Method and apparatus to improve crop yields and increase irrigation efficiency in agriculture
First Claim
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1. A soil moisture sensor, comprising:
- a dielectric substrate;
an embedded coupled metallic line structure mounted to the dielectric substrate and constructed to be driven in an odd impedance mode and an even impedance mode;
a power source;
radio frequency driving circuitry connected to the metallic line structure for radiating electromagnetic waves into the soil that drives the metallic line structure to generate an oscillation that has an odd mode phase velocity component and an even mode phase velocity component;
a determination circuit that is configured with a frequency counter to determine an average phase velocity of the even and odd mode phase velocities by measuring the oscillation frequency along the metallic line structure; and
wherein the average phase velocity of the even phase velocity and the odd phase velocity is a function of the water content in the soil.
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Abstract
An irrigation control system is described for optimizing water used for growing crops. The irrigation control system uses a moisture sensor to measure soil moisture by measuring directly the relative phase velocities of different modes of propagation along a metallic structure mounted to a dielectric substrate. The average phase velocity is a function of the water content of the soil. The water content measurement is then transmitted to a central controller which then, through a set of heuristic algorithms, regulates the water distributed to the soil in a spatial and temporal manner.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A soil moisture sensor, comprising:
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a dielectric substrate; an embedded coupled metallic line structure mounted to the dielectric substrate and constructed to be driven in an odd impedance mode and an even impedance mode; a power source; radio frequency driving circuitry connected to the metallic line structure for radiating electromagnetic waves into the soil that drives the metallic line structure to generate an oscillation that has an odd mode phase velocity component and an even mode phase velocity component; a determination circuit that is configured with a frequency counter to determine an average phase velocity of the even and odd mode phase velocities by measuring the oscillation frequency along the metallic line structure; and wherein the average phase velocity of the even phase velocity and the odd phase velocity is a function of the water content in the soil. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An irrigation control system , comprising:
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a moisture sensor, further comprising; a dielectric substrate; an embedded coupled metallic line structure mounted to the dielectric substrate and constructed to be driven in an odd impedance mode and an even impedance mode; a power source; radio frequency driving circuitry connected to the metallic line structure for radiating electromagnetic waves into the soil that drives the metallic line structure to generate an oscillation that has an odd mode phase velocity component and an even mode phase velocity component; a determination circuit that is configured as a frequency counter to determine an average phase velocity of the even and odd mode phase velocities by measuring the oscillation frequency along the metallic line structure; a transmitter; a receiver; and a valve controller coupled to the receiver. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification