Agriculture

Introduction:

There are many possibilities to use IOT in the agricultural environment to better manage activities on a farm, to improve net productivity, as well as the general health and well-being of livestock and personnel.

Typical applications include equipping the livestock with GPS trackers and monitoring equipment to determine vital signs. For example, whether livestock are ready for breeding.

Similarly, crops can be managed for their growth and for soil conditions. Water can be managed in terms of capacity of reservoirs, water articulation equipment and stock watering provisions. The overall infrastructure of the farm can be monitored including fences, gates, etc., for both integrity and security. Equipment can be monitored for health and operation, requirements for service. Vehicles and personnel on the farm can be tracked.

To provide connectivity to achieve this, of course, requires wireless connectivity so we don't need to run cables to various points, so you would find a wide area network connecting to a local area network to provide connectivity down to the individual elements.

Agricultural users of the system can instantly gain access to all the information they require using their mobile device, using drones for surveillance, etc. By providing these techniques, we can add a lot of capability to management of a farm.

Sources: Information on this page sourced primarily from:

• A webinar titled What does it take to be an IOT Engineer? An agricultural case study by Dr Andrew Skinner, Engineering Director, MEA (Measurement Engineering Australia)