Patent for Designing Zero-Power Sensors for Crop Water Management
ECE Professor Matteo Rinaldi and Associate Research Professor Zhenyun Qian were awarded a patent for “Zero-power wireless system for crop water content monitoring.”
Abstract Source: USPTO
Zero power wireless sensors, devices, and systems are used for crop water content monitoring. The sensors consume no power while monitoring for the presence of dry crop conditions. Infrared reflectance from plants is measured and when selected spectral conditions are met, a circuit is closed, activating an alarm, an RFID tag, or a radio transmitter. The deployed sensors consume no power while monitoring, reducing or eliminating the need to change batteries.
