Integrated Wireless Sensor Network Using Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Orchards
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) combined with ground-based wireless sensor networking (WSN) can provide real-time access to high quality data in order to quickly and accurately identify problems. The overall objective of this project was to design and develop an autonomous data acquisition system that is affordable to smaller enterprises and adaptable to a variety of micro-sensors such as chemical sensors, solar radiation sensors, thermal cameras etc. This system integrates a UAV-based data acquisition system and a ground-based WSN. The WSN uses a multitude of ground sensors to collect data over time from underneath the tree's canopy. The UAV is programmed to navigates to its desired destination and conducts its operation (such as collect data from the sensors, take a picture, process and store the data to the SD card); once it has a solid connection with the WSN, it sustains a steady altitude until all the data are transferred from the WSN to the UAV wirelessly. Then, the UAV returns “home”, where the collected data are transmitted wirelessly to a cloud database over a WiFi connection. This integrated system was evaluated in commercial orchards. The time taken to retrieve the data from the WSN and the connection limitations (signal interference), though the tree canopies, were measured. This low-cost, integrated, system gives farmers and/or businesses the ability to collect data from remote large areas at sufficient spatial and temporal resolution.