A Novel Fuzzy Logic-based Power Management System for Self-Powered IoT-based Soil Health Monitoring in Smart Agriculture

The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the billions of devices connected to the Internet and capable of intercommunication through machine-to-machine communication. As the IoT can offer many convenient, ubiquitous solutions, this paradigm is becoming a booming trend and is used in many industries such as agriculture, military, transportation, smart cities, healthcare, etc. In the agricultural sector, maintaining critical soil parameters, such as moisture content, pH level, etc., within the required ranges significantly impacts crop yield. Typical soil health monitoring procedures involve extensive field sampling and laboratory analysis. Although this method gives precise results, it can be expensive and labor-intensive, making it inappropriate for continuous soil health monitoring applications. Advances in soil sensors and IoT technology make it highly possible to replace physical sampling and offline measurement with in-field monitoring eventually. The exponential growth of demand for IoT solutions in the agricultural industry will result in the deployment of billions of new devices in the coming years. Providing power to these billions of new IoT devices will become a monumental challenge that must be addressed immediately. To overcome this challenge, self-powered IoT devices are becoming a viable option that researchers are currently looking into. In this regard, many researchers have tried to power up IoT devices with renewable energy sources, where solar power is considered a key solution widely accepted worldwide. However, the cyclic variation of the receiving light intensity throughout the day and the unexpected interruptions due to weather conditions leave massive doubts and become some of the major unresolved challenges pertaining to these solar-powered IoT, which necessitates a backup power source with the need for continuous data harvesting for a prolonged period. However, the environmental effects and increased implementation costs of using batteries as a backup power source for self-powered IoT raise concerns about its usage. Taking all of these factors into account, we propose a novel fuzzy logic-based power management system for self-powered IoT devices in smart agricultural applications, aiming to reduce required battery capacity and lower environmental impact by increasing battery life.