Drs. Mehmet C. Vuran (Susan J. Rosowski Associate Professor in Computer Science and Engineering) and Suat Irmak (Harold W. Eberhard Distinguished Professor in Biological Systems Engineering) have received a $450K National Science Foundation grant titled “2G for UG: High Data-Rate and Long Range Communication Techniques for Wireless Underground Networks” to advance soil moisture sensing science and technology.
The grant will enable Irmak and Vuran to continue their long-standing collaborative research in implementing underground wireless sensor network technology for autonomous decision-making in irrigation and water management.
“This project will increase the communication ranges and data rates of buried radios by leveraging our expertise in the nexus of computer engineering and biological systems engineering. We will devise second generation wireless underground communication techniques with ranges and data rates comparable to conventional wireless devices. This will allow farmers to bury tens to hundreds of wireless soil sensors (or as many as needed), and receive real-time soil information, without worrying about the impacts of machinery on the field. These techniques will also lead to smart road infrastructures for next generation highways.” Vuran said. He added, “This project will enable a wide array of novel solutions from saving water resources for more food production to saving lives on roadways.”
“Future irrigation systems will demand easier, but robust and more autonomous control to simplify and enhance decision making. Our long-term collaboration since 2008 is designed towards contributing to future generation irrigation engineering and computer engineering disciplines as well as aid growers to enhance production efficiency in their operations” Irmak said. “This grant will also enable us to make advances in agricultural science, which also has explicit research and Extension/education implications,” Irmak added. The large scale field applications and implementations of the project have been underway in Irmak’s advanced irrigation engineering field research facilities at the South Central Agricultural Laboratory near Clay Center.