The objective of this research is to develop an underground wireless network of soil sensors to monitor soil properties like moisture content and temperature, which will be used to collect high resolution spatio-temporally varying data needed for accurate climatic/hydrologic-flow/crop-growth modeling and variable-rate control of irrigation/fertilization. The approach is to (i) Develop self-calibrating moisture and temperature soil sensors to be deployed in a 50-acre, central Iowa farm over a rectangular -acre grid (approximately, 50m by 50m) at the depth of 30cm where the moisture level is more stable and available for root uptake, (ii) Endow each sensor with the capability of underground wireless communication of at least 50m range, and networking capabilities for selflocalization, self organization, and power conserving medium access/routing/data-transportation, and (iii) Employ the data gathered by the sensor network to accurately calibrate the parameters of the crop-growth (CERES Maize), the carbon-nutrient cycling and the hydrologic-flow models for obtaining information on carbon sequestration, nitrogen uptake/leaching and crop development with the goal of developing agriculture management and environmental protection practices. Intellectual merits: (1) Development of self-calibrating soil sensors that are field-deployable and support automated data collection; (2) Development of self-organizing, self-localizing and power-conserving underground wireless sensor network that allows the researchers to better understand properties of soils and the environment over a large area; (3) Development of tools for fertilization management in production agriculture for economic savings and environmental protection. Broader Impacts: (1) This project is a step toward the incorporation of information and control technologies in production agriculture since a major impediment to adoption of such technologies is the lack of an infrastructure that allows automated collection of high resolution spatio-temporally varying data and tools to analyze them. (2) The development and deployment of the proposed underground wireless soil sensor network can vastly improve the agricultural management and environmental protection practices, meaning it can offer economic gains by allowing a more efficient utilization of the agricultural inputs such as nitrogen and at the same time the amounts of nitrogen discharged to water is reduced. (3) The data available from the network will help better modeling of crop-growth and carbon-nitrogen cycling leading to a better understanding of the carbon-sequestration into the biomass, which has implications toward air-quality management and global-warming. (4) The interdisciplinary project involves expertise from sensors, communications, networking, modeling of climatic/crop-growth/hydrologic-flow processes, and distributed monitoring and control. The project will provide grounds for exchange of ideas across these disciplines and train 2-3 PhD students in such interdisciplinary areas. Every effort will be made to recruit students of minority and under-represented background. Courses will be developed in Sensors and Instrumentation, and in Ad-hoc Wireless Sensor Networks. (5) The underground wireless soil sensor network technology will have other applications such as surface motion monitoring and border patrol, monitoring of levees/embankments/roads and applications in bio-pharmaceuticals, bio-fuels, horticulture/viticulture, seed industry, food-safety, bio-security and identity-preservation.
