Long-range & Self-powered IoT Devices for Agriculture & Aquaponics Based on Multi-hop Topology

2019

This article presents the prototype design and testing of a long-range, self-powered IoT devices for use in precision agriculture and aquaponics. The devices are designed using the ultra-low power nRF52840 microcontroller with Bluetooth 5 support and ambient energy harvesting. A power of 942µW is harvested in an indoor environment. The devices are therefore suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, as natural sunlight will provide far more energy compared to artificial indoor lights. A line-of-sight range of up to 1.8km is achieved with the use of coded transmissions. However, the coverage area and range can be extended significantly by deploying the devices in multi-hop network topology. T…