title: Development of a sensor node for precision horticulture.
abstract: This paper presents the design of a new wireless sensor node (GAIA Soil-Mote) for precision horticulture applications which permits the use of precision agricultural instruments based on the SDI-12 standard. Wireless communication is achieved with a transceiver compliant with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The GAIA Soil-Mote software implementation is based on TinyOS. A two-phase methodology was devised to validate the design of this sensor node. The first phase consisted of laboratory validation of the proposed hardware and software solution, including a study on power consumption and autonomy. The second phase consisted of implementing a monitoring application in a real broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var Marathon) crop in Campo de Cartagena in south-east Spain. In this way the sensor node was validated in real operating conditions. This type of application was chosen because there is a large potential market for it in the farming sector, especially for the development of precision agriculture applications.
authors.affiliation: DSIE, Technical University of Cartagena, Campus Muralla del Mar s/n, Cartagena, E-30202 Spain; E-Mails:  p.soto@upct.es  (F.S.);  pedro.sanchez@upct.es  (P.S.);  andres.iborra@upct.es  (A.I.);  juan.suardiaz@upct.es  (J.S.).
authors.forename: Juan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: Fulgencio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Soto
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iborra
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Suardiaz
authors.forename: Juan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Vera