Project Title: Printed NFC/UHF Based RFID Sensors System for Precision Agriculture
Project Description:
Precision Agriculture is a concept of Smart Farm Management, in order to increase crop yield and reduce the environmental impacts, primarily cause by over-fertilization and over-flooding. Currently, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) mapping is a key tool for Precision Agriculture, due to its ability to provide information about the rate of vegetation. Nevertheless, state-of-the-art NDVI maps do not allow visualization of soil areas based on pH and irregular distribution of nutrients across the land. Therefore farmers can detect crop stress only based on the rate of vegetation, but they can’t quickly diagnose whether stress is due to pests or low levels of soil nutrients. This is why the primary aim of this PhD project is to develop a low-cost wireless sensors system. To develop a complete sensors system (which will consist of PH, Moisture, Humidity and NPK sensors ) below mentioned points will be considered:
- Biodegradable material as a substrate will be utilized for the sake of preventing negative environmental impacts.
- The interdigitated electrode (IDEs) structure will be simulated in COMSOL Multiphysics while the antenna designing & simulation will be done in CST Microwave studio for energy harvesting and communication.
- For sensors fabrication, inkjet and screen printing techniques will be used.
For more information please contact Mukhtar Ahmad and Prof. Luisa Petti.