Abstract
In this work, the combination of capabilities provided by Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) with parameter observation in a school garden is employed in order to provide an environment for school garden integration as a complementary educational activity in primary schools. Wireless transceivers with energy harvesting capabilities are employed in order to provide autonomous system operation, combined with an ad-hoc implemented application called MySchoolGardenApp, based on a modular software architecture. The system enables direct parameter observation, data analysis and processing capabilities, which can be employed by students in a cloud based platform. Providing remote data access allows the adaptation of content to specific classroom/homework needs. The proposed monitoring WSN has been deployed in an orchard located in the schoolyard of a primary school, which has been built with EnOcean’s energy harvesting modules, providing an optimized node device as well network layout. For the assessment of the wireless link quality and the deployment of the modules, especially the central module which needs to receive directly the signals of all the sensor modules, simulation results obtained by an in-house developed 3D Ray Launching deterministic method have been used, providing coverage/capacity estimations applicable to the specific school environment case. Preliminary trials with MySchoolGardenApp have been performed, showing the feasibility of the proposed platform as an educational resource in schools, with application in specific natural science course content, development of technological skills and the extension of monitoring capabilities to new context-aware applications.
Highlights
Wireless Sensor Networks are being actively adopted as enablers for context aware communication capabilities within multiple scenarios, such as Smart Cities and Smart Regions [1,2]
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) play a key role, given to the fact that they constitute inherent distributed systems, in which current platforms allow the inclusion of multiple analogue/digital input/output ports
ResultsAs previously mentioned, a radio planning study has been performed in order to obtain information about the feasibility of the proposed EnOcean-based WSN for the monitoring of the
Summary
Wireless Sensor Networks are being actively adopted as enablers for context aware communication capabilities within multiple scenarios, such as Smart Cities and Smart Regions [1,2]. Sensors 2018, 18, 3621 have been adopted in order to improve multiple aspects of agriculture [8] In this context, WSNs play a key role, given to the fact that they constitute inherent distributed systems, in which current platforms allow the inclusion of multiple analogue/digital input/output ports. Multiple challenges must be handled, such as compact form factors, reduced energy consumption, interference handling and variable node density allocation. In this sense, HetNet solutions as well as incumbent
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