INTRODUCTION:
The Internet of Things is a vision of a world in which most objects are connected, transmitting updates about their performance so the people who use them to do things more intelligently. This vision is being built today, with connected devices becoming more and more frequent in our daily lives. The basic concept behind the Internet of Things is that virtually every physical thing in this world can also become a computer that is connected to the Internet.
In this paper I will present an overview of the Internet of Things phenomenas well as its applications and agriculture. In the Internet era, where information plays a key role in people’s lives, agriculture is quickly turning into a very data -intensive industry in which farmers must accumulate a huge amount of data in order to become more efficient in production and communicating appropriate information. As the concept of the Internet of Things becomes increasingly prevalent, many systems are being devised to allow all manner of data to be gathered and analysed, and devices controlled via wireless data networks.
The correct environmental conditions are imperative for successful plant growth, improved crop yields, and effective use of water and similar resources. I will also focus on the development of urban greenhouse monitoring systems, and present the current and future solutions, concepts and devices that are currently available on the market. Between efforts to eat more food grown locally, a younger generation of farmers and enthusiast have started to become reliant on an infusion of data and technology.
THE INTERNET OF THINGS
The Internet of Things can be defined a s“a global, immersive, invisible, ambient networked computing environment built through the continued proliferation of smart sensors, cameras, software, databases, and massive data centers in a world-spanning information fabric known as the Internet of Things .” 1 The basic idea of the lOT is that virtually every physical thing in this world can also become a computer that is connected to the Internet.
Visualisation of the Internet of Things.
INTERNET AND THINGS AND AGRICULTURE
According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, food production must increase with 60% to be able to feed the growing population expected to hit 9 billion in 2050. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7 billion in 2012. It is expected to keep growing to reach 11 billion by the end of the century.
Population Growth by Continent, 2010 -2013.
Horticulture:
Possible applications of Internet of Things systems in horticulture include the following uses:
Climate control in greenhouses – Temperature, humidity, light intensity, and soil moisture can be monitored through various sensors. These can then be linked to systems to trigger alerts or automate processes such as water and air control. They can also be set up to look for early signs of pests or disease.
Logistics coordination – Through GPS, RFID, and other location-based sensors, goods such as vegetables can be tracked and monitored visually during transportation and storage. This can also facilitate scheduling and add further automation in the supply chain.
Food safety – The entire supply chain from the farm, logistics and retail is set to become even more connected with information. Food products and ingredients can be tagged via RFID for tracking and tracing, and help raise the level of transparency and consumer confidence.
Crop monitoring – The Technical University of Madrid has built an experimental farm robot called the Rosphere, which is armed with sensors and can potentially monitor every single stalk in a field. These robots can be configured to communicate to one another over a network. The data can be collectively used to build information sets such as crop yield maps, and further linked to information such as current crop prices.
GREENHOUSE MONITORING SYSTEMS
Boosted by connected devices, urban farms are getting smarter. About 58 percent of the world’s population resides in urban areas, prompting a rise in urban agriculture . 17 And in today’s mobile and connected world, even keeping tabs on your city plants can be as easy as checking its status via an application.
System structure:
Agriculture greenhouse production environment measurement and control system is made up of terminal link, business link and M2M support platform. Wire sensors can join with communication terminal directly, and then communicate with M2M support platform.
Wireless sensors can communicate the M2M support platform through Radio Frequency. Operation management is charge of the service support platform, and the agriculture production monitoring system can get the greenhouse real time data which can send to the mobile terminal through SMS gateway.
Software structure:
The system software includes site monitoring system data acquisition software, remote data acquisition receiver software, and web application software. The site monitoring system data acquisition are made up of user interface module, network communication module, data collection module, data processing module and system configuration module.
Current solutions:
Plantlink
The Plant Link system is made up of a sensor called the Link and the base station, which does all the analysis and connects to your home router. The router then connects the whole system to the cloud.The Link has two prongs that are driven into the soil, monitoring a lawn, garden or plant box.
Plantlink Monitoring System.
CONCLUSION
Urban agriculture projects have been on the rise in recent years, taking on a range of innovative forms with a variety of different objectives. In recent years the agricultural sector has made a lot of technical progress, with new technologies linked to the Internet of Things enabling people to monitor and manage growing conditions.
There are a number of monitoring systems available on the market, most notably Harvestgeek, Bitponics and Plantlink, which use sensors, hubs, an internet connection and the cloud to deliver real-time updates about plants and help people grow plants more efficiently. Not withstanding its many advantages, urban agriculture has come in for some criticism regarding crop quality and healthiness.
Most notably, researchers at the Technical University in Berlin who have studied the effects of urban pollution on foodstuffs produced in urban conditions have found high concentrations of heavy metals in some vegetables grown in central city districts where traffic is very dense. However, if citizens living in this kind of environment wish to be part of the urban agriculture movement, they can thanks to the development of the GrowCube, which works on the basis of aeroponics and is airtight. However, GrowCube is not yet commercially available, but its inventors hope that it will reach the market in the near future.
Source: TUT
Author: Vesna Doknić
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