gauges have 2-5% linear range) is used to monitor physical plant growth over long time intervals. A framework is further provided for large-scale deployment of these sensors for remote monitoring of large cultivated areas of crops. The sensory platform is equipped with biodegradable paper wings to soften the landing during their deployment, dropped using a compact dropping mechanism. The sensors are equipped with IoT enabled electronics to allow real-time online data representation and monitoring.