IRJET- Lora based Smart Agriculture Monitoring System

International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 06 Issue: 07 | July 2019 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
© 2019, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.211 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1616
LORA BASED SMART AGRICULTURE MONITORING SYSTEM
Sagar Tathod1, Prof. S.A. Shirsat2
1,2Department of electronic and Telecommunication (E&TC), Sinhgad College of Engineering, Pune 411041.
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Abstract - Traditional agriculture is remodeling into resourcefulagriculture withtheadvancementofthe internetofThings(IoT).
Low-cost and low-power are the prime factors to make any IoTnetworkadvantageousandadmissibletothefarmers. In thispaper,
we have developed a low-power, inexpensive IoT network for smart agriculture. Inthissystemwehave designed, implementedand
analyzed long range communication protocol in agriculture system which is capable of measurement of factors affecting
production and quality of crops. We have created the model hardware and softwarearchitecturewhichcanbeusedtoincreasethe
efficiency of agricultural management.
Key Words: LORA, LDR sensor, PIC Controller, soil moisture sensor, temperature sensor , water pump.
1. INTRODUCTION
The deployment of automated agricultural monitoring system has gained a great value in recent years due to its capacity to
increase yieldsand to decrease water use. Water is distributed through a network of smalltubes,pipes,andwaterstoragetanks
and it is then dripped steadily, but directly to the root .The uses of computers and electronics in the area of agriculture,
specifically, in the irrigation systems have created new engineering and research challenges. In particular, wireless control of
actuators foragricultural purposes has sometechnical difficulties because ofthelimitedbudgetandpowerresources.However,
in recent years, many different technologies have been developed to efficiently set up WSANs (Wireless Sensor and Actuator
Networks). And many studies are conducted to examinetheirimpactontransformingtheagriculture.Overtheyears,techniques
such as ZigBee™ and Bluetooth, have been prominent to establishlow-power,short-range,multi-hopnetworks,whichmakeuse
of the mesh network topology. Although these standards are considered low-cost systems, their restricted coverage (~100
meters) is a major drawback, that makes them difficult to be deployed in major irrigation systems. On the other hand, cellular
networks, such as GSM or LTE, are capable ofprovidinglongrangetransmissiontoformWSANs,andtheyhavebeensuccessfully
tested to control irrigation systems, but solar panels are required for each node to compensate higher power consumption of
cellular network. An another solution for building long-range, low-power and low-cost WSANs is the low-rate transmission
technology, referred to as LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network).
The main differences between LPWANs and the previous technologies are the use of long-range radio links, deployment of the
star network topologies and lowratedatatransmissions.Sigfox,Ingenu,NB-IoT,DASH7,andLoRaWANareexamplesofLPWAN.
All of those technologies have coverage distance of various kilometersand have their ownadvantages andlimitations,interms
of the cost, scalability, power consumption,datarateandetc.Sincethewirelesscontrolofdripirrigationrequiresverysmalldata
exchange, any of these network typescan be used. Among them, Lora isrelativelynewtechnologyontopofwhichtheLoRaWAN
protocol operates. It has the highest radio link budget andthe best"costvs.rangevs.powertradeoffamongitscompetitors.That
is why, forthis project,LoRamodem has been chosen asa radiolinkCurrently,thereisalotofdevelopmentinLPWANnetworks.
However, one technology cannot solve all challenges. Thus, LPWANs area unit deployed to handle solely some on challenges in
IoT. LPWANs are specifically targeting things wherever extended coverage is most required, with low value of preparation,
involving devices that area unit delay tolerant, don't would like a high data rates and require low power consumption network.
In particular, monitoring of a system or conditions is a perfect case where LPWANs fit. The goal of the work is to integrate IoTs
awareness andcommunication technologyintoanintelligentagricultureplatform.Theaccuraciesofsensorsofvarioustypesare
measured and these sensorsare integrated into multi-functional sensorcomponent.Then,multi-functionalsensorcomponents
are integrated with Lora wireless network components. In this work an intelligent sensor network platform for agricultural
applications is designed and constructed. In this study we have used Lora technology with outstanding advantages in
transmission range and energy saving .In addition, in order to increase the stability of the system, we also propose to apply
Master/Slave medium access control method for Lora network.
2. BASICS OF LORA
In this section, we will introduce the LORA technology, the and the LoRa physical layer.
Lora Technology
LoRa is a 'Long Range' low power wireless standard intended for providing a cellular style low data rate communications
network. Aimed at the M2M and IoT market, LoRa is ideal for providing intermittentlowdata rateconnectivityover significant

distances. The radio interface has been designed to enable extremely low signal levels to be received, and as a result even low
power transmissions can be received at significant ranges. The LoRa modulation and radio interface has been designed and
optimized to provide exactly the type of communications needed for remote IoT and M2M nodes. LoRa is the world’s first
commercially available wireless technology with low cost, longtransmissionrangeand optimal powerconsumption.TheTable
I below compares some parameters including transfer rate, transmission range, power consumption and cost between some
popular wireless technologies. Accordingly, LoRa has shown its superiority in many aspects. Itsonlyweaknessisthedata rate.
However, in wireless sensor network applications, this is not an issue.
Table 1 Shows comparison of wireless Technologies.
Table-1 Comparison of wireless Technologies
LoRa Physical Layer
LoRa Physical layer is derived from the Chirp Spread spectrum (CSS) modulation with Forward Error Correction(FEC).Europe
and North America use Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) bandwidths,whichareunderthefrequency1GHz.Thatallowsto
better compensate the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). CSS modulation enables a longer range of communication,with the help of
Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), even without the increase of energy consumption. CSS also ensures immunity to the Doppler’s
effect.
Figure 1 Shows noise immunity:
Fig-1. Noise level
3. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
The system architecture is designed as shown in Figure. It includes a Master (PC) and End Nodes (sensors).With this
Master/Slave medium access control method, the Master station is responsible for allocating access to slaves as shown in the
figure 2. Slaves are passive, so they only access the line and exchange the data when requested by Master.
Figure 2 shows the system architecture.

