IOT

An IoT-Based Agricultural Drought Data Acquisition and Transmission System

We are living in a technology-based society where we have lots of innovative ideas day by day. These new innovations in IoT communications-based projects, comes as an ever-growing network that strives constantly to share and gather insight on the latest trends in the industrial IoT Platform.

Agriculture is an age-old economic activity that plays a vital role in the growth of our country. Over these years, cultivation methods have changed significantly depending upon the characteristics of the physical environment, technological know-how and socio-cultural practices. Here we focus on the IoT based Agricultural Drought Data Acquisition and Transmission System.

The year 2015 is scheduled to be the hottest year of the previous decade just as the current one. As you would have seen, rainfall in the Maharashtra state has been exceptionally low this year and dams are their record least. This has brought about water cuts just later in the storm season. The lack of water results in a  drought situation with farmers committing suicide due to lack of relief funds from the government. 

PROPOSED SYSTEM:

Agricultural drought usually occurs when soil water availability to plants in a specific area has dropped to a level threshold that is insufficient for crop development, growth, and maturation and thus adversely affects the final crop yield.  Soil moisture measurements are generally not available as time series. Hence drought could be better studied by means of a regional analysis involving a set of variables associated with the crop water consumption process. 

This smart Drought reporting system functions over the internet. Our proposed IoT-based system reports the drought parameter over the internet. It allows people to directly check the weather status online without the need for a weather forecasting agency. This Reporting System makes use of temperature, humidity as well as Moisture sensor to monitor the soil condition and provide live reporting of the weather statistics. The system constantly monitors temperature using a temperature sensor, humidity using a humidity sensor, and also for moisture. The system constantly transmits this data to the microcontroller, which now processes this data and keeps on transmitting it to the online web server. This data is life updated to be viewed on the online server system. Also, the system allows users to set alerts for particular instances, the system provides alerts to users if the weather parameters cross those values.

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE:

The system comprises a Humidity Sensor, Temperature Sensor, Moisture sensor along Light Intensity Sensor. The microcontroller receives the data from the sensors and converts the values into human-readable values.  Analog to  Digital conversion is performed wherever necessary.   Afterward, the data is sent to the webserver. The microcontroller uses the  sim900A GSM module for this purpose.  The values from the sensor are concatenated into an HTTP  URL  and then sent to the webserver address using the GET  method.   The  Web server receives this data and stores it in a MySQL database. The web server is also responsible for showing the data to the user in a  graphical or tabular form when the user requests the data. 

The following analysis is performed in the smart agriculture system

  •  IoT View
  • Temperature analysis
  •  Soil Moisture level analysis
  •  Humidity level analysis
  •  Light Intensity level analysis

HARDWARE REQUIRED:

  • Arduino Uno:

Arduino Uno is an open-source based on the Microchip ATmega328P developed by Arduino. cc. The current version of Arduino Uno comes with a USB interface, 14 digital I/O pins, 6 analog pins, an ICSP header, 16 MHz ceramic resonator, a power jack,  and reset button. And an Atmega328 microcontroller is used to connect with external electronics circuits.

  • Humidity  Sensor:

 The humidity sensor takes the current humidity level of the environment and gives the output as an appropriate voltage to the microcontroller.  The microcontroller contains an inbuilt  Analog to  Digital  Converter  (ADC)  which converts the voltage given by the sensor to its appropriate digital value.  The humidity sensor makes use of the resistive property to calculate the humidity.

TEMPERATURE SENSOR:

A temperature sensor is designed as an electronic device that measures the temperature of its environment and converts the input data into electronic data to record monitor or signal temperature changes. LM35 is defined as a high precision Integrated circuit Temperature sensor, whose output voltage varies, with respect to the temperature around it. This compact-sized, cheap IC is used to measure temperature anywhere between -55°C to 150°C.

MOISTURE SENSOR:

Plants require water on a regular basis for proper growth. This soil moisture sensor is used to measure moisture or water level content in it. When the moisture level is high, the module gives a digital output of 5V and provides 0V when the moisture level is low in the soil. The probes in the sensor measure the value of moisture content in the soil and give the appropriate voltage to the microcontroller.

  • GSM MODULE:

The     GSM     module is responsible for sending the data from the sensors to the webserver.    The      GSM      module makes use of network connectivity in the form of    GPRS    data and sends the data to a  specified    IP  address of the server.   GSM Module is used to establish communication between a computer and a GSM system. Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) is an architecture used for mobile communication.

  • LIGHT INTENSITY SENSOR:

A  light sensor is a  device for measuring the intensity or brightness of the light.  One of the most common and least expensive detectors that can be  used when building a  light sensor is a  photoresistor or Light Dependent Resistors (LDR) are simple and low-cost Sensors. It is also called a photoresistor or a photoconductor. It basically works on the principle of Photoconductivity.

  • LCD DISPLAY:

Displaying information is one of the crucial steps in electronic projects. So using LCDs has always been one of the most popular ways to display information. This 1602 LCD module is a very popular display. 16*2 LCD module consists of 16 columns and 2 rows, so it has 32 (16*2) characters in total.

ADVANTAGES OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM:

  • Reducing the risk of Natural calamities
  • Visual display using LCD display unit.
  • Moisture level present in the field indicates the chance for drought.
  • All the sensor parameters can view through online in graphical notation.
  • Efficient and low cost design.
  • Fast response.
  • User friendly.
  • Better control on overall internal process

FUTURE SCOPE:

  • Can implement a few more sensors and connect it to the satellite as a global feature of this system.
  • Adding  more sensor  to monitor  other environmental parameters such as CO2,Pressure and Oxygen Sensor
  • In aircraft, navigation and military there is a great scope of this real-time system.

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