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Automated Low-Cost Soil Moisture Sensors: Trade-Off between Cost and Accuracy

Automated soil moisture systems are commonly used in precision agriculture. Using low-cost sensors, the spatial extension can be maximized, but the accuracy might be reduced. In this paper, we address the trade-off between cost and accuracy comparing low-cost and commercial soil moisture sensors. Th...

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Autores principales: Schwamback, Dimaghi, Persson, Magnus, Berndtsson, Ronny, Bertotto, Luis Eduardo, Kobayashi, Alex Naoki Asato, Wendland, Edson Cezar
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10007478/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36904655
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23052451
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author Schwamback, Dimaghi
Persson, Magnus
Berndtsson, Ronny
Bertotto, Luis Eduardo
Kobayashi, Alex Naoki Asato
Wendland, Edson Cezar
author_facet Schwamback, Dimaghi
Persson, Magnus
Berndtsson, Ronny
Bertotto, Luis Eduardo
Kobayashi, Alex Naoki Asato
Wendland, Edson Cezar
author_sort Schwamback, Dimaghi
collection PubMed
description Automated soil moisture systems are commonly used in precision agriculture. Using low-cost sensors, the spatial extension can be maximized, but the accuracy might be reduced. In this paper, we address the trade-off between cost and accuracy comparing low-cost and commercial soil moisture sensors. The analysis is based on the capacitive sensor SKU:SEN0193 tested under lab and field conditions. In addition to individual calibration, two simplified calibration techniques are proposed: universal calibration, based on all 63 sensors, and a single-point calibration using the sensor response in dry soil. During the second stage of testing, the sensors were coupled to a low-cost monitoring station and installed in the field. The sensors were capable of measuring daily and seasonal oscillations in soil moisture resulting from solar radiation and precipitation. The low-cost sensor performance was compared to commercial sensors based on five variables: (1) cost, (2) accuracy, (3) qualified labor demand, (4) sample volume, and (5) life expectancy. Commercial sensors provide single-point information with high reliability but at a high acquisition cost, while low-cost sensors can be acquired in larger numbers at a lower cost, allowing for more detailed spatial and temporal observations, but with medium accuracy. The use of SKU sensors is then indicated for short-term and limited-budget projects in which high accuracy of the collected data is not required.
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spelling pubmed-100074782023-03-12 Automated Low-Cost Soil Moisture Sensors: Trade-Off between Cost and Accuracy Schwamback, Dimaghi Persson, Magnus Berndtsson, Ronny Bertotto, Luis Eduardo Kobayashi, Alex Naoki Asato Wendland, Edson Cezar Sensors (Basel) Article Automated soil moisture systems are commonly used in precision agriculture. Using low-cost sensors, the spatial extension can be maximized, but the accuracy might be reduced. In this paper, we address the trade-off between cost and accuracy comparing low-cost and commercial soil moisture sensors. The analysis is based on the capacitive sensor SKU:SEN0193 tested under lab and field conditions. In addition to individual calibration, two simplified calibration techniques are proposed: universal calibration, based on all 63 sensors, and a single-point calibration using the sensor response in dry soil. During the second stage of testing, the sensors were coupled to a low-cost monitoring station and installed in the field. The sensors were capable of measuring daily and seasonal oscillations in soil moisture resulting from solar radiation and precipitation. The low-cost sensor performance was compared to commercial sensors based on five variables: (1) cost, (2) accuracy, (3) qualified labor demand, (4) sample volume, and (5) life expectancy. Commercial sensors provide single-point information with high reliability but at a high acquisition cost, while low-cost sensors can be acquired in larger numbers at a lower cost, allowing for more detailed spatial and temporal observations, but with medium accuracy. The use of SKU sensors is then indicated for short-term and limited-budget projects in which high accuracy of the collected data is not required. MDPI 2023-02-22 /pmc/articles/PMC10007478/ /pubmed/36904655 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23052451 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Schwamback, Dimaghi
Persson, Magnus
Berndtsson, Ronny
Bertotto, Luis Eduardo
Kobayashi, Alex Naoki Asato
Wendland, Edson Cezar
Automated Low-Cost Soil Moisture Sensors: Trade-Off between Cost and Accuracy
title Automated Low-Cost Soil Moisture Sensors: Trade-Off between Cost and Accuracy
title_full Automated Low-Cost Soil Moisture Sensors: Trade-Off between Cost and Accuracy
title_fullStr Automated Low-Cost Soil Moisture Sensors: Trade-Off between Cost and Accuracy
title_full_unstemmed Automated Low-Cost Soil Moisture Sensors: Trade-Off between Cost and Accuracy
title_short Automated Low-Cost Soil Moisture Sensors: Trade-Off between Cost and Accuracy
title_sort automated low-cost soil moisture sensors: trade-off between cost and accuracy
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10007478/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36904655
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23052451
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