Watering Crops in the Wireless Age

New Scientist, 25 Feb 2006 A wireless sensor network to help farmers give their plants enough water -- but not too much -- will begin field trials next month. The network, being developed at info-tech firm National ICT Australia in Melbourne, consists of a few hundred wireless nodes distributed around a 10-hectare field of stone fruit in northern Victoria. Each node contains a computer chip and a Wi-Fi transmitter, linked with multiple sensors to measure soil moisture, leaf temperature and evaporation. The measurements are relayed to a central server, which adjusts the water supply to different areas via wirelessly controlled irrigation pumps. The team ultimately plans to create a system that can fine-tune irrigation to individual plants, and has already developed the necessary algorithms.