Variable sampling interval for energy-efficient heterogeneous precision agriculture using Wireless Sensor Networks

This study aims to examine the problem of sampling interval selection for the precision agriculture using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The Wireless Sensor Networks is introduced for limited energy sensor nodes and deployed in an agricultural farm, which is divided into a number of heterogeneous agricultural areas. A Variable Sampling Interval Precision Agriculture (VSI-PA) system is proposed to measure and monitor the agricultural parameters for appropriate agricultural activities e.g. water irrigation. At every time step, the sensor nodes are selected for each area to sense the soil moisture and temperature. After that, a variable sampling interval is calculated independently for each individual area, according to the soil temperature of the area. Analysis of simulation results show that, compared with other fixed sampling interval schemes, the proposed VSI-PA system provides a significant improvement in energy consumption while maintaining a small variation of the soil moisture regardless of the values of soil temperature. Therefore, the crop yields have been enhanced.