Wireless Sensor Network Synchronization for Precision Agriculture Applications

Alexandros Zervopoulos, Athanasios Tsipis, Aikaterini Georgia Alvanou, Konstantinos Bezas, Asterios Papamichail, Spiridon Vergis, Andreana Stylidou, Georgios Tsoumanis, Vasileios Komianos, George Koufoudakis and Konstantinos Oikonomou
Additional contact information
Alexandros Zervopoulos: Department of Informatics, Ionian University, GR-49100 Corfu, Greece
Athanasios Tsipis: Department of Informatics, Ionian University, GR-49100 Corfu, Greece
Aikaterini Georgia Alvanou: Department of Informatics, Ionian University, GR-49100 Corfu, Greece
Konstantinos Bezas: Department of Informatics, Ionian University, GR-49100 Corfu, Greece
Asterios Papamichail: Department of Informatics, Ionian University, GR-49100 Corfu, Greece
Spiridon Vergis: Department of Informatics, Ionian University, GR-49100 Corfu, Greece
Andreana Stylidou: Department of Informatics, Ionian University, GR-49100 Corfu, Greece
Georgios Tsoumanis: Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, University of Ioannina, GR-47100 Arta, Greece
Vasileios Komianos: Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University, GR-49100 Corfu, Greece
George Koufoudakis: Department of Informatics, Ionian University, GR-49100 Corfu, Greece
Konstantinos Oikonomou: Department of Informatics, Ionian University, GR-49100 Corfu, Greece

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 3, 1-20

Abstract: The advent of Internet of Things has propelled the agricultural domain through the integration of sensory devices, capable of monitoring and wirelessly propagating information to producers; thus, they employ Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). These WSNs allow real time monitoring, enabling intelligent decision-making to maximize yields and minimize cost. Designing and deploying a WSN is a challenging and multivariate task, dependent on the considered environment. For example, a need for network synchronization arises in such networks to correlate acquired measurements. This work focuses on the design and installation of a WSN that is capable of facilitating the sensing aspects of smart and precision agriculture applications. A system is designed and implemented to address specific design requirements that are brought about by the considered environment. A simple synchronization scheme is described to provide time-correlated measurements using the sink node’s clock as reference. The proposed system was installed on an olive grove to assess its effectiveness in providing a low-cost system, capable of acquiring synchronized measurements. The obtained results indicate the system’s overall effectiveness, revealing a small but expected difference in the acquired measurements’ time correlation, caused mostly by serial transmission delays, while yielding a plethora of relevant environmental conditions.

Keywords: smart agriculture; precision agriculture; internet of things; wireless sensor network; network synchronization; crop monitoring; olive grove monitoring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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