Patent Application
20150204041
The present invention generally relates to a two-tier wireless soil measurement apparatus for monitoring sub-surface soil conditions.
The wireless soil sensors are used to reduce water waste and water produce effective through continuous monitoring of the soil moisture level. The conventional wireless soil sensor system uses a probe buried into the soil.
The conventional wireless soil sensor probe shows certain practical disadvantages when deployed. For example, the deployment is often difficult. The shaft structure of the probe requires a vertical hole dug into the soil, which may encounter rocks or debris during digging. Also, it is not uncommon for some deployment to require the sensors requires buried deeper under the soil for more than 1 meter. The difficulty is high when considering a large-area field deployment of the wireless soil sensor probes.
The present invention has been made to overcome the above-mentioned drawback of conventional wireless soil sensor system. The primary object of the present invention is to provide a wireless soil measurement apparatus that provides flexibility and ease for deployment.
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention discloses a two-tier wireless soil measurement apparatus, including a top head and a plurality of sensors, wherein the top head being placed on or above the ground and the plurality of sensors being scattered under the soil; each of the plurality of sensors including a sensor housing, a first communication module, a sensor unit and a power module; the sensor unit sensing a condition of the soil and generating soil data representing the soil condition, the first communication module transmitting the generated soil data to the top head, and the power module providing power for the operation of the sensor unit and the first communication module; the top head further including a first communication module, a controller, a second communication module and a power module; the first communication module receiving soil data from the first communication modules of the plurality of sensors, the controller processing the received soil data, the second communication module transmitting the processed soil data to a data station, and the power module providing power to the operation of the first communication module, the controller and the second communication module.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood from a careful reading of a detailed description provided herein below with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.
The present invention can be understood in more detail by reading the subsequent detailed description in conjunction with the examples and references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
It should be noted that the number of the sensors may vary and three sensors 2021, 2022, 2023 are shown in the present embodiment. In addition, the sensors 2021, 2022, 2023 may be buried under the soil at different depth and different vertical location. In addition, the soil condition monitored by each sensor 2021, 2022, 2023 may also be different. As such, the deployment of the sensors would allow higher flexibility to distribute different sensors at different depths and locations to monitor a wide range of soil conditions.
It should be noted that in a preferred embodiment, the first communication module and the second communication module are both wireless communication modules operating at different frequencies. This is because the propagation loss of the wireless signal is different for different operating frequency. For example, the operating frequency of the first communication module 301 is preferably ranging from 433 MHz to 1 GHz, and the operating frequency of the second communication module 303 is preferably between 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz. In the present embodiment, the first communication module 301 operates at 433 MHz and the second communication module operates at 2.4 GHz.
The top head 201 may further include one or more sensor units (not shown), connected to the controller for sensing various soil surface conditions, such as, air humidity level, air temperature, light level, CO2 level, air pressure and so on. In addition, a GPS sensor or an accelerometer can also be included. The power module 304 may be a rechargeable power module. The additional ground level sensors and the aforementioned first communication module 301, controller 302, second communication module 303 and the power module 304 are all packed inside a housing case durable for soil and weather conditions.
It should be noted that the first communication module 403 must operate at the same frequency as the first communication module 301 (in
Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the sensor unit 401 may be an accelerometer, a soil tension meter, a soil moisture sensor, a soil temperature sensor, a soil dissolved oxygen sensor, a soil pH level sensor, a soil conductivity sensor, a soil dielectric frequency sensor, or any combination of the above to monitor any necessary combination soil conditions.
In summary, the two-tier wireless soil measurement apparatus of the present invention uses wireless communication to communicate soil data sensed and generated by the under soil sensors to the top head disposed above the soil so as to provide ease and flexibility of the deployment of the sensors to accommodate the underground condition.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details described thereof. Various substitutions and modifications have been suggested in the foregoing description, and others will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
