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Fresh water is rapidly becoming a scarce resource. It is also an essential part of food production in agriculture. Farmers can reduce water usage significantly if they have access to real time information about the condition of the soil. A more efficient irrigation system will also help to reduce the use of fertilizers, since overwatering causes the drain of essential minerals to deeper ground layers that are not accessible for plant roots.
The Drenthe-based company Dacom develops moisture sensors. Within the Project Soil Sensor Systems, a joint project of DACOM, PTC and INCAS³, INCAS³ will contribute to the development of better technology in order to make soil moisture sensing faster, easier and more accurate. It is important that this technology will be widely available within the agricultural field. Therefore, the technology should be both cost effective and easy to use.
This project is part of a broad research line of INCAS³, which focuses on the development of intelligent, autonomous, energy friendly and wireless systems for environmental sensing. For large areas especially, sensor systems should be reliable in both measuring events and transmitting data. It should also be possible to remotely diagnose and treat defects and other disturbances. INCAS³ will perform field testing with prototypes.
In addition to moisture sensing, this research will also focus on the development of new methods and sensors for detection of minerals in soil, such as nitrates. INCAS³ will develop suitable prototypes and methods to this end.