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Agricloud

Digitized agriculture platform based on low energy IoT devices

Digitized Agriculture

Funded by: Knowledge Transfer Experiments, Round 1

Agricloud is a system of smart farming based on the development of a web application for watering crops which facilitates monitoring, evaluating data and watering.

In the previous solution there was a Wireless Sensor System (WSN) based on tree topology, that consists of sensor units and a base station acting as a gateway to a web platform. Wireless Sensor Units (WSUs) were used to get environmental data such as temperature, humidity, soil humidity, etc., which are sent to a base station named Wireless Information Unit (WIU) through a Zigbee.

WIU has a microcontroller, a GSM/GPRS, a Zigbee, an RTC clock and solenoids. Its main functionalities are the data aggregation and transmission to a web server. Furthermore, it provides interactive communication through a web application by receiving commands.

One of the proposed improvements was the replacement of WSUs existing microcontroller with such consuming ultra low power.

Another improvement was to update the communication technology used in the WIU, such as Nb-IoT, in order to improve bandwidth, reduce communication cost and increase the battery duration.

The main goal of Agricloud is to improve the existing Wireless Sensor System (WSN) agriculture platform using advanced technologies in order to:

  • Reduce the energy consumption and dimension of the devices.
  • Increase the autonomous work of the devices.
  • Extend the connectivity.
  • Simplify the architecture.

The shift in consumer preferences for higher standards of food safety and quality together with the unavailability of laborers, are some of the driving factors for proposing a system for smart farming that supports both demand driven and automated irrigation, sensor networks.

Agricloud aspires to improve the already existing WSN that acts as a gateway to a web platform using Wireless Sensor Units (WSUs) to get environmental data which are sent to a base station named Wireless Information Unit (WIU), by proposing:

  • the replacement of WSUs existing microcontroller with such consuming ultra low power. Consuming less energy leads to lower maintenance cost and effort, increasing the overall efficiency. This is especially critical in the agriculture field where the area that the embedded system will be installed may not be easily accessible
  • updates in the communication technology used in the WIU, such as Nb-IoT, in order to improve bandwidth, reduce communication cost and increase the battery duration
  • improvement of the connectivity to contribute to better data processing and user experience

Through the optimization of the product and the improvement of the idea both in terms of hardware and software the proposed system for smart farming:

  • has a big impact on water, energy and food efficiency
  • given its cloud nature can be applied to any market in the world

  • Digitized agriculture is a huge and continuously growing market. The increasing demand for agricultural food products, the shift in consumer preferences for higher standards of food safety and quality, and unavailability of laborers, are some of the driving factors of the market.
  • Our beachhead market is in the area of Balkans (Bulgaria, Greece) where the climate conditions can ease the agricultural process, but given the cloud nature of the system proposed it can be applied to any market in the world.
  • The proposed system for smart farming, that supports both demand driven and automated irrigation, sensor networks, has a big impact on water, energy and food efficiency.