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Deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks in Crop Storages

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Abstract

In the agricultural domain, proper storage conditions of crops is important to avoid losses due to degradation of crop quality. Currently, monitoring storages is often done manually and by using only a few samples. This makes the process time-consuming and in many cases the few samples taken cannot ensure a good overview of the entire storage. This paper describes the challenges of providing a good network coverage, sufficient network lifetime, a physical design able to cope with the harsh environments met in deployments, and cost. How these challenges were approached in the development of a wireless sensor network based system that provides continuous, automatic, and up-to-date information on a crop storage, while presenting the data in an easily accessible manner, is also described. The design decisions, challenges, and practical experiences from real-world large scale deployment of the system are also discussed. It is concluded that the network works well for the intended application and that the intended users also see a value in the provided service.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Jakob Pilegaard Juul & Rune Hylsberg Jacobsen

  2. Kongskilde Strategic Development, Kongskilde Industries A/S, Sorø, Denmark

    Jakob Pilegaard Juul & Ole Green

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  1. Jakob Pilegaard Juul
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Correspondence to Jakob Pilegaard Juul.

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Juul, J.P., Green, O. & Jacobsen, R.H. Deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks in Crop Storages. Wireless Pers Commun 81, 1437–1454 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-015-2482-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-015-2482-3

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