We present a complete in-lab system to monitor the plant and its surrounding environment. The plant impedance is directly measured in a continuous manner, while, simultaneously surrounding environment parameters known to affect plant status, are monitored. This is done combining a new in-vivo direct measurement of the plant together with an embedded system using available sensor technology and a designated interface for continuous data acquisition. Furthermore, the next versions this system can be deployed as a field monitoring device, with simple adaptations

Bar-On L.

Demarchi D.

Motto Ros P.

Peradotto S.

Sanginario A.

Shacham-Diamand Y.

English

PORTO@iris (Publications Open Repository TOrino - Politecnico di Torino)

16 July 2022POLITECNICO DI TORINORepository ISTITUZIONALEIn-vivo monitoring for electrical expression of plant living parameters by an impedance lab system / Bar-On, L.;Peradotto, S.; Sanginario, A.; Motto Ros, P.; Shacham-Diamand, Y.; Demarchi, D.. - (2019), pp. 178-180. ((Interventopresentato al convegno 26th IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems, ICECS 2019 tenutosia ita nel 2019 [10.1109/ICECS46596.2019.8964804].OriginalIn-vivo monitoring for electrical expression of plant living parameters by an impedance lab systemIEEE postprint/Author's Accepted ManuscriptPublisher:PublishedDOI:10.1109/ICECS46596.2019.8964804Terms of use:openAccessPublisher copyright©2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in anycurrent or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creatingnew collecting works, for resale or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.(Article begins on next page)This article is made available under terms and conditions as specified in the  corresponding bibliographic description inthe repositoryAvailability:This version is available at: 11583/2858247 since: 2020-12-23T09:26:47ZInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.In-Vivo Monitoring for Electrical Expression ofPlant Living Parameters by an Impedance LabSystemLee Bar-on∗, Sebastian Peradotto†, Alessandro Sanginario†, Paolo Motto Ros†,Yosi Shacham-Diamand†, Danilo Demarchi∗,†∗School of Electrical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel†Dept. of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, ItalyEmail:leebaron@mail.tau.ac.ilAbstract—We present a complete in-lab system to monitor theplant and its surrounding environment. The plant impedance isdirectly measured in a continuous manner, while, simultaneouslysurrounding environment parameters known to affect plantstatus, are monitored. This is done combining a new in-vivo directmeasurement of the plant together with an embedded systemusing available sensor technology and a designated interface forcontinuous data acquisition. Furthermore, the next versions thissystem can be deployed as a field monitoring device, with simpleadaptations.Index Terms—Plant Monitoring, Precision Agriculture, PlantIoT, In-Vivo Plant Sensor, Continuous Monitoring SystemI. INTRODUCTIONAs world population increases and the demand for agri-cultural food produce grows, the need for closer monitoringof crops is increasing. This is incorporated into the termof precision agriculture [1], [2], [3], where more specificmonitoring of crops is achieved based on available technology,whilst attempting to reduce crop loss due to environmentalchanges. Within this area, the concept of ‘Internet of Things’ forplants is discussed. Here, information is gathered from plantsand their surroundings and sent to the cloud, where further dataprocessing can be done and overall monitoring and care canbe improved. The ability to promote these concepts is directlydependant on the availability of direct sensor technology and theability to assess the acquired data, as well as the accessibility ofthe technology. One of the ways to promote plant monitoringis direct monitoring of plant changes, in conjunction withmeasurements of other environment parameters. Here, wesuggest a complete lab system for monitoring in-vivo plantelectrical changes[4], [5], as well as ongoing monitoring ofthe environment.The need for a system that will allow for the collectionof environmental data, using available sensor technology isapparent for research purposes, as well as determining thesignificance of new suggested technologies. The presented in-lab setup could easily be adapted to a portable field device[6], to allow data collection from the environment, whilstcollecting measurements directly from the plant, using thenewly suggested methods.The direct measurement of the plant uses an impedancemeasurement covering a broad range of frequencies, whilstthe environment is measured