Integrated IoT (Internet of Things) System Solution for Smart Agriculture Management

Abstract

Currently there is no viable end to end integrated technology solution platform available to increase overall crop yield nor well established communication platform nor infrastructure for agriculture management, logistics, storage, distribution and delivery.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to an integrated IoT (Internet of Things) system for Smart Agriculture management increasing crop yield, optimize food storage, distribution and delivery using IoT and Artificial Intelligence in its communication and supply chain infrastructure

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Currently there is no viable platform infrastructure of consolidated resources for growers to collect personalized agriculture monitoring for strategic crops growth, manage soil condition, pesticide control, fertilizer selection, crop selection, etc. There is no consolidated system to increase overall crop yield, nor well established communication platform to connect the growers to the market, nor any viable infrastructure for optimized management of food storage logistics and food distribution and food delivery to the marketplace and to the consumers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment of the present invention, this single system platform provides a solution to collect and monitor agriculture data in real time using IoT (Internet of Things) platform integrated with Artificial Intelligence to provide predictive data analytics to proactively trigger preventive actions automatically or remotely.

The other embodiment is to provide communication infrastructure system with social media platform for connecting growers to the marketplace and optimizing logistics of food storage and distribution and food delivery to the market. This integrated IoT system will increase crop yield, reduce water consumption, reduce waste during food storage and distribution and food security.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS (PLEASE SEE ENCLOSED DRAWING FILE)

FIG. 1 represents flowchart of how the data is collected from the field

FIG. 2 represents flowchart on how data is monitored

FIG. 3 represents flowchart of how the control system works

FIG. 4 provides communication infrastructure platform flow

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Field System

The lifeline unit (see FIG. 1) comes with a microcontroller connected to sensor network that comprises of soil moisture probe, soil temperature probe, soil pH & salinity probe) embedded into the soil. Soil data is collected by soil moisture sensor which is radial probe with 2 electrodes, one down the center and one wraps around it. It's a resistance device that is embedded into the soil which comes to equilibrium with the soil moisture.

It is then measured resistance in the wires that's comes with the sensor indicates the soil moisture level or water content of the soil. The data from the sensor probe is sent to the attached microcontroller thru the wires that comes with the sensor.

The leaf wetness sensor measure LWD (leaf wetness duration) placed on the leaves at various location of the field also attached to the microcontroller.

The sensors are embedded at different depth of the soil and surrounding area connected to the microcontroller with WiFi module. The microcontroller with sensor probe is placed strategically to create a WiFi mesh network for optimum accurate data collection through WiFi over large distance. The sensors are marked using GPS. This allows ease of transfer of soil moisture and temperature data to the central computer at the base station or on the user smartphone for remote monitoring. Please refer to FIG. 1 flowchart.

The unit where the microcontroller is attached, it is extended upward to collect weather data, it is equipped with weather probe that collects humidity, temperature, wind speed, wind direction & rain fall. This unit also has built in artificial light system (grow light, electromagnetic spectrum to increase photo synthesis) that provides added illumination during rainy or cloudy days and after sunset. This unit is powered by solar panels attached to the top along with battery to give it 3.3V electricity.

The drip and sprayer system is strategically placed on the ground based on moisture data and crop type. The sprayer system can also spray fertilizer.

Use large Kite or UAV drone system with camera attached to remotely collect image from the field in real time to check the state of the crop over large area.

Monitor System

Using Microcontroller board and mesh WiFi data network systems (please see FIG. 2) data is collected from the lifeline unit is then transferred over to the central microcontroller board and WiFi shield at the base station or through cellular network, GPS on users smartphone.

The sensor module data is stored over cloud and data analytics with artificial intelligence software module is performed to visualize soil moisture data and soil moisture trend, soil temperature, soil pH (amount of nitrogen, salinity etc.) data to determine soil condition, leaf moisture data to determine leaf condition, the amount of dew duration that correlates to disease detection and soil moisture prediction based on historic weather data and moisture data.

Illumination data gathered is to determine the level of intensity used, weather data (air temp, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, rain fall, etc.) The kite (please refer to FIG. 2 of the drawing file) uploads image data automatically to cloud for visual analysis. The graphical pattern and trend analysis is done using AI (artificial intelligence) for predictive analytics to send trigger action message to the control system.

User has the option to auto send alert to their smart phone. User can login to their agriculture monitoring platform from anywhere in the world via the Internet.

Control System

The control system is comprised of drip and sprayer system. The artificial intelligence modeling of the monitored data determines prescriptive action and use of fuzzy logic input parameters to trigger action to the drip and sprayer system.

The drip and sprayer system helps in controlled irrigation and fertilization process

The triggering mechanism can be programmed to turn on and off the illumination unit based on sunlight condition (data gathered from weather system) with option for adjusting the light intensity.

