Monitoring and control systems for the agricultural industry

• US 9,894,852 B2
• Filed: 01/07/2014
• Issued: 02/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SemiosBIO Technologies Inc.
• Original Assignee: SemiosBIO Technologies Inc.
• Inventors: Gilbert, Michael, Metcalfe, Leonard
• Primary Examiner(s): Jiang, Charles C
• Assistant Examiner(s): CLARK, ROSENE S
• Application Number:
  US14/759,715
• Publication Number:
  US 20150351336A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,505 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A01B 79/005 Precision agriculture
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/16 Control of watering
• CPC Class Codes: A01M 1/026 combined with devices for monitoring insect presence, e.g. termites bait stations A01M1/2005; detecting other animals in a given area A01M31/002
• CPC Class Codes: A01M 1/14 Catching by adhesive surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: A01M 1/145 Attracting and catching insects using combined illumination or colours and adhesive surfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/15542 Selecting at relay station its transmit and receive resources selection of wireless resources by user or terminal H04W72/02; arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path by two-dimensional division of the resources H04L5/0003, or by allocating sub-channels H04L5/003
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A mesh-based wireless network 10 of sensor/actuator devices I, D, T for an agricultural production area involves battery-powered sensors and actuators deployed under or within the foliage for broadcast communication with at least one repeater R according to broadcast time slots. The repeaters R are mounted above the vegetation canopy so as to be powered by solar panels. The repeaters R form a mesh network for routing data and commands to and from the sensors and actuators and at least one gateway GW. The gateway communicates over a cellular network with a remote agricultural management server 14 and database 16.

Claims

1. A wireless mesh network for an area having a present or anticipated vegetation canopy, said network comprising:

a plurality of battery-powered sensor or actuation modules arrayed at spaced locations within said area;

said modules being installed under said vegetation canopy;

said modules being configured for broadcast communication with at least one of a plurality of repeaters deployed at spaced locations within said area above said vegetation canopy for communication with said modules under said vegetation canopy;

said broadcast communication being according to broadcast time slots assigned to each of said modules;

each of said repeaters being powered by a solar panel mounted with said repeater;

said repeaters acting as routers within a mesh network for conveying data and commands to and from said modules and at least one gateway;

said gateway being mounted above said vegetation canopy and being powered by a solar panel mounted with said gateway;

said gateway maintaining at least periodic communication with a remote management server via a cellular telephone network.

2. The network of claim 1 wherein said sensor modules include insect detection modules, said actuator modules include pheromone dispersal modules and said management server is an insect management server.

3. The network of claim 2 wherein said insect detection modules comprises a camera and a grid imaged by said camera according to a schedule.

4. The network of claim 2 wherein said sensor modules further include pheromone tracker modules for determining the presence of a pheromone.

5. The network of claim 1 wherein said modules are solar-powered.

6. The network of any of claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 wherein said area is an agricultural production area and said management server is an agricultural management server.