Distributed Sensing System for an Old Vineyard in the Douro Demarcated Region - North Portugal

摘要

Two-thirds of the world's population currently lives in areas that experience water scarcity for at least one month every year. And like humans, plants, and especially grapes in vineyards, need the correct amount of water in order to grow healthy. Therefore, to assist the irrigation process, we do not only need to use reliable measuring systems to gauge the water amount per plant, but also to estimate the kg of chemical agents per hectare, like fertilisers, that contribute to the growing of the plants, as well as the pollution of rivers and water supplies. The implemented monitoring station is part of a Distributed Sensing System Model (DSS) that allows continuous measurements over time, and is based on an autonomous wireless sensor network capable of measuring the parameters of interest and storing all this information. The implemented station is fully autonomous, receiving energy from a solar panel that charges the two main batteries, even if there is no direct sunlight available. The station communicates to the remote sensors by RF and can be remotely accessed using 3G and Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT). Besides the RF sensors, the station allows multiple interfaces to connect other sensors, as is the case of the developed sensor board that measures different gases like Nitrogen Dioxide (NO_2) and Carbon Monoxide (CO) using I2C calibrated sensors for easy replacement and station adaptation. Traditional wind and rain sensors are supported, allowing new sensor value comparison and validation.