Solar Powered Smart Agriculture Systems Using WSN Via IoT

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Solar Powered Smart Agriculture Systems Using WSN Via IoT
Rupayan Dirghangi, Arindam Roy, Aditya Routh, Subhomoy Das, Sujoy Dutta, Surajit Basak
Department of Electronics& Communication Engineering
Guru Nanak Institute of Technology, Kolkata, India
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Abstract - In this era of development in modern
technology and every other aspect, wireless communication
technologies, internet of things (IoT) network systems, and
control systems have paved the way for a new method or
procedure of agriculture named smart agriculture. And this
new phase of farming involves the use of novel technology
along with inch-scale devices and various sensors which are
used to monitor crops and provide mankind an accurate
knowledge about the crop and the land. Smart Agriculture
can take over traditional farming practices and applies for
technological advances from areas such as Wireless Sensor
Networks and IoT to assist in expanding the numbers of
output yields of a crop with improving efficiency and
reducing the amount of stress on the farmers and their co-
helpers. In this paper, a solar-powered smart agriculture
monitoring system with IoT devices and sensors is
presented. We can monitor the crop field conditions by using
the Smartphone and will be able to take care of the
necessary steps efficiently based on present conditions. Our
proposed system will supply you with some valuable
data(information) about soil moisture, water level,
humidity, and temperature and as well as the general
condition of the crop and the field to the farmers in an easily
accessible manner with real-time data communication via
IoT. Our team believes that this paper will establish a
trademark in the upcoming future of smart agriculture.
Key Words: Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), Smart
Agriculture, internet of things (IoT), Soil moisture, Human
Machine Interface (HMI).
1. INTRODUCTION:
India is the powerhouse of global agriculture. Today we
rank in the second position in farm output and also us
almost half of the population is engaged in agriculture but
the economic contribution of our whole agriculture system
to our GDP is only 16% and this is so much less than a
developed country [1]. This is because we are not able to
make proper use of our agricultural resources due to our
old traditional farming but on the other hand, the demand
for our food necessities is increasing day by day because of
our growing population. As we are not being able to
increase our limited farmland and there are also very
many skills and experiences laborers need for traditional
farming. So, the time has come to replace our old
traditional agricultural system with the technology-based
smart agricultural system for better agricultural
productivity, removing the environmental damage and
reducing the whole production cost.
So nowadays internet of things (IoT) based smart
agriculture has created a new dimension for technology in
the agriculture sector as all the IoT devices are easy-to-use
small, low-powered embedded electronics that
communicate with each other to transmit all the data
across the network. It will offer us a sustainable solution
for smart crop field monitoring and management system
which helps the farmer to monitor the conditions and
their products in real-time carefully and collect crucial
data about the weather, land conditions, crop conditions,
etc [2]. They will monitor all the real-time data with the
help of different IoT-based sensors/devices that help us to
collect, analyze and process the remote data by applying
cloud services, which helps us to make a better decision
for that certain situation. So, by adopting the IoT-based
smart Agricultural system we suddenly decrease all the
labor costs and increase the quality of the produced crop.
Another promising approach that helps in solving many of
the problems that farmers face in today’s life comes with
the use of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in IoT-based
smart farming. WSN refers to a group of different sensors
for monitoring and recording the physical conditions of
the environment and crop, then collectively pass on such
data through a wireless network to a cloud location and
then we analyze the data as a requirement and a proper
decision [3]. It measures environmental conditions like
temperature, humidity, salinity, soil moisture, etc. One of
the best benefits that WSNs give in agricultural crop
monitoring is that sensor nodes can be customized to the
crop being monitored. It will help us to take care of the
entire crop individually like while one crop will need the
water but the other ones are not.
It will just be an imagination if we are not able to
implement the whole smart agricultural system in all our
rural agriculture and the most challenging thing that
comes first in our journey is the energy resources in the
agriculture field. So, to overcome this problem we are
shifting our energy resources to renewable energies like
Solar energy, Wind energy, Biomass energy, etc that give
us energy continuously without any surveillance and load
shedding problems and also alleviate the burning of fossil
fuels. In this, we make our smart agricultural system
International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056
Volume: 10 Issue: 01 | Jan 2023 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072

which is based on renewable energy and that help to live
our whole life easier.