Fig-2 System Architecture.
4. METHODOOLGY
System Block diagram:
Figure 3 shows the system block diagram:
Fig-3 System Block Diagram
There are 4 main blocks in the project. There is one main sink node and three sensor nodes. These three sensor nodes depict
the three sections of the filed which we are going to monitor and control. The end nodes are the sensor nodes which perform
the measurement of air temperature soil moisture and intensity. Also in the end nodes there are DC motors connected to
control the water flow in the particular selected section of the field. The gateway collects and logs all the forwarded data and
provides the logged data to the user interface. The link between endpoints and gateway and user interface is LORA based.The
User interface is a computer software which allows us to monitor all the measured sensor parameters in the particular field
section that we select and also control the water flow accordingly and remotely.
Design of sink node
The main processing unit in control node is PC. The LoRa communication enables the PC to connect to field-level devices. In
order to increase the processing capacity and reduce the load on the central processing unit, the LoRa communication block is

equipped with a PIC microprocessor connected to the LoRa WIR1286 module via serial communication.Nearly every
communication task in the LoRa network is handled by the PC.As we send a data request for a particular section of the fieldthe
request is processed and real time data of the field is send over to the control node ,this communication takes place LoRa to
LoRa. The data send over LoRa on field is received on LoRa module connected to our computer via a CP module
Figure 4 shows the block diagram of the sink node.
Fig-4. Block Diagram of sink node.
Figure 5. shows the flowchart for sink node:
Fig-5 Flowchart of sink Node
Design of Sensor node
There are six main blocks in the design of Sensor Node as shown in Figure 7. The controller in sink node handles LoRa
communications task and communicates with sensors as well as processes the data given by sensor, so the PIC18F4520
microcontroller is selected to fulfill the need of processing capacity. The LoRa modem (WIR_1286) is connected to the PIC via
serial communication. The temperature sensor is operatedbythecentralprocessingunitviaone-wirestandardmeasuringfrom
0 to 50 degree (±2 _degree) of temperature. The parameter of soil moisture is also given by a smart sensor that is linked to the
PIC through 2-wire synchronization standard. Besides, the connection between sink node and PC for address configuration is
facilitated by the serial communication block. The configuration parameters for the device will be stored in the EPROM. The
software’s algorithm for Sensor Nodes is pointed below in figure 6.
Figure 6 shows the block diagram of the sensor node.

Fig-6. Block Diagram of Sensor Node.
Figure 7. shows the flowchart for sensor node:
Fig-7. Flowchart of Sensor Node.
5. RESULTS
Figure 8 shows the software results:
Fig-8. Software Results.

Figure 9 shows the hardware results:
Fig-9. Hardware of the system.
6. CONCLUSION:
In this paper, the solution using LoRa technology for cost effective wireless control of drip irrigation system has been
presented. The system which utilizes LoRa module to develop a smart agriculture control and monitor has been designed.We
have presented the design of an automatic monitoring and control system whichcanbe ofbenefitforgreenhouseagricultureas
well as normal fields including the overall structure of the system and design in detail of each component including hardware
and software design. In this study we used Lora technology combined withtheMaster/Slavemediumaccesscontrol methodto
resolve the remaining issues of previous studies such as range and reliability of wireless network. A multi-sensor component
and an integratedcommunicationsnetwork are established. Wirelesssensornetworksandnetwork communicationtechnology
are used to support intelligent agricultural data collection and equipment control. Furthermore we have introduced ability to
regulate and observe the system remotely via computer software. With the results achieved the systemwill befurtherstudied
to improve the stability and reliability of the system so that it can be put into practice in the near future.
7. REFERENCES:
[1] A. Al-Fuqaha, M. Guizani, M. Mohammadi, M. Aledhari and M.Ayyash, “Internet of Things: A Survey on Enabling, Protocols,
and Applications," in IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 2347-2376, Fourthquarter 2015.
[2] D. Pimentel, B. Berger, D. Filiberto, M. Newton, B. Wolfe, E. Karabinakis, S. Clark, E. Poon, E. Abbett, and S. Nandagopal,
“Water resources: agricultural and environment issues," BioScience, 54.10, 909-918, 2004.
[3] Kim, Yunseop, Robert G. Evans, Iversen, “Remote sensing and control of an agriculture system using a wireless sensor
network," IEEE transactions on instrumentation and measurement, 57.7(2008): 1379-1387.
[4] J. Gutiérrez, J. F. Villa-Medina, A. Nieto-Garibay and M. Á. Porta- Gándara, “Automated Agriculture Drip System Using a
Wireless Sensor Network and GPRS Module," in IEEE TransactionsonInstrumentationandMeasurement,vol.63,no.1,pp.
166-176, Jan. 2014.
[5] Ji-chun Zhao, Jun-feng Zhang, Yu Feng and Jian-xin Guo, “The study andanalysisoftheIOT technologyinagriculture,"2010
3rd International Conference on Information Technology, Chengdu,pp. 462-465, 2010.
[6] Y. Liu, C. Zhang and P. Zhu, “The temperature humidity monitoring system of soil based on wireless sensor networks,"
2011 International Conference on Electric Information , Wuhan, pp. 1850-1853, 2011.
[7] S. Ivanov, K. Bhargava and W. Donnelly, “Precision Farming: Sensor Analytics," in IEEE Intelligent Systems, vol. 30, no. 4,
pp. 76-80, July- Aug. 2015.

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