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A framework for wireless sensor networks management for precision viticulture and agriculture based on IEEE 1451 standard

Publication . Fernandes, Miguel A.; Matos, Samuel G.; Peres, Emanuel; Cunha, Carlos R.; López, Juan A.; Ferreira, Paulo Jorge S.G.; Reis, Manuel José Cabral dos Santos; Morais, Raul

Precision viticulture (PV) and precision agriculture (PA) requires the acquisition and proce ssing of a vast collection of data coming typically from large scale and heterogeneous sensor networks. Unfortunately, sensor integration is far from being simple due to the number of incompatible network specifications and platforms. The adoption of a common, standard communication interfa ce would allow the engineer to abstract the relation between the sensor and the network. This would reduce the development efforts and emerge as an important step towards the adoption of ‘‘plug-and-play’’ technology in PA/PV sensor networks. This paper explores this need and introduces a framework for smart data acquisition in PA/PV that relies on the IEEE 1451 family of standards, which addresses the transducer-to -network interoperability issues. The framework includes a ZigBee end device (sMPWiNodeZ), as an IEEE 1451 WTIM (Wireless Transducer Interface Module), and an IEEE 1451 NCAP (Network Capable Application Processor) that acts as gateway to an information service provider and WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) coordinator. The paper discusses the proposed IEEE 1451 system architecture and its benefits in PA/PV and closes with results/lessons learned from in-field trials towards smarter WSN.

2013Journal article

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An autonomous intelligent gateway infrastructure for in-field processing in precision viticulture

Publication . Peres, Emanuel; Fernandes, Miguel A.; Morais, Raul; Cunha, Carlos R.; López, Juan A.; Matos, Samuel R.; Ferreira, Paulo Jorge S.G.; Reis, Manuel José Cabral dos Santos

Wireless sensor networks have found multiple applications in precision viticulture. Despite the steady progress in sensing devices and wireless technologies, some of the crucial items needed to improve the usability and scalability of the networks, such as gateway infrastructures and in-field processing, have been comparatively neglected. This paper describes the hardware, communication capabilities and software architecture of an intelligent autonomous gateway, designed to provide the necessary middleware between locally deployed sensor networks and a remote location within the whole-farm concept. This solar-powered infrastructure, denoted by iPAGAT (Intelligent Precision Agriculture Gateway), runs an aggregation engine that fills a local database with environmental data gathered by a locally deployed ZigBee wireless sensor network. Aggregated data are then retrieved by external queries over the built-in data integration system. In addition, embedded communication capabilities, including Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 and GPRS, allow local and remote users to access both gateway and remote data, as well as the Internet, and run site-specific management tools using authenticated smartphones. Field experiments provide convincing evidence that iPAGAT represents an important step forward in the development of distributed service-oriented information systems for precision viticulture applications.

2011Journal article

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