Continuous monitoring seed testing equipaments using internet of things

Abstract

The lack of functional, calibrated equipment, along with using inconsistent testing method contribute to the variable, unreliable results produced by seed laboratories. The objective of this article is present to presente the development of an integrated system consisting of hardware, middleware, and application to continuously monitor and record the performance of seed testing equipment from the beginning to the completion of each test in seed testing laboratories. The central element of the proposed system is the CoIoT middleware (Context + IoT), which provides mechanisms for managing IoT devices and context awareness mechanisms to monitor and record the equipment functions, throughout the seed testing processes. The developed system was tested in the Official Seed Analysis Laboratory (OSTL) of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). The proposed system was evaluated using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which considers aspects of ease of use and usefulness. To validate the results, a scale of 1 (user totally disagree) to 5 (user totally agree) was used. For ease of use the average was of 4.7, and for usefulness, the average was of 4.4. The results achieved are promising, which encourages the continuity of research to further optimize CoIoT.