MobileSense: Micro-Climate Sensing Device

CL

Overview

Deploying sensors on a farm is one option for collecting farm-level data, but low power consumption is essential for these sensors. Additionally, mobility can be an issue; sensors must be placed in fixed locations, and moving them can be tedious. A small farm (e.g., one acre) may need up to five sensors. As farm size increases, so does the number of sensors required, which presents a problem. To address this, we developed the mobileSense device. This device connects to a phone via USB and collects weather parameters, sending the data to the cloud through an Android app on the phone. As a farmer scouts the farm as part of their daily routine, the mobileSense, connected to the phone, will transmit the data to the cloud.

Salient features:

  • Portable sensing device that draws power from the host device
  • On-the-move sensing and transmitting of Temperature, relative humidity, pressure, etc.
  • The onboard accelerometer enables the push of data to the host device based on the speed of movement
  • Onboard memory to store data when the host is unable to send the data to a central server
  • Can deploy lightweight ML models on mobileSense MPU
  • Currently compatible with a host device that uses a USB C-type port
  • Compatible with any mobile platform (Rover, Drones, etc.)
  • Extra pins made available to be able to connect more sensors to mobileSense
  • USB C-type makes it compatible with any framework for transmitting sensed data
  • When mobileSense is connected to a phone, the phone can be charged with a power bank via a female USB C-type connector