Trinchero Daniele, Colucci Giovanni Paolo, Filipescu Elena, Zafar Ussama Syed Muhammad, Battilani Paola
iXem Labs, Department of Electronics and Telecommunications (DET), Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy.
Department of Sustainable Crop Production (DI.PRO.VE.S.), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 29122 Piacenza, Italy.
Sensors (Basel). 2024 Dec 18;24(24):8088. doi: 10.3390/s24248088.
The paper presents a double-radio wireless multimedia sensor node (WMSN) with a camera on board, designed for plant proximal monitoring. Camera sensor nodes represent an effective solution to monitor the crop at the leaf or fruit scale, with details that cannot be retrieved with the same precision through satellites or unnamed aerial vehicles (UAVs). From the technological point of view, WMSNs are characterized by very different requirements, compared to standard wireless sensor nodes; in particular, the network data rate results in higher energy consumption and incompatibility with the usage of battery-powered devices. Avoiding energy harvesters allows for device miniaturization and, consequently, application flexibility, even for small plants. To do this, the proposed node has been implemented with two radios, with different roles. A GPRS modem has been exclusively implemented for image transmission, while all other tasks, including node monitoring and camera control, are performed by a LoRaWAN class A end-node that connects every 10 min. Via the LoRaWAN downlink, it is possible to efficiently control the camera settings; the shooting times and periodicity, according to weather conditions; the eventual farming operations; the crop growth stages and the season. The node energy consumption has been verified in the laboratory and in the field, showing that it is possible to acquire one picture per day for more than eight months without any energy harvester, opening up further possible implementations for disease detection and production optimization.
本文介绍了一种用于植物近距离监测的双无线电无线多媒体传感器节点（WMSN），其搭载了摄像头。摄像头传感器节点是在叶片或果实尺度上监测作物的有效解决方案，能获取卫星或未命名无人机无法以相同精度获取的细节。从技术角度来看，与标准无线传感器节点相比，WMSN具有非常不同的要求；特别是，网络数据速率导致更高的能耗，并且与电池供电设备的使用不兼容。避免使用能量收集器可实现设备小型化，从而实现应用灵活性，即使对于小型植物也是如此。为此，所提出的节点采用了两个具有不同功能的无线电来实现。一个GPRS调制解调器专门用于图像传输，而所有其他任务，包括节点监测和摄像头控制，均由每10分钟连接一次的LoRaWAN A类终端节点执行。通过LoRaWAN下行链路，可以根据天气条件有效地控制摄像头设置、拍摄时间和周期、最终的农事操作、作物生长阶段和季节。该节点的能耗已在实验室和现场得到验证，结果表明，在没有任何能量收集器的情况下，每天可以获取一张图片，持续八个多月，这为疾病检测和生产优化开辟了更多可能的实现方式。
