Cyber Systems: Development of Soil Sensors and their Underground Wireless Network for Fertilization Management to Minimize Environmental Impact

本研究的目的是开发一个地下无线网络的土壤传感器监测土壤性质，如水分含量和温度，这将被用来收集高分辨率的时空变化数据所需的准确的气候/水文流量/作物生长建模和变量控制灌溉/施肥。该方法是（i）开发自校准湿度和温度土壤传感器，部署在一个50英亩的爱荷华州中部农场的矩形英亩网格上（ii）使每个传感器具有至少50米范围的地下无线通信能力，以及用于自定位、自组织和节能介质访问/路由/数据传输的联网能力，以及（iii）采用由传感器网络收集的数据来精确地校准作物生长的参数（CERES Maize）、用于获取碳固存信息的碳-养分循环和水文流动模型，（1）开发可现场部署并支持自动数据收集的自校准土壤传感器;（2）开发自组织、自定位和节能的地下无线传感器网络，使研究人员能够更好地了解大面积土壤和环境的特性;（3）开发生产农业中的施肥管理工具，以实现经济节约和环境保护。更广泛的影响：（1）本项目是将信息和控制技术纳入生产农业的一个步骤，因为采用这些技术的主要障碍是缺乏能够自动收集高分辨率时空变化数据的基础设施和分析工具。 (2)所提出的地下无线土壤传感器网络的开发和部署可以极大地改善农业管理和环境保护实践，这意味着它可以通过允许更有效地利用农业投入（例如氮）来提供经济收益，同时减少排放到水中的氮的量。(3)该网络提供的数据将有助于更好地模拟作物生长和碳氮循环，从而更好地了解生物质中的碳固存，这对空气质量管理和全球变暖具有影响。(4)该跨学科项目涉及传感器、通信、网络、气候/作物生长/水文流程建模以及分布式监测和控制等方面的专业知识。该项目将为这些学科之间的思想交流提供基础，并在这些跨学科领域培养2-3名博士生。将尽一切努力招收少数民族和代表性不足的学生。课程将在传感器和仪器仪表，并在特设无线传感器网络开发。(5)地下无线土壤传感器网络技术将有其他应用，如表面运动监测和边境巡逻，监测堤坝/堤坝/道路和生物制药，生物燃料，园艺/葡萄栽培，种子工业，食品安全，生物安全和身份保护的应用。

The objective of this research is to develop an underground wireless network of soil sensors to monitor soil properties like moisture content and temperature, which will be used to collect high resolution spatio-temporally varying data needed for accurate climatic/hydrologic-flow/crop-growth modeling and variable-rate control of irrigation/fertilization. The approach is to (i) Develop self-calibrating moisture and temperature soil sensors to be deployed in a 50-acre, central Iowa farm over a rectangular -acre grid (approximately, 50m by 50m) at the depth of 30cm where the moisture level is more stable and available for root uptake, (ii) Endow each sensor with the capability of underground wireless communication of at least 50m range, and networking capabilities for selflocalization, self organization, and power conserving medium access/routing/data-transportation, and (iii) Employ the data gathered by the sensor network to accurately calibrate the parameters of the crop-growth (CERES Maize), the carbon-nutrient cycling and the hydrologic-flow models for obtaining information on carbon sequestration, nitrogen uptake/leaching and crop development with the goal of developing agriculture management and environmental protection practices.Intellectual merits: (1) Development of self-calibrating soil sensors that are field-deployable and support automated data collection; (2) Development of self-organizing, self-localizing and power-conserving underground wireless sensor network that allows the researchers to better understand properties of soils and the environment over a large area; (3) Development of tools for fertilization management in production agriculture for economic savings and environmental protection. Broader Impacts: (1) This project is a step toward the incorporation of information and control technologies in production agriculture since a major impediment to adoption of such technologies is the lack of an infrastructure that allows automated collection of high resolution spatio-temporally varying data and tools to analyze them. (2) The development and deployment of the proposed underground wireless soil sensor network can vastly improve the agricultural management and environmental protection practices, meaning it can offer economic gains by allowing a more efficient utilization of the agricultural inputs such as nitrogen and at the same time the amounts of nitrogen discharged to water is reduced. (3) The data available from the network will help better modeling of crop-growth and carbon-nitrogen cycling leading to a better understanding of the carbon-sequestration into the biomass, which has implications toward air-quality management and global-warming. (4) The interdisciplinary project involves expertise from sensors, communications, networking, modeling of climatic/crop-growth/hydrologic-flow processes, and distributed monitoring and control. The project will provide grounds for exchange of ideas across these disciplines and train 2-3 PhD students in such interdisciplinary areas. Every effort will be made to recruit students of minority and under-represented background. Courses will be developed in Sensors and Instrumentation, and in Ad-hoc Wireless Sensor Networks. (5) The underground wireless soil sensor network technology will have other applications such as surface motion monitoring and border patrol, monitoring of levees/embankments/roads and applications in bio-pharmaceuticals, bio-fuels, horticulture/viticulture, seed industry, food-safety, bio-security and identity-preservation.