1.1 Related Works:
The authors in [2] designed and implemented solar energy
based on precision agriculture with the WSN via IoT
architecture to meet the demand of finding highly efficient
methods for smart agricultural monitoring and
management system. Raghuvanshi et al. in [4] suggest a
concept and features of the sensor world in the IoTs for
agriculture to enhance the production of crops. They
introduce the concept of agriculture sticks which are
integrated with Arduino Technology, and Breadboard and
mixed with different various sensors, and live data feed
can be obtained online through mobile phones. However,
some typical applications of Agriculture IoT sensor
monitoring network technologies using cloud computing
are discussed in [5-8]. The authors in [5] also addressed a
simple IoT agriculture model with a wireless network to
build sustainable smart agriculture. G.Sushanth et al. in [6]
include the development of a system that can monitor
temperature, humidity, moisture, and even the movement
of animals which may destroy the crops in agricultural
fields through sensors using Arduino board and in case of
any discrepancy send an SMS notification as well as a
notification on the application developed for the same to
the farmer’s smartphone using Wi-Fi/3G/4G. The authors
Prathibha S.R. et al. in [7] implement a technology that can
monitor temperature and humidity in agricultural fields
through sensors using CC3200 single chip. The camera is
interfaced with CC3200 to capture images and send that
pictures through MMS to the farmer's mobile using Wi-Fi.
The authors in [8] seek to design a product that uses low-
power Bluetooth and Low Power Wide Area Networks
communication modules for smart farming. MQ Telemetry
Transport communication method is used in monitoring
and control systems, which is an IoT-dedicated protocol,
thereby improving the potential for the expansion of
agricultural IoT.
1.2 Contributions:
When we first started working as a collaborative, none of
us were very sure about how to move; We knew that for
this to work, everyone would require to take their role
within the group, but the problem was in searching what
those roles should be. As we were in a very small group,
everyone's full input was demanded throughout the
process. After we conclave, our team has gone through
various earlier related works, and we found that a
maximum number of papers have been done by using
different micro-controllers (Arduino NANO, UNO, etc.)
which have the multiple numbers of dis-benefits like it is
time-consuming to download and install software which is
unable to do any complex multitasking and not compatible
with the other operating systems such as Windows. By
following the above complications, we prearranged
NodeMCU ESP8266 to eliminate the drawbacks mentioned
prior which have integrated Wi-Fi features, are smaller in
size, and have low power consumption.
Here we have also used the Blynk app for controlling the
system and Thing speak to store the fetched data because
it makes it a lot easier to connect both platforms rather
than using separate servers, databases and clouds and it is
also user-friendly.
2. SYSTEM DESIGN AND OBJECTIVE:
The system architecture consists of a NodeMCU ESP8266
board, Solar powered system, a water pump (submergible
pump), a motor driver, and sensors like DHT22/DHT11
(for soil moisture and temperature checking), BC548 IC
(for salinity checking), Edinburgh sensor (as a gas sensor),
AVR 51 shield with MSP430 Test Code Sensor (for
checking the pH level of the soil) as shown in the Fig- 1.
Here we want to use the Blynk IoT app to send a
notification to the user's smartphone which will show the
sensor data and the threshold values of the physical
parameters. It will help the user to determine the growth
and increase the quantity of the crop. Our proposed
system has two consecutive modes, manual mode, and
automatic mode. In manual mode, after seeing the data
from the app, the user has to go to the field, and then he
will take the proper action for it. And in automatic mode,
all the actions are done by the system automatically.
Fig -1: Proposed Architecture for Solar Powered
Smart Agriculture System Using WSN Via IoT
2.1 Objective:
The objectives of the smart agriculture policy are to
enhance the quality of life for farm families and
communities and to increase the production of human
food. Designed an agricultural system that is based on

renewable energy (Solar energy) and that help to live our
whole life easier, it is a system that will supply some
valuable data about soil moisture, water level, humidity,
and temperature and as well as the general condition of
the crop and the field to the farmers in an easily accessible
manner with real-time data communication via IoT. To
assist in expanding the output yield of a crop while
enhancing efficiency and diminishing the amount of stress
placed on a farmer.
3. METHODOLOGY:
The methodology for the development of solar power-
based smart agricultural systems using the sensors and
microcontroller (WSN) via IoT is presented here aiming to
increase the quality and quantity of the crop while
optimizing the human labor used.
