While the buzz of Internet of Things (IoT) has many consumers dreaming of a smart home where every device with an on/off switch, from the coffee maker to the cat feeder, is conveniently connected to Wi-Fi, some companies are focused on the bigger picture. Beyond a world of greater convenience, how can the innovations of IoT aid in environmental and agricultural improvements?
Libelium, an IoT company based in Spain, has been involved in numerous irrigation, agriculture, and water quality projects that prove the true global impact of IoT far exceeds that of your living room. Libelium designs and manufactures hardware and a complete software kit for wireless sensor networks. Their goal is to allow system integrators, engineers, and consultancy companies to deliver reliable IoT, M2M (machine to machine communication), and Smart City solutions.
Smart Irrigation
According to the World Wildlife Foundation, global agriculture wastes almost 60% of the water it utilizes each year, mainly due to inefficient water irrigation systems. This is significant when less than 3% of all the water on earth is freshwater and more than two-thirds of that is locked up in ice caps and glaciers. Poor irrigation accounts for wasting about 70% of the world’s accessible water.
What if we were able to know exactly when, where, and how much water is needed to irrigate plants? What if we could guarantee optimal plant conditions and simultaneously avoid wasting excess water? The latest innovation in Barcelona’s Poblenou Park Centre can do just that. Together with Starlab and a few other companies, Libelium has assisted in deploying a remote-controlled smart irrigation system to facilitate management of the water network.
The main setup includes soil moisture probes placed underground to monitor the water levels in various locations around the park. Libelium’s Waspmote Sensor Platform devices were placed in waterproof boxes and are powered by batteries with a lifespan of about one year. The data gathered from the probes is sent to Libelium’s Meshlium Gateway and then to the cloud using 3G. The Barcelona park staff and gardeners are able to monitor and control electronic irrigation valves via their computer, smart phone, or tablet. Through this IoT technology, irrigation is done based on plant need and weather conditions, allowing for optimized water consumption and reducing Barcelona’s municipal water bill by nearly 25%. If smart irrigation can be adopted to more wide spread agricultural use, it will allow farmers to reduce costs, maintain optimal plant levels, and potentially increase plant production.
관련 상품 참조
Smart Agriculture
Most recently, Libelium systems were implemented into Vietnamese fish farms to monitor water quality of the ponds and tanks. Vietnam is one of the world’s largest fish producers, exporting roughly 1.7 billion USD worth of fish to the US, Europe, Mexico, and China. The goal for introducing an IoT system to these fisheries was to allow real-time monitoring of various parameters in order to control water quality, prevent diseases, and ultimately improve quality and quantity of fish production. In a 1.2 acre fish farm that is about 13 feet deep, the average loss from juvenile placement in the fishery to adults collected six months later can be as high as 40%. Loss is usually due to preventable diseases easily avoided with monitored water quality. With a controlled water quality system, the number of fish lost could nearly be cut in half. This could mean a monetary difference of at least $12,000 USD every six months!
Libelium’s Waspmote Plug & Sense! platform was selected for the project due to its scalability, ease of use, and low maintenance costs. The sensors communicate with Libelium’s Meshlium Gateway, which collects the information and sends it to the Cloud via 3G, 802.15.4, and WiFi. The setup also includes a cloud-based application to visualize the data in graphs and diagrams. Currently the sensor setup has been deployed at the water source as well as in the fishery ponds. The Libelium system measures and controls water temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), oxidation reduction potential (ORP), and pH. Because it would be difficult to run power to all nodes installed in the ponds, the engineering team installed solar panels and a battery source at each node to provide sufficient electricity. The next phase of the project will add Ammonium (NH4), Nitrate (NO3), and Nitrite (NO2) levels as additional parameters to monitor. These elements are the leading indicators of toxicity in the water created by fish feces.
관련 상품 참조
The overall success from this Waspmote Plug & Sense! system has engineers and farmers looking for other similar applications such as monitoring parameters for shrimp farming. With the Libelium water quality system, fisheries are able to meet the tough international regulations for fish quality and farming conditions as well as save money by drastically reducing fish loss.
Although IoT consumer convenience products tend to gain the most public attention, keep in mind the true global impact extends far beyond that of the home. With the help of innovative companies like Libelium, agriculture, irrigation, and water quality systems are able to not only improve efficiency and reduce costs, but also aid in water conservation.