Responding to the growing demand of precision from the smart agriculture devices market, Libelium releases a new version of its Smart Agriculture sensor node improving maximum accuracy for crop monitoring. The enhanced Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Agriculture Xtreme device includes top market performance sensors for the most exigent field applications such as vineyards, fruit orchards and greenhouse cultivations, among others.
The new solution features 19 sensors from the most prestigious and reliable manufacturers of agricultural technology such as Apogee, Decagon, Ecomatik and Gill Instruments. This integration enables the measuring of different parameters related to weather conditions, light and radiation levels, soil morphology, fertilizers presence, frost prevention, daily growth of plants and fruits and other environmental parameters to improve crop quality production and to prevent harvest losses.
According to a recent FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) report, between 2005 and 2015, natural disasters cost $96 billion in damage to agricultural and livestock production. Weather disasters such as storms or extreme temperatures caused losses of $26.5 billion and biological disasters, such as pests and infestations, caused crop losses of $9.5 billion. In Asia, the region of the world where agriculture has been most affected by disasters, floods and storms have had the greatest impact.
“Improving agricultural productivity requires investment in smart IoT technologies with more accurate sensors. This allows agriculture producers to obtain data for better controlling crop growth, preventing losses caused by adverse weather conditions or infectious pests and thus, facilitating the return on investments,” states David Gascón, co-founder and CTO of Libelium.
Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Agriculture Xtreme
The Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Agriculture Xtreme sensor node includes a more reliable weather station to measure the wind and precipitations via optical technology. It also features a complete set of light and radiation sensors such as ultraviolet radiation, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and shortwave radiation. The soil morphology and the presence of fertilizers can be analyzed by measuring electrical conductivity, volumetric water content, soil water potentials and oxygen levels. To prevent frost, the new device allows customers to connect a special sensor to measure non-contact plants and fruits surface temperature. And for daily growth monitoring, there are a set of dendrometers to control the growing of the trunk, the stem and the fruit of the plant.
In recent years, Libelium’s technology has been deployed in several worldwide projects that have realized the power of the IoT platform that the company offers the smart agriculture market. Vineyards, cocoa, tobacco, strawberries, bananas, kiwis, olives, baby leaves, corn or even marijuana crops have been monitored by Libelium’s Smart Agriculture IoT Platform. As a result of its vast experience in smart agriculture projects Libelium published a white paper offering a deep insight into how wireless sensor networks can impact the reduction of crop losses and increase production.
New Sensors for Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Agriculture Xtreme
| Manufacturer and Model | Measured parameters | Applications |
| Apogee SI-411 |
Non-contact surface temperature measurement | Plant canopy temperature measurement for plant water status estimation, road surface temperature measurement to determine icing conditions, and terrestrial surface (soil, vegetation, water, snow) temperature measurement in energy balance studies. |
| Apogee SF-421 |
Leaf and flower bud temperature | Leaf and bud temperature estimates in cropped fields, orchards, and vineyards. Leaf and bud temperatures returned by the detector can then be used to alert growers to the potential of frost damage to crops. |
| Apogee SO-411 |
Oxygen levels | Measurement of O2 in laboratory experiments, monitoring gaseous O2 in indoor environments for climate control, monitoring of O2 levels in compost piles and mine sailings, monitoring redox potential in soils, and determination of respiration rates through measurement of O2 consumption in sealed chambers or measurement of O2 gradients in soil/porous media. |
| Apogee SU-100 |
Ultraviolet radiation | UV radiation measurement in outdoor environments, laboratory use with artificial light sources (e.g. germicidal lamps), and monitoring the filter ability and stability of various materials. |
| Apogee SQ-110 |
Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) | PPFD (Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density) measurement over plant canopies in outdoor environments, greenhouses, and growth chambers, and reflected or under-canopy (transmitted) PPFD measurements in the same environments. Quantum sensors are also used to measure PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation)/PPFD in aquatic environments, including salt water aquariums where corals are grown. |
| Apogee SP-510 |
Shortwave radiation | Shortwave radiation measurement in agricultural, ecological, and hydrological weather networks. Sensors are also used to optimize photovoltaic systems. |
| Decagon GS3 |
Electrical conductivity, volumetric water content and temperature of the soil | In potting soil and soilless medias, to maintain good soil contact and compensate for air gaps in the substrate. Greenhouse substrate monitoring. Irrigation management. Salt management. Fertilizer movement. Modeling processes that are affected by temperature. |
| Decagon 5TE |
Electrical conductivity, volumetric water content and temperature of the soil | Greenhouse substrate monitoring. Irrigation management. Salt management. Fertilizer movement. Modeling processes that are affected by temperature. |
| Decagon 5TM |
Temperature, volumetric water content of the soil | Soil water balance, irrigation management, modeling processes that are affected by temperature. |
| Decagon MPS-6 |
Soil water potentials | Deficit irrigation monitoring and control. Water potential monitoring in the vadose zone. Crop stress. Waste water drainage studies. Plant water availability. |
| Decagon VP-4 |
Vapor pressure, humidity, temperature and atmospheric pressure in soil and in air | Greenhouse and canopy monitoring. Reference evapotranspiration calculations. Routine weather monitoring. Building humidity monitoring. Mold remediation. Modeling processes that are affected by vapour pressure or humidity. |
| Decagon Phytos-31 |
Leaf wetness | Usage decisions for crop fungicides. Predict crop diseases or infections. |
| Ecomatik DC2 |
Trunk diameter | Plants growth processes monitoring. Examination of the influence of environmental factors on plant growth. Precise dating of the beginning and end of the growing season. |
| Ecomatik DD-S |
Stem diameter | Plants growth processes monitoring. Examination of the influence of environmental factors on plant growth. Precise dating of the beginning and end of the growing season. |
| Ecomatik DF |
Fruit diameter | Plants growth processes monitoring. Examination of the influence of environmental factors on plant growth. Precise dating of the beginning and end of the growing season. |
| Bosch BME280 |
Temperature, air humidity and pressure | Weather forecast, Control heating, ventilation, air conditioning in greenhouses. |
| AMS (taos) TSL2561 |
Luxes | Light presence detection for artificial lightning usage. |
| Maxbotix MB7040 |
Ultrasound | Tank level measurement. |
| Gill Instruments GMX-240 |
Wind speed, direction and precipitations | Weather forecast. |
For more information about our products contact the Libelium Sales Department.
More info:
- For technical details on Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Agriculture Xtreme: Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Agriculture Xtreme Technical Guide.
- Read more about Libelium sensor product lines in the Waspmote, Waspmote Plug & Sense! Sensor Platform and Meshlium Gateway websites.
References:
- Los desastres causan pérdidas agrícolas millonarias, con la sequía a la cabeza: fao.org
- Libelium’s Agriculture Case Studies: libelium.com/case-studies
- White Paper: Enabling the Smart Agriculture Revolution: libelium.com
- New Waspmote Sensor Board enables extreme precision agriculture in vineyards and greenhouses: libelium.com
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