A Proposal of Greenhouse Control Using Wireless Sensor Networks

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a system consisting of a collection of nodes and a basestation. A node is composed by a processor, local memory, sensors, radio and battery and a base station isresponsible for receiving and processing data collected by the nodes. They perform collaborative activitiesdue to limited resources, such as battery, processor and memory. Nowadays, the applications of WSNs aremany and varied, and the applications in agriculture are still incipient. One interesting WSN application is ingreenhouses, where the crop conditions such as climate and soil do not depend on natural agents. To controland monitor the environmental factors, sensors and actuators are essential. Under these circumstances, WSNshould be used to make a distributed measure, spreading sensors all over the greenhouse. In a great numberof applications the sensors are located in a fixed point of the greenhouse. However, even in a greenhousethere are differences between some environmental variables from one place to another. Thus, using WSNshould guarantee not only real time monitoring, but also guarantee a better control. This paper presents aproposal of greenhouse control using WSN, its advantages, challenges and future applications.