Agriculture Automation and Monitoring using NI myRIO and Image Processing to Estimate Physical Parameters of Soil

Smart agriculture involves the application of modern information technology in agriculture. Agricultural productivity is predominantly influenced by the availability of water and characteristics of the soil. Continuous monitoring of the field is essential to maintain optimal field conditions. The system proposed aims at automating irrigation by irrigating the field when the temperature exceeds the threshold. The system also determines the physical characteristics of soil such as specific gravity, liquid limit and several other physical parameters by estimating the fractal dimension using box counting method. The temperature sensor (PMOD TMP3), moisture sensor and motor were interfaced to NI my RIO and on-board wifi was configured. The various physical characteristics of the soil were estimated using image processing technique from the soil samples collected from field. This system can also incorporate the field temperature and moisture as a network-shared variable and enable its monitoring in NI Datadashboard.