Cloud-based Wireless Sensor and Actuator System for Smart Irrigation Telecommunications and ...

106 Pages·2015·15.4 MB·English

by  Nelson Sales

Cloud-based Wireless Sensor and Actuator System for Smart
Irrigation
Nelson Filipe Dias Sales
Thesis to obtain the Master of Science Degree in
Telecommunications and Informatics Engineering
Supervisor: Prof. Artur Miguel do Amaral Arsénio
Examination Committee
Chairperson: Prof. Paulo Jorge Pires Ferreira
Supervisor: Prof. Artur Miguel do Amaral Arsénio
Member of the Committee: Prof. Paulo Jorge Fernandes Carreira
January 2015
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Acknowledgments
I would like to my greatest appreciation to my supervisor Artur Ars´enio and my co-supervisor Orlando
Rem´edios for all the granted help and support during the course of this dissertation work. I am also
grateful to Sensefinity to allow me to work in such a fascinating theme and with such a helpful and
supporting team. The experimental evaluation of this work would not have been possible without the
collaboration of Mr. Serafim Clara, which beyond the physical space, also provided a great help in the
systems’ installation as well as during the whole experience.
I want to thank to Jo˜ao Ambr´osio for being a partner in this journey since its beginning, for all the
constant support and much appreciated help, always giving the best suggestions. I am also grateful to
myfriendLilianaValenteforallthesupport,patienceandmotivationgiventhroughtheentireprocessof
this dissertation. To my friends Andreia Calado, Daniel Dias, Hugo Serra, Mariana Silva, Pedro Costa,
Pedro Torres and Rui Francisco, thank you all for the support and companionship in this adventure in
Instituto Superior T´ecnico.
I dedicate this work to my family, specially my mother Ana Dias and father Paulo Sales, without
them this goal would not have been be achieved. Thank you for all the constant support during my
studies and my whole life.
Thank you all.
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Resumo
O nu´mero de dispositivos ligados `a Internet est´a a ter um crescimento explosivo. Estes desenvolvimentos
levam a um mundo com possibilidades infinitas em conjunto com as comunicac¸˜oes Machine-to-Machine
(M2M), incluindo o desenvolvimento de um planeta mais verde e inteligente, usando a informac¸˜ao que
nos rodeia. Esta informa¸c˜ao permite criar soluc¸˜oes de modo a aplicar uma melhor gest˜ao dos nossos
recursos naturais. Estes objectos inteligentes embebidos com sensores permitem esta interac¸˜ao com o
ambiente de acordo com o conceito de Internet das Coisas, juntando o mundo f´ısico com o mundo l´ogico.
Acomunicac¸˜aodestessensores´efeitasemfiosformandoassimumaRededeSensoressemFios(Wireless
Sensor Network - WSN), que faz a aquisi¸c˜ao, cole¸c˜ao e an´alise de dados como a temperatura, velocidade
do vento e humidade no solo. Uma rede de sensores sem fios que usa actuadores para controlar o
ambiente ´e chamada de Rede de Sensores e Atuadores sem Fios (Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network
- WSAN). As capacidades quase infinitas de armazenamento e processamento, a r´apida elasticidade e
caracter´ısticas de pay-per-use tornam a Computac¸˜ao em Nu´vem uma soluc¸˜ao atractiva para a enorme
quantidadededadosgeradaporestetipoderedes. Estadissertac¸˜aoprop˜oeeavaliaumaRededeSensores
e Atuadores sem Fios que tem uma plataforma de Computac¸˜ao em Nu´vem como backend. O sistema
dever´a monitorizar e controlar um conjunto de sensores e atuadores de modo a aferir as necessidades
h´ıdricas das plantas. Este sistema pode ser aplicado num grande nu´mero de situa¸c˜oes distintas, tais
como em campos agr´ıcolas, estufas, campos de golf, e assim deve ser desenhado de modo a ser facilmente
adaptado a toda esta variedade de cen´arios. O sistema desenvolvido foi sujeito a testes experimentais
num cen´ario real de testes numa cultura de pessegueiros.
Palavras-chave:
Rede de Sensores e Atuadores sem Fios, Internet das Coisas, M´aquina-a-
M´aquina, Computa¸c˜ao em Nu´vem, irriga¸c˜ao e optimiza¸c˜ao.
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Abstract
The number of devices connected to the Internet is experiencing an explosive growth. This development
leadstoaworldwithendlesspossibilitiesofferedbyM2M(Machine-to-Machine)communication, includ-
ing the development of a smarter and greener planet through the use of information acquired around
us. This information allows the creation of solutions aiming for a better management of our natural
resources. The interconnection of smart objects embedded with sensors enables this interaction with the
environment according to the concept of Internet of Things (IoT), merging the physical and the logical
worlds. These sensors communicate wirelessly forming a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), which per-
forms acquisition, collection and analysis of data such as temperature, wind speed and soil moisture. A
WSN which also controls the environment is called a Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network (WSAN).
The almost infinite capabilities of storage and processing, the rapid elasticity and pay-per-use character-
isticsmakesCloudComputinganattractivesolutiontothelargeamountofdatageneratedbytheWSN.
This dissertation proposes and evaluates a cloud-based WSAN communication system to monitor and
control a set of sensors and actuators to assess the plants water needs. This system can be applied in a
variety of distinct situations such as in agricultural fields, greenhouses, golf courses, and therefore should
be designed in order to be adapted to the a variety of possible scenarios. The developed prototype was
subject to experimental tests in a real case scenario within a culture of peach trees.
Keywords:
Wireless Sensor and Actuator Network, Internet of Things, Machine-to-Machine,
Cloud computing, Irrigation and Optimization.
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Contents
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Resumo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
List of Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 The Motivational Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 The Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 The Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Goals and Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.5 Document Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 State of the Art 5
2.1 Internet-of-Things (IoT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Machine-to-Machine (M2M) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Wireless Sensor and Actuators Networks (WSAN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3.1 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3.2 Topology Architectures of Wireless Sensor Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3.3 Communication Protocols in a WSN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.4 Important considerations of a Wireless Sensor Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4 Cloud Computing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.5 M2M and WSN in the Cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.5.1 IoT/M2M Cloud Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.6 Irrigation Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.6.1 The Soil and the Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.6.2 Irrigation Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.6.3 Irrigation Controllers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.6.4 Commercial Irrigation Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.6.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.7 Related Architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.7.1 SensorScope: Application-Specific Sensor Network for Environmental Monitoring . 25
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2.7.2 A Holistic Framework for Water sustainability and Education in Municipal Green
Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.7.3 GolfSense: A Golf Course WSN Monitoring Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.7.4 Vineyard Computing: Sensor Networks in Agricultural Production . . . . . . . . . 29
2.7.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3 Architecture 31
3.1 Requirements Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2 Architecture Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.2.1 WSAN Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.2.2 Cloud Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.2.3 Web Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4 Implementation 39
4.1 WSAN Infrastructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.1.1 Network Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.1.2 End Device and Range Extender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.1.3 Access Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2 Cloud Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.2.1 Irrigation Algorithm Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.3 Web Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5 Evaluation 63
5.1 Functional and Performance Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.1.1 Acquisition and Transmission of Soil Moisture Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.1.2 Devices Communication Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.1.3 Irrigation Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5.2 Field Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.2.1 Experimental Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.2.2 Experimental Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.2.3 Results Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.3 Load testing of the cloud platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
6 Conclusions and Future Work 79
6.1 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
6.2 Future work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Bibliography 87
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