Adapting Advanced Wireless Mesh Sensor Technology and Data Platforms to Large Area Fields for Crop and Water Management.

Agricultural research and water resource management depend on real-time information for the most accurate control and well managed crops.  Higher value crops and increasing expenses for water and make the decision process more important to conserving limited water resources as well as reducing nutrient losses.  Many crops benefit from limiting water and more closely monitoring stress before harvest or to encourage higher product quality instead of maximum yield of a lower grade product.  Information driving the crop water management is especially valuable when presented on internet information systems that streamline and automate remote sensing, gathering the data stream from remote sensors, and presenting results with on-line analysis. Reporting data from remote fields reduces time and travel costs, and identifies experimental or equipment issues quickly with remote diagnostic reporting. Researchers as well as producers can benefit from making management decisions on remote fields in response to real time status of plant response such as transpiration, sap flow, canopy temperature, and microclimate status.  Water input, weather and soil status are regularly reported with large scale networks. 

This paper identifies smaller scale, yet widely distributed data gathering at the field block and farm scope with mesh network radio nodes, that report sensor data through locally installed gateways, and can be managed remotely through local (LAN), internet cloud, and dedicated server access platforms.  Design requirements specific in this application are described, such that developers and researchers may make informed decisions on the sensor and network implementation.  The discussion includes developments in recent years that take radio mesh networks such as Zigbee and other more advanced, yet readily available network protocols such as Digimesh, and link the data into organized and easily accessible cloud computing platforms.  Since a complete solution includes communication from remote areas, a number of devices making use of LAN, cellular, or WIFI MODEM-gateways are needed to bridge data to the internet. The technology to manage these devices does not need to be invented, but customized to suit the data traffic and interactive needs of crop and water resources.   The gateway and remote nodes can make use of predefined communications management tools, leveraging existing infrastructure developments. Two examples of recently developed data presentation and analysis services are shown.  As research institutions and crop management services make use of this advanced technology, new efficiencies and benefits are implemented.