Written by: Jefrin David Saji
Reality
Living in the hilly regions of Kerala has taught us that life can be very delicate during monsoon seasons. The local farmers face a dilemma between watering crops on slopes to maintain crop yield or risking the soil becoming over saturated and causing landslides.
There are already existing solutions that require satellite based radar or expensive Borehole Inclinometers (costing lakhs). These are all out of the budget range for small farmers. Current smart farming technologies only provide soil moisture monitoring but do not take into account any terrain activity. Over watering slopes is not just a mistake in farming as it can cause liquefaction in the soil, causing landslides.
I realised that I could design a singular solution to these issues and keep costs low.
How GeoAgro Works
Our team developed GeoAgro, a cheap IoT edge node. It uses an ESP32 microcontroller and non-blocking logic. This can be used in a lab environment or at low cost for industrial use.
Terrain and Movement Detection
Initial Phase: An MPU-6050 6 axis hardware device was used to measure slope and micro vibrations.
Production Phase: Upgraded to an IP67 Waterproof RS485 Inclinometer component. This was installed inside PVC Borehole casing for accurate detection of mass displacement in the deep soil.
Soil Monitoring
Initial Phase: Moisture detectors, DS18B20 Temperature unit and LDR device were used.
Production Phase: Upgraded to an Stainless Steel RS485 Industrial Soil Probe. This is implanted in the ground and withstands corrosion from the soil, fertilisers and harsh weather conditions.
Pumps
Initial Phase: A 5V Relay unit was used to control the micro pump.
Production Phase: The ESP32 communicates with an Industrial 240V AC Magnetic Contactor with Thermal Overload Protection. This allows the node to automatically control 1 HP to 5 HP Pumps (used in large farm plots).
Power Source: The node can be used off grid! It uses a 12V Panel and LiFePO4 Battery Pack to ensure it works in remote hill areas during harsh weather conditions and power cuts.
Safety override logic
I didn’t want the setup to allow the automated pump to water the soil without considering the risks. The ESP32 code checks whether the soil is dry or not.
The pump will turn on if the soil is dry, however if the inclinometer detects a slope or micro shocks, indicating there is some instability in the terrain the microcontroller will automatically turn off the pump contactor. This stops the soil becoming over saturated and sends urgent alerts via telemetry.
Live Interface (Streamlit)
The data from the setup is sent to a bespoke Streamlit Python program. This provides farmers and local safety officials with a live dashboard. This includes live telemetry readings, slope angle monitoring and instant automated alerts.
I learnt how this technology helps protect people and human lives.
I Hope You Will Like This.
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