A Power Management and Control System for Environmental Monitoring Devices

Recent advances in Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technologies have shifted automated monitoring in smart agriculture toward low power sensors and embedded vision on powerful processing units. Vision-based monitoring devices need an effective power management and control system with system-adapted power input and output capabilities to achieve power-efficient and self-sustainable operation. Here, we present a universal power management solution for automated monitoring devices in agricultural systems, compatible with commonly used off-the-shelf edge processing units (EPUs). The proposed design is specifically adapted for battery-powered EPU systems by incorporating power-matched energy harvesting, a power switch with low-power sleep mode, and simple system integration in an microcontroller unit-less architecture with automated operation. We use a four-month case study to monitor the effects of plastic pollution in agricultural soils on plant growth under 4-mg microplastic exposure, demonstrating that the setup achieved continuous and sustainable operation. In this agricultural application, our power management module is deployed in an embedded vision camera equipped with a 5-W solar panel and five various environmental sensors, effectively monitoring environmental stress and plant growth state. This work highlights the application of the power management board in embedded agricultural monitoring devices for precision farming.