Agricultural ecosystem monitoring based on autonomous sensor systems

More than two-thirds of freshwater consumed worldwide are used for irrigation, and large quantities of freshwater can be saved by improving the efficiency of irrigation systems. Irrigation control systems deployed in agriculture can substantially be enhanced by implementing intelligent monitoring techniques enabling automated sensing and continuous analyses of actual soil parameters. Automatically scheduling irrigation events based on soil moisture measurements has been proven an effective means to reduce freshwater consumption and irrigation costs, while maximizing the crop yield. Focusing on decentralized autonomous soil moisture monitoring, this paper presents the design, the implementation, and the validation of a low-cost remote monitoring system for agricultural ecosystems. The prototype monitoring system consists of a number of intelligent wireless sensor nodes that are distributed in the observed environment. The sensor nodes are connected to an Internet-enabled computer system, which is installed on site for disseminating relevant soil information and providing remote access to the monitoring system. Autonomous software programs, labeled “mobile software agents”, are embedded into the wireless sensor nodes to continuously analyze the soil parameters and to autonomously trigger irrigation events based on the actual soil conditions and on weather data integrated from external sources.