The proposed system would be done with multiple
operations.
3.1 Data Collection
First of all, once turning on the device the motor is
going to be connected to NodeMCU, and then the Soil
moisture, humidity, temperature, gas, pH and salinity
sensor using the system work automatically can be
determined by the respective sensor values.
3.2 Diagnostics
The sensor values or the data are analyzed by the
system and then all the actions are taken either
automatically or manually by the user.
3.3 Decision Making
After the detection of the problem by the system, the
microcontroller unit can send the data via the cloud to the
Blynk IoT app when the system mode is set to manual
mode. From the user’s smartphone, then receive a pop
notification from the system. And in this notification user
can see the sensor data. Once checking this condition, then
the user can take relevant action.
3.4 Actions
In this section, the user takes a desirable step to go to
the field or it can happen automatically also. If the user
sets the operation of automatic mode, then the system can
take sensor data and calculate them. If the value
determined is desirable for irrigation, then the water
pump (submergible pump) will be turned on using a
motor driver. On the other hand, if the value isn’t desirable
for water irrigation, then the system remains turned off
and similarly, the rest of the sensors will operate
consequently.
Here we use a solar board that is directly connected to the
battery, when the power of the battery is not sufficient
then the stored power is generated via the battery to run
the whole system. In this proposed model we are also
using NodeMCU instead of other micro-controllers
(Arduino NANO, Arduino UNO, etc.) and other devices
which are capable to fetch the data from the cloud, as we
wish to use an adequate number of components so that it
would be a clean and simple way to represent.
4. SYSTEM OVERVIEW:
A satisfactory project always needs a well-structured and
organized system that provides adequate information so
that the bookworm has a suitable sense of the capacity of
the system, what it can do, what it can interact with as well
as any special needs. Designing a comprehensive project
system overview requires detailed knowledge of the
system or the ability to get that information from different
people familiar with the system.
Here we categorized components into two different
sections:
4.1 Hardware Specification
In the Internet of Things, hardware comes in many
forms, whether the underlying processors control the
phones, the sensors collecting information from the
physical world, or the edge machines processing and
analyzing the data. At the heart of any wired venture is IoT
hardware and the technical capabilities of these boards
have only become more important as the Internet of
Things has developed. But, because of the sheer number of
design boards and modules in the room, choosing the right
IoT hardware for a project can be daunting. In this article,
we will look at different aspects of IoT hardware and see
how these devices communicate data to the internet.
4.1.1 Components Required:
4.1.1.1 Salinity Sensor
Salinity Sensor is a sensor that precisely measures
the total amount of dissolved salt present in an aqueous
solution. The Salinity Sensor measured the conductivity of
a solution with a high ion concentration. Here we use the
Salinity Sensor BC548(BJT) which shows in Fig-2, to detect
the salt water is present or not in the field.

Fig-2: BC548 IC(Salinity Sensor)
4.1.1.2 Humidity and Temperature Sensor
DHT11 is a Humidity and Temperature Sensor
that detects the Humidity and Temperature of the crop
field environment. DHT11 sensor can measure a humidity
value in the range of 20-95% of relative humidity. The
Sensor data contains integral and decimal parts for both
Humidity and Temperature. The sensor is shown in Fig-3.
Fig- 3: DTH11(Humidity and Temperature Sensor)
4.1.1.3 PH Sensor
Fig-4 shows the MSP430 Test Code Sensor which
is used for detecting the pH of the water. We use the pH
Sensor because it helps to measure the acidity or alkalinity
of the groundwater. When the pH value dips below seven
the water is acidic and if the value is above seven then the
water is alkaline.
Fig-4: AVR 51 shields with MSP430 Test Code Sensor
4.1.1.4 Gas Sensor
Here we use the Edinburgh gas sensor as FIG. 5 to
detect the different types of gasses that are present in the
field. Gas sensors are mainly used to detect toxic or
explosive gasses and measure gas concentration.
Fig-5: Edinburgh sensor
4.1.1.5 Soil Moisture Sensor
The soil moisture sensor is the most sensitive to
the environment usually used to observe the moisture of
the soil in the crop field. The moisture sensor can be used
to measure the moisture of the soil when the soil is
dehydrated and in that case, the module gives a higher
output, otherwise, the output will be low. Here we used
Grove-Soil Moisture Sensor which is shown in Fig- 6.
