Quasi Real-Time Field Network System for Monitoring Remote Agricultural Fields

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AuthorjS)

Mizoguchi,M. ; Grad. Sch. of gric. & L~e SCi" Univ. of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; Ito. T. ; Chusnul, A. ; Mitsuishi. S. more authors

Abstract Authors References Cited By Keywords Metrics Similar

The introduction of ubiquitous computing technology in agriculture will allow the creation of a new

agricultural system. To this end, a Japanese group has developed a number of new technologies

over the past decade. One new technology is the "Field Server". However, as a result of our

long-term monitoring trials. some unexpected problems with the Field Server are now emerging. Here

we improved the Field Server based on our experiences in several agricultural fields, and developed

a quasi real-time field network system incorporating a Field Router and legacy data logger.

Published in:

SICE Annual Conference (SICE), 2011 Proceedings of

o

Date of Conference: 13-18 Sept. 2011

uke

o

Page(s):1586 -1589

ISSN: pending

Conference Location: Tokyo

rw •• , Product Type:

Conference Publications

o

Print ISBN:

Short 978-1-4577-0714-8

INSPEC Accession Number:

12341108

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Agriculture field is vital sector to ensure sufficient food for the people. Challenges in maintaining the sustainability of agriculture practices have been increasing due to the increased population and reduced arable area. Moreover, climate change issues have been affecting agriculture activities particularly in paddy fields[ I]. Therefore, increasing land productivity, water productivity, labor productivity and weather resiliencies should be the main means to develop sustainable agriculture by minimizing environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emission.

To achieve those objectives, it is important to improve the technology and management practices by considering all environmental parameters. Hence, precious environmental data sets such as meteorological, soil and crop data are needed to support agriculture management in term of precision farming.

Since 2007 the technology to collect real time precious environmental data have been developed through field monitoring by Field Server, under the "Database-Model cooperation system" project of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan [2, 3]. The Field Server is an automatic monitoring system consisting of a CPU (a Web server), an analog-to-digital converter, an Ethernet controller; sensors to measure air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, soil moisture, soil temperature and electrical conductivity; and a CCD camera. It can transfer high-resolution pictures of fields and sensing data through Wi- Fi broad band networks[ 4].

However, there was a problem limiting its stability. From our field experiences, the Field Server broke down after only half a year when the heat and ultraviolet light weakened their acrylic poles in Thailand [5]. The stability depends on the field solar power supply, the antenna, the local electrical power supply, and the Internet connection. If any of them has a problem, the data will be lost because the Field Server does not have any data logging function.

Therefore, a "new" generation of Field Network System (FNS) is being developed by using Field Router.

SICE Annual Conference 2011 . .

september 13-18, 2011, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

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Q u a s i R e a l - T i m e F i e l d N e t w o r k

System

f o r M o n i t o r i n g R e m o t e A g r i c u l t u r a l F i e l d s

Masaru Mizoguchi', Tetsu It0

2,

Arif Chusnul ', Shoichi Mitsuishi

3

and Masazumi

Akazawa'

'Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan (Tel: +81-3-5841-1606; E-mail: amizo@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac,jp)

2X-Ability Ltd., Tokyo, Japan (Tel: +81- 3-5844-6269; E-mail: tetsu@x-ability,jp)

3AINEX, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan (Tel: +81-3- 5713-0388; E-mail: mitsuishi@ai-nex.co.jp)

Abstract: The introduction of ubiquitous computing technology in agriculture will allow the creation of a new agricultural system. To this end, a Japanese group has developed a number of new technologies over the past decade. One new technology is the "Field Server". However, as a result of our long-term monitoring trials, some unexpected problems with the Field Server are now emerging. Here we improved the Field Server based on our experiences in several agricultural fields, and developed a quasi real-time field network system incorporating a Field Router and legacy data logger.

KeywordS: Field network system, Field router, Quasi real-time monitoring, Ubiquitous computing, Sensor network.

1 . I N T R O D U C T I O N _{Table I shows comparison of Field Server and the Field}

Router. The FR has capability of sending the data daily through internet connection. A newly developed FNS is a hybrid remote monitoring system which comprises of Field Router and connected some data loggers.