using off the shelf availablecomponents. The setup allows for continuous study of en-vironmental changes that will later be studied in coordinationwith measurements of the plant impedance. A combination ofthe newly acquired data directly from the plant, and knownenvironmental changes will open way for improving plantmonitoring and care within the field of precision agriculture.In addition, the electrical changes measured directly fromthe plant, rather than the surrounding environment may allowimproved plant care and better evaluation of the plant status.II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUPA system of sensors to collect information on the environ-mental status was set up (figure 1). It allows continuous datacollection of the surrounding plant environment, and samplesevery 15 minutes. The system is controlled and programmedusing a Python interface and the hardware is based on theRaspberryPi c© platform [7].Fig. 1. Generic Sensors setup connected indicationg the I2C ports that arethen connected to the RaspberryPi c©The system includes three generic sensors:1) HDC2080 (Texas Instruments Ltd) - temperature andrelative air humidity sensor [8];2) MAX44009 (Maxim Integrated Ltd) - ambient lightsensor monitoring [9];3) 200SS WATERMARK Sensor (Irrometer Ltd) - soilmoisture monitoring [10].Measurement Routine(Python)Raspberry PiModel 3BOS: RaspbianI2CPortHDC2080Texas InstrumentsMAX44009Maxim IntegratedADS101512 bit ADCTemperature[C]Humidity[RH%]Ambient Light[lux]Soil Water Potential[kPa]SoftwareControlSensorsReadoutcircuitWatermarkIrrometerEthernetMonitoringGUIPythonFig. 2. Sensor system block diagramThe sensors are all connected to the GPIO port of theRaspberryPi c© [7] using the I2C protocol (port #1). While themoisture sensor requires an analog to digital converter and areadout circuit. The circuit is constituted by the schematicsand components recommended by the manufacturer [11], alsousing the I2C protocol and sharing the port with the previouslymentioned sensors. The complete supporting circuit allows tocontrol and collect data in a synchronized manner, while havingthe readout from each sensor collected serially every 15 minutesand saved to a data file. A block diagram of the system isshown in figure 2.Fig. 3. User InterfaceThe system is controlled using a Python interface, developedfor data collection and monitoring. It is connected via a PCusing an Ethernet connection. The user controlled interface isshown in figure 3. The collected data is also displayed in realtime, as in figure 4.Simultaneously, impedance measurements using a fourterminal setup connected directly to the plant stem, are run. Animpedance analyzer (Keysight Technologies model 4294A) isconnected and controlled by a designated LabView c© software[12] interface. Measurements are conducted every 15 minutesand data is collected using LabView c© software [12]. A diagramof the system can be seen in figure 5.The direct sensing from the plant is done using an in-vivo method [4], [5] for impedance measurements with goldelectrodes. These are inserted into the plant stem. Here a youngTobacco plant has been monitored over time.Fig. 4. Example of real time data acquired from the sensing system andpresented graphicallySoftwareControlImpedanceAnalyzerAgilent 4294aLabVIEWUser InterfaceContinuousMonitoringGPIBPCDUTHCHVLVLCFig. 5. Plant Monitoring system block diagram controlled by LabView c©interfaceIII. CONTROLLED NUTRIENTS SETUPIn addition to the presented configuration, the suggestedsystem can be used with a controlled plant growth environment.In this case the soil can be replaced with agar gel, wherethe concentration of nutrients to the plant can be completelycontrolled. In this case, instead of assessment based on wateringneeds and amount of soil.This configuration will allow for better control of plant envi-ronment for research uses as well as improved understandingof the electrical response withing the plant, as a function ofdifferent nutrients in the soil.IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONContinuous measurements were completed over a time periodof 3-5 days each time. Impedance was run over frequenciesin the range of 40Hz – 1MHz, collecting data four times inevery hour.A summary of the measured impedance values for a distanceof 20 cm across the plant stem, and standard deviations forsome specific frequencies can be seen in Table I.Observation of the data shows that a day, i.e. 24 hours,can be divided into time slots in which changes in measuredimpedance are visible. These changes are smaller than thestandard deviation of the mean value, yet are not continuousTABLE IIMPEDANCE MEAN VALUES OF TOBACCO PLANTFrequency [Hz] Modulus [kΩ] Angle [deg]100 94755 ±6320 -9±0.681000 74388± 3882 -24.3±0.9310000 27320± 1024 -44±0.51100000 7855±153 -49.5±0.98across all time slots. Therefore additional data acquisition andfurther study are needed. These results can be seen in figure 6.102103104105106Frequency [Hz]246810Impedance [Ohm]104 Modulus1-Morning2-Afternoon3-Night102103104105106Frequency [Hz]-40-30-20-10Degrees [°]Angle1-Morning2-Afternoon3-NightFig. 