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US 10,856,056 B2Granted
Sensor network for measuring soil moisture
AssigneeColorado State University Research Foundation
InventorJay M. Ham
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described herein are embodiments of a system comprising an underground sensor network that measures soil moisture by quantifying how changes in soil water content affect the attenuation of radio signals between buried sensor nodes. Also disclosed herein are methods of using the described system for measuring soil moisture and using the measurement for various control aspects including for example controlling irrigation in agricultural and urban settings.
Claims27
A system for determining soil moisture content comprised of:
- a plurality of sensor nodes, wherein each sensor node comprises:
- a processor in communication with a memory;
- a communication module;
- an antenna;
- and a power source;
- and
- a gateway;
- and
- a computing network,
- wherein each of the plurality of sensor nodes transmit and/or receive radio frequency (RF) signals and each of the plurality of sensor nodes transmit data related to the transmitted and/or received RF signals to the gateway, and the gateway transmits the data related to the transmitted and/or received RF signals to the computing network,
- wherein the computing network determines, from the data related to the transmitted and/or received RF signals, attenuation of RF signals transmitted between each of the plurality of sensor nodes and correlates the attenuation of the RF signals transmitted between each of the plurality of sensor nodes with the soil moisture content to determine average soil moisture content in soil between the plurality of sensor nodes.
8 more elements
A method for determining soil moisture content comprised of:
- transmitting and/or receiving radio frequency (RF) signals between a plurality of sensor nodes;
- transmitting, by each of the plurality of sensor nodes, data related to the transmitted and/or received RF signals to a gateway;
- receiving, by the gateway, from each of the plurality of sensor nodes, the data related to the transmitted and/or received RF signals;
- transmitting, by the gateway, the received data related to the transmitted and/or received RF signals to a computing network;
- determining, by the computer network, from the data related to the transmitted and/or received RF signals, attenuation of RF signals transmitted between each of the plurality of sensor nodes;
- and
- correlating, by the computing network, the attenuation of the RF signals transmitted between each of the plurality of sensor nodes with the soil moisture content to determine average soil moisture content in soil between the plurality of sensor nodes.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.