Table I Component of Field Server and the Field Router

I t e m F i e l d S e r v e r F i e l d Router

No

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I M o n l t o n n g Realt i m e a n d D i l l l l y m o n l t o f l n g ' qu as r

c o n t m u o u s r e a llime

2 O p e r a t i o n All day Ah a l f h o u r l d a y

3 P o w e r High power L o w e r p o w e r c o n s u m p t i o n b yu s m g consumpllon b y u S i n g6 b i gs o l a r p a n e l ( l O O W W s o l a rp a n e l

stze l m x 2 m

4 I n t e r n e t line I n t e r n e t W i t h s t a t i c I F M o b i l e p h o n e Internet

a d d r e s s C3G/GSMI

5 I n t e r n e t c o s t M o r e expensive C h e a p e r

6 D a t a l o g g e r N o d a t al o g g e r funcncn. A n v d a t a l o g g e r s CAn b e d a t aa r ed i r e c t l y a n d c o n n e c t e d

c o n t m u o u s l y s e n t t ot h e s e r v e r

7 S e t u p p r o c e s s D I f f i c u l t s y s t e m s e t u p E a s y s e tu p P h o n e s e t t i n g . I n t e r n e t -Devrce n a m e . mobile

m o d e m setnng. I Fc a m . n a m e c o m p a n y W I F , A Pa n d sensors · A u l < : ' > m a h c < : l a t a l o g g e r

d e t e c t i o n

8 Collecnng c b l a D a t a l o s t w h e n p o w e r o r D a t a s e cured I n~A("h

mternet f a l l d a t al o u e r However

t h ed a t aW I ll b el o s t

tmmed U l t e l yIfrhe

s e n s o r C A b l e u n p l u g a n d t h eb A t t e r y d e p l e t e d

This paper describes the basic concept of the newly

developed F S including its components, how the connection system works in the field and the application in the agriculture fields based on our field experiments.

2.

F I E L D R O U T E R ( F R )

Fig.1 shows Field Router (FR) that we developed. The FR consists of

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3 G / G S M modem, mini pc, camera,

battery level from the remote lab, no data loss because the data secured by data logger and stored in data center. Even if there are some problems related to internet connection and electrical power, the data will be saved

and stored in data loggers.

Fig.1 Component of the Field Router

3. FIELD NETWORK

SYSTEM (FNS)

3.1 Component of FNS

Principally, a new developed Field Network System (FNS) consist of three main components, i.e. Field Router (FR), data logger and sensors. The function of FR is collecting data from the data logger and then sending to the server through the Internet connection. The data logger stores the measurement data that are measured by the sensors. The schematic diagram of Field Network System (FNS) is shown in Fig.2.

First, three main components of FNS should be installed and set up in the real field as shown in Fig.3. In the soil domain, Decagon soil sensors (for an example S-TE) will measure soil moisture content, soil temperature and soil electrical conductivity (EC). Then, all those data will be collected and stored by Decagon soil data logger (EmSO data logger) at every desired time. In the atmosphere, Davis meteorological sensors (Davis Device Inc.) measure meteorological parameters such as air temperature, humidity, wind speed, solar radiation, rain precipitation and the data will be collected and stored in the Davis console (Davis VantagePr02).

3.2 FR operation

Fig.4 shows flowchart that FR sends data from field.

In-situ data -....

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Telecom.~ Data Server

Field Router

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Mobile internet

~

Image data ~ /rernet

Bluetooth

<::>~

Laboratory

[image:3.552.151.509.57.705.2]

(Soli sensor: Soil moisture, temperature. electrical conductivity .)

Fig.2 Schematic diagram of the newly developed Field Network System

Fig.3 Setup images of Field Network System (F real fields.

A FR equipped with an in-situ camera works within a specific interval time, for example, within the 12:00-12:30 local time. During that time, The FR boots automatically and becomes ready to connect to the internet through 3G/GSM, then the FR acquires plant

1587-image by the in-situ camera and then sends to the server (Fig. 4). Then, it collects soil data from the Decagon soil data logger thorough cable or Bluetooth connection. Recently, it collects meteorological data from Davis console by Bluetooth connection. The FR sends the

collected data to the data server through

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3 G / G S M

connection which is plugged-in the USB modem in the mini PC. The user can easily access and down load the data from the official website.