6. Impedance plot during different times of the dayFig. 7. Results of impedance and all sensor data from the system monitoredover 2 days, around the centroid frequencyThen, examination of the data collected from our envi-ronment sensors system was done, in conjunction with datacollected directly from the plant. An example of data gatheredfrom both the plant and the sensor system, across a 2 day timewindow is shown in figure 7. The impedance data is shownat the centroid frequency, showing fluctuations over time. Inaddition, daylight hours and the constant decrease in moistureare easily visible. Yet, further study of the change dependencyof the different parameters and the response time within theplant to these changes, is needed.Clearly, it can be seen that the system will allow researchand study of environment changes in the plant surroundings,while examining plant impedance changes. The system allowsthe gathering of large amounts of data for an in depth studyof these changes.V. CONCLUSIONSWe have presented an in-lab generic experimental systemfor continuous monitoring of the plant and its surroundingenvironment to provide a basis for study of physiologicalchanges in the plant related to environmental changes. Thesystem will allow to study change in electrical response of theplant directly, with possibility of learning the dependencies onthe different surrounding environment parameters.The presented setup is also adaptable to serve as a fieldsensor system combined with different sensing technologiesbeing developed and will open way for direct measurementof plants and data gathering for Internet of Things, that is theplan for the continuation of this research work.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTThe authors would like to thank Prof. Adi Avni of the Facultyof Life Sciences, at the Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.The authors would like to thank Prof. Roberto Jona and Prof.Ivana Gribado of the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection,National Research Council, Grugliasco (TO), 10095, Italy. Theauthors would like to thank the Italian Ministry of ForeignAffairs and Cooperation for collaboration grant 2018-2019.REFERENCES[1] A. Luvisi, “Electronic identification technology for agriculture, plant,and food. a review,” Agronomy for Sustainable Development, vol. 36,no. 1, p. 13, Feb 2016.[2] A. Walter, R. Finger, R. Huber, and N. Buchmann, “Opinion: Smartfarming is key to developing sustainable agriculture,” Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences, vol. 114, no. 24, pp. 6148–6150, 2017.[Online]. Available: https://www.pnas.org/content/114/24/6148[3] S. Fritz, L. See, J. C. L. Bayas, F. Waldner, and D. Jacques, “A comparisonof global agricultural monitoring systems and current gaps,” AgriculturalSystems, vol. 168, pp. 258–272, 2019.[4] L. Bar-on, A. Jog, and Y. Shacham-Diamand, “Four Point ProbeElectrical Spectroscopy Based System for Plant Monitoring,” 2019 IEEEInternational Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), pp. 1–5,2019.[5] P. M. Ros, E. Macrelli, A. Sanginario, Y. Shacham-Diamand, andD. Demarchi, “Electronic System for Signal Transmission Inside GreenPlant Body,” 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits andSystems (ISCAS), pp. 1–5, 2019.[6] A. Jog and Y. Shacham-Diamand, private communication.[7] Raspberry Pi Foundation, “Raspberry Pi 3B.” [Online]. Available:https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-b/[8] Texas Instruments, “HDC2080 Low Power Humidity and TemperatureDigital Sensor,” 2018.[9] Maxim Integrated, “MAX44009 Industry’s Lowest-Power Ambient LightSensor,” pp. 1–20, 2011.[10] Irrometer, “Model 200SS WATERMARK Soil Moisture Sensor,” 1978.[11] Texas Instruments, “AD1015.” [Online]. Available:http://www.ti.com/product/ADS1015#[12] National Instruments, “Labview Software.” [Online]. Available:http://sine.ni.com/np/app/main/p/docid/nav-104/lang/it/fmid/1765/

In-vivo monitoring for electrical expression of plant living parameters by an impedance lab system

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In-vivo monitoring for electrical expression of plant living parameters by an impedance lab system

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