Low-cost Edge Computing devices and novel user interfaces for monitoring pivot irrigation systems based on Internet of Things and LoRaWAN technologies

The increase in irrigated crop areas, especially in countries such as Spain and Italy, has led to an increase in technological solutions for monitoring the irrigation. Furthermore, the centre pivot irrigation systems used in these crops have facilitated the daily work of farmers in recent years, however, the monitoring of these systems and the reporting of problems in their operation has become a key aspect during the growing season. For this reason, different monitoring solutions have been proposed from the area of Precision Agriculture and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Nevertheless, it is necessary that these solutions take into account the digital divide their potential users may suffer and be low-cost solutions in order to be attractive to the end-users. This paper presents several low-cost solutions using novel user interfaces and wireless communication technologies for the monitoring of this type of irrigation systems. This paper presents the results obtained after the deployment of the proposed systems on a real environment and the main conclusions drawn after their use in irrigated maize crops.