Users can issue command from their smartphone user interface to trigger flight to the kite or UAV system. Also, user has option to harness the power of satellite images, all of these options are given on the menu driven user application interface.

With leaf wetness data monitoring which gives information on disease detection will trigger amount of pesticide to be used by the sprayer assembly.

With the weather data and soil data monitoring, users are alerted optimum time to seed and varieties of seedlings recommendations for early seeding. It will also connect users with the companies providing seeds for planting and setup automatic seed order should users set it up accordingly.

Communication System

The communication system is comprised of Crop Selection & Mapping data, Market Connection, Seed Connection and Social Media Connection

Crop Selection & Mapping data

User use the software which is equipped with options for personalization based on their location and soil condition and historical soil data that will provide recommendations on crop selection. This crop selection algorithm will be referenced to the central database from US agriculture department for the crop list based on the geographical region, climate and soil map data. It will provide suggestions on which crop to grow when, how to grow, etc.

Market Connection

This platform will connect the growers to the market and consumers to determine which crop are in demand based on predictive analytics and the market value for the crop.

Seed Connection

This system will connect growers to the breeders to get farmers input in better seed breeding and providing growers with high quality seed.

Social Media Connection

The growers can also connect to neighboring growers to exchange information, make deals on combined volume production for market supply, get advice on farming and a platform for flow of ease of information sharing.

Food Storage, Logistics, Distribution and Delivery

This platform provides logistics for farm produce storage and distribution to the market using Artificial Intelligence and IoT sensors and GPS (Global Positioning System) to track the flow real time. Farmers, distributors, market and consumers can monitor the location of farm produce delivery by using logistics tracking at any given moment using the user application interface.

Claims

a) An integrated IoT (Internet of Things) connected system comprising of hardware and software with artificial intelligence, this system uses wireless sensing capability to collect and monitor real time all agriculture, greenhouse, garden & lawn output such as: crop climate & weather, field image data using kite, satellite or UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) etc. on remote computers, laptop or handheld devices such as tablet or smartphone wherein data can be accessed both onsite or remotely

b) The integrated IoT system in claim (a) further characterized in that, the predictive analytics are performed using collected real time streaming data with artificial intelligence to model the data that is trained and hence generate the predictive data to automatically or remotely trigger proactive and preventive actions on the field. This automatic proactive and preventive action leads to higher yield, energy and cost savings, reduce water consumption and food waste which are not captured in the prior art.

c) The integrated IoT system in claim (b) comprised of added feature which is providing communication infrastructure and social media networking platform for connecting user to the local and overseas market and resources and is further comprised of optimizing logistics of food storage, food tracking and distribution and food delivery to the marketplace and consumers

d) The said integrated IoT system in claim (a), (b) and (c) cover diverse applications. The said IoT system is applicable for Geotechnical soil survey, geotechnical investigations, minerals exploration, geotechnical drilling including various soil testing to remotely provide actionable data that prompt user to take action

e) The said integrated IoT system are also applicable for air quality measurement data collection and hazardous waste material detection to provide user remote monitoring capability and actionable data output

f) The said integrated IoT system platform is further applicable for hydrocarbon detection in soil and sea water. The said integrated IoT system is applicable in oil drilling, monitoring pipelines and oil refinery management to provide remote monitoring with actionable result with a platform of integrated communications

g) The said integrated IoT system platform is applicable in Fisheries and Aquaculture management

h) The said integrated IoT system platform is usable in Semiconductor Fabrication Plant and Chemical Plant to monitor and provide actionable data to reduce equipment downtime and improve productivity

i) The said integrated IoT system platform is usable in Oceanography, atmospheric and environmental monitoring for global warming to provide useful and actionable data

j) The said integrated IoT system platform is also applicable to detect earthquake and tsunami, provide predictable analytics, structural integrity of the buildings and bridges, send smart alert to mobile phones to minimize death and destruction

k) Further to item (j) above, the said integrated IoT system platform also covers monitoring old infrastructure such as bridges, electric grid, dams, roads, tunnels, airports to determine structural integrity and maintenance ahead of time due to integration of predictive analytics using artificial intelligence with IoT

l) Further to item (h) above, the said integrated IoT system platform covers building and factory management for sustainability to reduce carbon footprint and tracking green house gas emission

m) The said integrated IoT system platform covers hardware device (bluetooth low energy beacon or sensors) communicating with user smartphone applications to give user location specific information (example use cases are: museums, airports, ski resorts, hotels & resorts, theme parks, zoo, farms, greenhouses, outdoor parks, conference & events)

n) Further to item(c) above, the said integrated IoT system platform covers inventory management and inventory tracking, data center management & asset maintenance

o) Further to item(c) above, the said integrated IoT system platform covers logistics and supply chain management