Method and apparatus to improve crop yields and increase irrigation efficiency in agriculture

• US 10,299,448 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2014
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digital Spring LLC
• Original Assignee: Digital Spring LLC
• Inventors: Canyon, James, Ganton, Robert Bruce
• Primary Examiner(s): Jarrett, Ryan A
• Application Number:
  US14/308,514
• Publication Number:
  US 20150366149A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,805 Days
• Field of Search: 700284, 324664
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/167 Control by humidity of the soil itself or of devices simulating soil or of the atmosphere; Soil humidity sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 27/223 for determining moisture content, e.g. humidity rain detectors on vehicle windows B60S1/0825
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/24 Earth materials G01N33/42 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 40/22 Improving land use; Improving water use or availability; Controlling erosion

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.

Claims

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.

2. The moisture sensor of claim 1 wherein the metallic line structure comprises a plurality of broadside coupled transmission lines.

3. The moisture sensor of claim 1 further comprising an oscillator and a high frequency counter, wherein the oscillation frequency is measured using the oscillator and the high frequency counter.

4. The moisture sensor of claim 3 wherein the high frequency counter comprises a low power low frequency oscillator and a pre-scaler circuit to extend the range of the frequencies that can be measured by the low power low frequency oscillator.

5. The moisture sensor of claim 1, further comprising a wireless communication circuit for sending data indicative of the water content to a receiver.

6. The moisture sensor of claim 5, wherein the wireless communication circuit is constructed to implement a Bluetooth compliant communication transmitter.

7. The moisture sensor of claim 6, wherein the data indicative of the water content of the soil is transmitted in an advertising payload section of a Bluetooth Low Energy packet.

8. The moisture sensor of claim 1 further comprising a radio frequency circuit to measure a dielectric constant of the soil by measuring the ratio of even mode and odd mode phase velocities, and wherein the metallic line structure is embedded in the substrate.

9. The moisture sensor of claim 8 wherein the metallic line structure comprises a plurality of structures at different lengths, and switching elements coupled to the structures that are constructed to enable water content measurements at multiple frequencies to improve overall measurement accuracy.

10. The moisture sensor of claim 8 wherein the metallic line structure is a microstripline structure.

11. The moisture sensor of claim 8 wherein the metallic line structure is a set of broadside coupled lines that have phase velocity variation based on the water content of the soil.

12. The moisture sensor of claim 1 wherein the determination circuity comprises a processor that is programmed to compare a frequency of oscillation to the rate of oscillation in free space to determine the water content in the soil.

13. The moisture sensor of claim 1 wherein the metallic line structure forms a low pass filter.

14. The moisture sensor of claim 1 wherein the metallic line structure forms a high pass filter.

15. The moisture sensor of claim 1 wherein the metallic line structure forms a transmission line.

16. An irrigation control system , comprising:

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.

17. The irrigation control system of claim 16, wherein the valve controller executes algorithms to optimize the use of water for the purpose of enabling optimized growth of crops or other plants.

18. The irrigation control system of claim 17, wherein the algorithms are heuristic in nature.

19. The irrigation control system of claim 18, wherein the valve controller is constructed to receive temperature and light history information and to use this information in the heuristic algorithm as a prediction from current water cycle to next water cycle to implement a watering program including duration and/or start time.

20. The irrigation control system of claim 16 further including a wide-area network radio constructed to receive environmental data comprising insolation, precipitation, temperature or humidity, and the processor uses moisture content data from the sensor and environment data to adjust watering times and durations.