Smart Gardening IoT Soil Sheets for Real-Time Nutrient Analysis

Abstract

Agriculture sector has been greatly influenced by the recent advances in electrical engineering. Nitrogen (N), from fertilizer, remains one of the largest input to surface and groundwater contamination, resulting in environmental and human health degradation. This paper explores the use of wireless potentiometry in field settings for in situ N monitoring. We report a disposable IoT gardening soil sheet, capable of analyzing real-time soil nitrate concentration during leaching and irrigation events. The nitrate doped polypyrrole ion selective electrode (N-doped PPy ISE) sensor array sheet features a fault tolerant circuit design multiplexed to an oxidation and reduction potentiometer that can rapidly detect nitrate levels in soil leachates. Measurement data are transmitted via Waspmote ZB Pro SMA 5dBi radio, 6600mAh rechargeable battery, 7.4-volt solar panel, and a Meshlium ZigBee PRO access point to cloud server and mobile device. This paper investigates the gardening IoT sheets as a viable tool for in situ nitrate mapping, and to potentially help everyday home and commercial gardeners reduce excessive fertilizer application.

A Systematic Review of IoT Solutions for Smart Farming

“…IoT solutions for soil management aimed to identify different soil attributes used for planting. For example, such IoT solutions are used to measure the soil moisture [ 163 ], to identify the water consumption pattern [ 159 , 161 ] and to identify the nutrients of the soil [ 158 ]. IoT solutions for vehicles and machinery control focused on collecting data of and managing agricultural equipment and machinery such as tractors, harvesters and trucks.…”

“…Such sensors are used for collecting real-time data about multiple agricultural parameters, such as climatic data, substrate information, luminosity, CO2 concentration and images through cameras and multispectral sensors, as shown in Table 3 . Moreover, several papers (4%) focused on developing custom-made sensors for monitoring specific agricultural aspects, such as soil nutrients (e.g., nitrate [ 158 ]) and leaf evapotranspiration for measuring the hydric stress in tobacco crops [ 81 ].…”

Internet of Things Applications in Precision Agriculture: A Review

“…Furthermore, [30] The industrial IoT soil science platforms seek to describe a variety of soil characteristics that may be implemented for planting. As an example, such systems are used to determine soil water content [54], analyze water consumption patterns [55], identify soil nutrients [56], and as weather station with air quality measurement [57].…”

Survey on Identity and Access Management for Internet of Things

“…Once properly notified, homeowners connect their smartphones at the house's smart security camera system to have real-time video streams of their home, providing evidence to confirm the suspicious activity. Regarding comfort and convenience, a Smart Gardening application takes advantage of smart sensors to automate whether to increase or decrease water supply or even collect data on incoming weather patterns to determine the most suitable course of action [13].…”