Internet of Things is one of the most familiar and promising technological topics nowadays where sensors and small-smart devices facilitate the development of potential applications in many fields of science and engineering. However, in this study, we only focus on discussing the major applications of WSNs and IoT in Pprecision Farming.
Precision Algriculture
There are various definitions of Precision Farming, but they all give the idea that Precision Farming can be thought of anything that makes the farming practice more controlled and accurate. Imagine you are a farmer owning Thousands-Arce rice field, greenhouses vegetable productions, and lakes for agriculture. In your home, you just need to push a button to turn on the monitoring system that shows where the soil in your field is moist, where the soil is affected by some unexpected factors that limit the crop growth and where needs to treat bacterial and fungal diseases in agriculture. By touching another button, you can start timely and efficient harvest process underpin the delivery of quality product to the market.
Precision farming cycle
Turn agricultural waste into fertilizer
It is noted that the advantages of this agricultural product chain may reduce the risk of unsalable agricultural products. The waste products of greenhouse vegetable productions may be used for fertilizing the rice field, and the water from the lakes will be used for irrigation. All the remote sensing data will be automatically collected, and store for predicting the next operating system parameters. You just need to sit back and enjoy your meal, saving money as your machines do most of the work. A brief overview of the components in precision farming is presented in Figure 2.
The Precision Farming is widely used in many countries, e.g. Canada, United State of America, Holland, Israel. Unfortunately, it is quite new definition in Vietnam. There are some companies such as Investment and technical development high-tech agriculture Joint Stock Company (http://nongnghiepcongnghecaosaigon.com), Hanoi High-Tech Agriculture Trade and Development Joint Stock Company (http://www.nongnghiepcongnghecaohanoi.com), that see the potential of high technological and eco-efficient agriculture in Vietnam. However, most of these high technological agriculture is transferred from Holland, USA or Israel. They are quite expensive and need the expert guide or parts of it.
To overcome these problems, the Automation Department, Faculty of Engineering has been focused on utilizing high technologies in agriculture. We have tried to use wireless sensors and various items like robotics, autonomous vehicles, control systems in improving the quantity and quality of agricultural products.</p>>We have successfully designed and manufactured smart drip irrigation system for sustainable agriculture. As can be seen in Figure 4, our smart drip irrigation system for cucumber achieves high quality with low system cost.
With the unpredictability of the weather, our design in building the structure of the greenhouse is one of the best choices for many farmers in Vietnam. Figure 5 depicts one of our high-tech agricultural projects in Hanoi, Vietnam. Our hydroponic system is shown in Figure 6. In this project, the lettuce is grown in a water based, nutrient rich solution.
Smart drip irrigation system for cucumber
Greenhouse for tomato
Hydroponic system