Fig-6: Grove-Soil Moisture Sensor
4.1.1.6 NodeMCU
NodeMCU is a microcontroller that has an in-build
WIFI module. NodeMCU can send the data via the cloud to
the Blynk IoT app. It is shown in Fig-7.

Fig-7: Node MCU ESP8266
4.1.1.7 Motor Driver
We have used L298N dual H-Bridge IC as a motor
driver module to pump water for irrigation in the crop
field. It can drive DC motors having a voltage range of 5V -
35V, with a peak current of up to 2A. It is shown in Fig-8.
Fig- 8: L298N Motor Driver
4.1.1.7 Solar Panel
Here we have used D165X165 mono-crystalline
solar panel as Fig-9 which consists of photovoltaic and the
power is stored in a rechargeable battery. Although the
initial cost of solar installation is higher than the
conventional source of electricity it is suitable for the rural
area which is why the solar system is used as a power
supplier rather using another conventional source.
Fig-9: D165X165 mono-crystalline solar pane
4.2 Software Specification
This paper provides an outline for IoT Software. IoT is
about [Internet + (Sense and Communication)]. Things of
things are connected through the internet. Let’s take the
example of the Mi fitness band- To use this band, a user
should install the Mi-fit app to connect to a phone. Band
calculates total hours of sleep, the number of calories
burned, heart rate monitoring, and sleep analysis. Users
can see all the information on mobile phones. Every device,
area, software, and sensor is connected, and we can access
it through a phone or computer.
4.2.1 Components Required:
4.2.1.1 Arduino IDE Software
Arduino IDE is a software application which is
shown in Fig 10 that enables C program to compile and
upload to the Arduino board. It is programmed to work
with additional types of microcontrollers. Once after
compiling and uploading the code, the required action is
executed. In this paper, NodeMCU Devkit acts as one of the
microcontrollers which fetch the data from the sensors. An
ESP8266 The JSON object is imported to complete cross-
compatibility between Arduino IDE and NodeMCU
framework.
Fig-10: Arduino IDE

4.2.1.2 Thing Speak IoT Cloud platform
Thing Speak IoT which is shown in Fig-10 is used
for data visualization. The data sensed by the sensors is
redirected to the cloud with the help of microcontrollers.
The Data is visualized in the form of graphs and meter
gauges.
Fig-11: Thing speak IoT Cloud Platform
4.2.1.3 Blynk IoT Application
Blynk is an IoT platform which is shown in Fig-12,
for IOS or Android smartphones that are used to control
Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and NodeMCU via the internet.
This application is used to create a visual interface
or human-machine interface by assembling and supplying
the appropriate address on the available devices.
Fig-12: Blynk IoT Application
5. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES:
5.1 The advantages of our proposed system are:
5.1.1 Increasing Productivity Rate
It will help to increase the productivity rate of the
crops, and also increase the quality of the food. So, this
type of system is very helpful in raising the income of the
user because in rural areas most of the people are
completely dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.
5.1.2 Reduce Harmful Emissions
Here we use the gas sensor, which will detect the
increasing rate of unnecessary amounts of any gases
which will be harmful. So, it gives us the great benefit to
avoid harmful emissions.
5.1.3 Sensors
Various types of sensors are used in the system which
will help to detect the desirable number of physical
parameters which is needed to grow and increase the
quality and quantity of the crops.
5.1.4 User Friendly
Our system is very user-friendly, the user can control
the whole system and check the all details using his
smartphone.
5.1.5 Using Renewable Energy
We use a solar panel in our system to reduce pollution
besides using fossil fuel in the battery.
5.2 The disadvantages of our proposed system are:
5.2.1 Cost
This system is very high in cost.
5.2.2 Weather
In the case of agriculture, most of the procedure is
dependent on weather conditions. This is a natural
phenomenon, which is not controlled by any type of
technology.
5.2.3 Challenges in Spreading the Knowledge
It is a big issue because most of the agriculture fields
are situated in rural areas and most of it is controlled by
farmers, who don't have the proper knowledge about the
technologies. So, we have to spread the knowledge and
facilities about this type of system.
6. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE PLANS:
In this study, we proposed an efficient and highly
productive IoT-based smart agriculture system that is
operated by solar energy. Here we used many types of
sensors like salinity sensors, pH sensors, soil moisture
sensors, humidity and temperature sensor, etc. That will
help us to understand the physical parameters of the field
and also the crop. Here we are using a microcontroller

(Node MCU) to make a connection between the circuit, the
motor driver to control the water flow from the pipe, the
battery, and a solar panel. We are distributing the power
by a battery via a solar power system. For obtaining the
data related to the crops and the field we are linking the
Blynk application to Thing speak (collecting the data from
the cloud) and then the user (farmers) can easily access
the information and also take efficient care of the food
production. In this way, we can upgrade our whole
agricultural system which will be reducing farmers'
production costs, and labor costs and increase the whole
production quantity and quality without having any skilled
persons.
In near future, we can use any type of renewable energy
besides solar energy as a power source. We can also
implement this type of system in the Greenhouse method
of harvesting crops. We will be focusing to compact the
number and variety of sensors to fetch more data
(information), particularly regarding pest control
management and integrating GPS modules for predicting
weather forecasts to enhance the demand for this
agriculture IoT system.
REFERENCES
[1] Rahul Wagh, Dr. Anil P. Dongre, “Agricultural Sector:
Status, Challenges and it's Role in Indian Economy”,
Journal of Commerce & Management Thought, Vol. 7 (2),
pp 209-218, 2016. DOI:10.5958/0976-478X.2016.00014.8
[2] Mohammad Samunul Islam, Golap Kanti Dey,
“Precision Agriculture: Renewable Energy Based Smart
Crop Field Monitoring and Management System Using
WSN via IoT”, in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Sustainable
Technolories for Industry 4.0 (STI), Dec. 2019.
[3] Sebastian Sadowski and Petros Spachos, “Solar-
Powered Smart Agriculture Monitoring System Using
Internet of Things Devices”, in Proc. IEEE 9th Annual
Information Technology, Electronics and Mobile
Communication Conference (IEMCON), Nov. 2018.
[4] Durgesh Raghuvanshi, Apurva Roy, and Dr. Vaibhav
Panwar, “IoT Based Smart Agriculture System”, Int. Journal
of Research in Engineering and Science (IJRES), Vol. 9 (6),
pp: 12-16, Jun. 2021.
[5] Mahammad Shareef Mekala, Dr P. Viswanathan, “A
Survey : Smart Agriculture IoT with Cloud Computing”, in
Proc. IEEE Int. conf. on Microelectronic Devices, Circuits
and Systems (ICMDCS), Aug. 2017.
[6] G. Sushanth, S. Sujatha, “IOT Based Smart Agriculture
System”, in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Wireless
Communications, Signal Processing and Networking
(WiSPNET), Mar. 2018.
[7] Prathibha S. R., Anupama Hongal, Jyothi M. P., “IoT
based Monitoring System in Smart Agriculture”, in Proc.
IEEE Int. Conf. on Recent Advances in Electronics and
Communication Technology (ICRAECT), pp. 81-84, 2017.
[8] J. Bauer, and N. Aschenbruck, “Measuring and adapting
MQTT in Cellular Networks for Collaborative Smart
Farming”, in Proc. 42nd IEEE Conf. on Local Computer
Networks (LCN), Singapore, pp. 294–302, 2017.
BIOGRAPHIES
Rupayan Dirghangi was born on
September 13, 2002. Currently,
he is pursuing B.Tech from the
Guru Nanak Institute of
Technology, Kolkatta-700114. His
research interests are in the field
of IoT, WSN, and Software
Development.
He is Arindam Roy from Paschim
Medinipur, currently pursuing
towards B.Tech degree from Guru
Nanak Institute of Technology,
Kolkatta-700114. His research
interest includes IoT and smart
cities.
Aditya Routh is currently
studying at Guru Nanak Institute
of Technology, Kolkatta-700114,
in the ECE department. His
interested areas are digital
circuits, Microprocessors and
Microcontrollers.
Subhomoy Das is a student at
the Guru Nanak Institute of
Technology. He is a candidate in
3rd year in the ECE department.
He is passionate about IoT
systems, and the mechanism
about Blockchain and has some
adequate knowledge of
Microprocessors and
Microcontrollers.
Sujoy Dutta is a pursuing 3rd year
UG student of Guru Nanak
Institute of Technology, Kolkatta-
700114, in the department of
ECE. His research interest
includes Embedded systems and
Software systems.

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