Many historians argue that the most significant upheaval in human history was the agricultural revolution, as it allowed settlers to effectively produce a sustainable amount of food. However, as the worldwide population has risen, farming operations have grown increasingly complex, vast and optimized. Technological revolutions lead farming operations to be more productive than ever, harvesting more crops per area and yielding higher quality products. Sensors play a vital role in this technological revolution. Let's explores the five key sensors in smart agriculture technology:
pH Sensors in Agriculture
The availability of nutrients is as essential to plant growth as it is to animals and livings organisms. In optimizing a plant's growth potential and yielding highly productive harvests, it's imperative to have a deep and quantitative understanding of the soil conditions from which agricultural products come. Using pH sensors provides critical feedback regarding soil nutrient deficiencies or the presence of unwanted chemicals. These sensors help smart agriculture monitor daily, weekly, monthly and annual fluctuations in soil pH and nutrient levels to continue to educate the agricultural industry.
GPS Sensors
Typically associated with the automotive and cellular communication industries, GPS sensors are also advantageous to smart agriculture. From ancient settlers herding sheep with wooden staffs to the cattle drives of the Old West, keeping track of their flocks has always been of utmost importance to farmers. Modern GPS tracking of livestock has heightened the ability to monitor animals with a simple push of a button.
On the mechanical side of agriculture, plant harvesting and related farming techniques have recently adopted GPS technology in highly precise vehicle guidance systems. In many farming applications, such as tilling a field, the use of auto-guided systems can optimize field routing, reduce process overlap and ultimately reduce the amount of time required to complete a task.
Agricultural Temperature Sensors
Temperature Sensors are crucial in two key categories of smart agriculture — ambient condition monitoring and mechanical asset monitoring. Ice wine harvesting, for example, is known to occur within the narrow temperature window when ambient temperatures first reach between -10°C and -12°C during a harvesting season. Highly accurate temperature and humidity sensors and precise predictive temperature forecasts are imperative to the ice wine industry. Temperature sensors not only play a significant role in monitoring the ambient conditions of physical space, but they play an essential role in nearly all smart agriculture asset monitoring applications.
Asset Monitoring
Asset monitoring is another application in smart agriculture in which temperature sensing plays a critical role. In addition to monitoring the plants that are harvested, temperature sensors observe the equipment that gathers these plants. Temperature sensors send out alerts whenever an equipment system requires minor maintenance, is underperforming, or is critically failing. They're used in nearly every predictive and reactive maintenance system to protect against overheating and detrimental failure.
Accelerometer Sensor
Similar to the use of temperature sensors in predictive maintenance, accelerometers are widely utilized across the smart agriculture industry to predict and assist with required maintenance. Primarily used on moving components and motors, accelerometers detect slight variations in movement and vibration inconsistencies and predict when standard maintenance is required or a compromised component needs replacement. Although not commonly associated with farming and other agriculture, accelerometers play a valuable role in the maintenance of vital smart agriculture equipment.
Accelerometers are also used in a variety of automated systems and tracking methods. For example, a low-power accelerometer makes it simple to monitor the status of an adjustable spray nozzle on the end of a fertilization beam. In more recent technology, autonomous drone use in smart agriculture relies heavily on accelerometers and IMU (inertial measurement units)
to track motion, speed, crash events, and even position in space.
Smart Cameras use in Agriculture
While smart camera technology is far from a stereotypical analog sensor, it has been increasingly adopted for a variety of smart agriculture applications. Companies such as Blue River Technology, a division of John Deere, have implemented smart camera technology to detect weeds and other plant locations to automatically and accurately dispense herbicides and fertilizer. This optimizes chemical utilization and increases overall productivity while decreasing chemical usage.
Additionally, pest control has consistently been one of the most significant challenges in agriculture. Farmers now utilize smart cameras for real-time pest detection and monitoring to effectively seek action against pests without harming agriculturally helpful non-target insects. Smart cameras can also replace semi-legacy sensing devices such as ambient light monitoring, which enables system simplification and a reduction in the component count.
Future of Agriculture Sensor Technology
The smart agriculture industry is continually growing and expanding, with new solutions coming to the market almost daily. Devices that aggregate sensor data, relay critical information to farmers and ranchers, and help optimize vast agricultural processes are continually increasing in capability and importance. To learn more about Arrow's involvement in smart agriculture, please contact our Smart Agriculture and IoT division.