4. FNS OFFICIAL

WEB SITE

The admin server maintains the data and uploads them in the official website at http://www.iaLga.a.u-tokyo.ac.jp/fns/. The interface can be seen in the Fig. 5. Here, the users could see the overview of the currently installed FRs. Users can select "my favorite sites" by making check boxes on left windows or clicking a "Project" from Project list as shown in Fig. 6. As shown in Fig. 7, the user can see the history of FR status by clicking "Site overview" button. The figures denote the percentage of successful data transmission for image, meteorological and soil dada in each site. This function is helpful to make a plan to maintenance of the FR.

We called this monitoring as "Quasi real-time monitoring of Farmland using Field Router" because the environmental and image data are sent daily during the specific time. In addition, there are "I", "M","S" letters representing the status of image, meteorological and soil data, respectively. The status of today and previous day are shown in right and left side of the picture. If all letters appear in a specific day, it means that FR can send all data during that day.

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Fig.S The FNS ~fficial ~ebsite showing the overview offarmland monitoring all over the world

(http://www.iai.ga.a.u-tokyo.ac.jp/fns/)

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Fig.6 A "Project" category display selected from Project list

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5. ACCESSING

DATA FROM THE WEBSITE

All measurement data can be down loaded from the website as the numeric and graphic data as well as image data (Fig.B).

5.1 Image data

Image data can be saved manually by right clicking of the computer mouse and then choose sub menu "Save Image As. ..", Moreover, there is "image calendar" menu to see the overview of images during monitoring . The "image calendar" button can be found in above of daily image data .

5.2 Meteorological data

[image:4.561.284.506.76.503.2]

Fig.8. There are ten graphic data sets including battery level of the Davis console. The first to the tenth graphic data sets are of temperature, relative humidity, rain precipitation, wind speed, wind direction, solar radiation, evapotranspiration, UV index and battery level, respectively.

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Fig.8 An example of the FR website for an Indonesian paddy field

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Fig.9 An example of graphs on meteorological data

5.3 Soil data

Soil data also include

numeric

and

graphic

data. The steps accessing those data are as same

as in the case of the meteorological

data.

The

numeric data that are presented

in the website

are "raw" data and should be converted firstly by

using

ECH20

utility

software

from

Decagon

Device, Inc. (www.decagon.com).

By clicking

graph icon, soil temperature,

soil moisture

and

electrical

conductivity,

which

are

already

converted from "raw" data, can be seen as shown

in Fig.IO.

~---.--~-

..

--,

.--_/'~

Fig.lO Soil temperature, soil moisture and electrical conductivity graphs

6. CONCLUSION

A quasi real-time field network system incorporating a Field Router and legacy data logger is a powerful tool for monitoring remote agricultural fields all over the world. Although we have just started to test the system, stable and easy access to the data logger is reducing the worries that we felt before. However, there remain fundamental risks such as electric power outage and network disconnection. Consequently, we urgently need to train field network engineers to maintain the field network system.

When you input the keyword of "fns info.ga" on Google, you can find the manual of FNS (Field network system) http://info.ga.a.u-tokyo .ac.j p/fns/Mai n_Page.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This work was partially supported by the "Research Program on Climate Change Adaptation" of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

REFERENCES

[I] De Silva CS, E K Weatherhead, J W Knox, J A Rodriguez-Diaz, "Predicting the impacts of climate change-A case study of paddy irrigation water requirements in Sri Lanka", A g r i c . W a t e r . M a n a g . 9 3 :

19-29,2007.

[2] NARO, "Database-Model cooperation system project", ••http://www.agmodel.net/DataModell.. (in Japanese) , 2007.

[3] Honda K, Shrestha A, Chinnachodteeranun R, Mizoguchi M, Shimamura H, Kameoka T, "Spinach Field Monitoring for Bridging Thai Producer and Japanese Consumer under Sensor Asia", Proceeding of SICE Annual Conference, The University Electro-Communications, Japan, pp.2582-2585, 2008. [4]NARO, "IT-AG national project", ''http://model.job.affrc.go.jplFieldServer/default.htm'',

2009.

[5]Mizoguchi M, Tetsu Ito, Shoichi Mitsuishi, "Ubiquitous Monitoring of Agricultural Fields in Asia for Safe Agricultural Production Management",

P r o c e e d i n g o f I n t e r n a t i o n a l C o n f e r e n c e o n P r o m i s i n g

P r a c t i c e s f o r t h e D e v e l o p m e n t o f S u s t a i n a b l e P a d d y

F i e l d s , Bogor: October 7-9,2009. GI.15 : 1-8, .2009.