Real-Time Weather Monitoring and IoT-Based Palmtop Device for Smart Agriculture

At present, the agriculture sector is moving towards smart agriculture for the proper crop and land management such as minimizing the use of irrigation water and the temperature in a greenhouse among many others. In agricultural fields, either outdoor or indoor, monitoring real-time weather is an important tool. A novel, handheld palmtop weather station that can measure ambient environmental parameters such as air temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, dew point, soil moisture level, and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere with high precision was developed and discussed in this paper. The device comprises an ATMEGA 2560 Microcontroller, a sensor panel, a power unit with rechargeable and removable batteries, an LCD display, and local and cloud storage with a customized web portal. An ergonomic cover was also designed for the device with a micro-USB charging port and a common port to connect external modular sensors such as a soil moisture sensor. As the device is an IoT-enabled device, the user can upload real-time data into a customized website with the location. Sensor accuracy tests were carried out for temperature and humidity with the available reference instruments and the response time of the device was also tested as it affects the performance of the device.