A wireless sensor network for precision viticulture: The NAV system

In the last decade, wireless technologies have been increasingly applied in precision agriculture. Wireless monitoring systems in particular have been used in precision viticulture in order to understand vineyard variability, and therefore suggest appropriate management practices for improving the quality of the wines. The NAV (Network Avanzato per il Vigneto - Advanced Vineyard Network) system is a wireless sensor network designed and developed with the aim of remote real-time monitoring and collecting of micro-meteorological parameters in a vineyard. The system includes a base agrometeorological station (Master Unit) and a series of peripheral wireless nodes (Slave Units) located in the vineyard. The Master Unit is a typical single point monitoring station placed outside the vineyard in a representative site to collect agrometeorological data. It utilizes a wireless technology for data communication and transmission with the Slave Units and remote central server. The Slave Units are multiple stations placed in the vineyard and equipped with agrometeorological sensors for site-specific environmental monitoring, which store and transmit data to the Master Unit. Software was developed for setup and configuration functionality. A graphical user interface operating on the remote central server was implemented to collect and process data and provide real-time control. The devices were tested in a three-step process: hardware functionality and data acquisition, energy consumption and communication. The NAV system is a complete monitoring system that gave flexibility for planning and installation, which fully responded to the objectives of the work in terms of energy efficiency and performance. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.