Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 171 (2020) 105328

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Computers and Electronics in Agriculture

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compag

Odysseys of agriculture sensors: Current challenges and forthcoming T

prospects
⁎
Nivedita Singha,c, Aditya Narayan Singhb,
a
DECS Lab, Dept. Design & Human Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), 50, UNIST-gil, Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea
b
Center for Superfunctional Materials, Department of Chemistry, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), 50, UNIST-gil, Ulsan 44919, Republic of
Korea
c
State Institute of Agricultural Extension and Training (SIAET), Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh 462094, India

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Recent decades have witnessed unprecedented development in the field of biomedical and chemical science due
MEMS to an economical, precise, and sensitive microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology. Nevertheless, very
Soil sensor few reports have highlighted the importance of MEMS-based sensors in the field of agriculture science and
Sap flow technology. Precision agriculture (PA) is a management strategy that employs advanced sensors marriage with
Heat sensor
information technology to improve productivity and quality of modern agriculture. This review unfolds the
Precision agriculture
journey the conventional sensors have taken to come to the contemporary MEMS-based sensors. This review
explains the fundamental principle of various sensors, presents outlines with a comparative study of sensors
engaged in the field of agriculture. We have also elaborated on the importance of microcontroller addition in
MEMS sensors to improve their sensitivity and productivity. Besides highlighting the pros and cons of the
sensors, this review also brings a crisp discussion on the very recent sensors engaged to benefit agriculture and
also takes into account the developmental aspects for commercialization.

1. Introduction
Innovation in science and technology has often brought dramatic
changes in human civilizations. For instance, discovering the art of
alloy making by Sumerians in the third millennia B.C. gave them a
superseding capability than their neighbors who merely use stone
weapons for their food hunting (Singh et al., 2015). The weapons made
from the metal alloys have better shape, design, and were handy. These
design considerations assisted them to adapt better and hunt their food
quickly. These better-equipped tools allowed the barbarian and no-
madic sects to settle down at a place for quite a long time. Historically,
agriculture began as an outcome of the transition from hunter-gatherer
to agricultural societies. The modern agricultural societies we see today
is an outcome of a long term evolutionary process of socioeconomic
significance (Svizzero and Tisdell, 2015; Zvelebil and Pluciennik,
2011). Nevertheless, there is no precise date in history to determine the
exact origin of agriculture, but the impact of agricultural evolutions in
establishing modern society cannot be underestimated. The significant
changes brought by the inception of agriculture are the stabilization of
hunt gatherers to a family that gradually transformed into a commu-
nity, more prolonged survival of infants, better safety, and progress in
better human health. Contrary to this, there are disadvantages asso-
ciated with them as density-dependent diseases and other pathological
conditions relating to poor diet (Zvelebil and Pluciennik, 2011). In
summary, though agriculture allowed an increase in survival, it was the
industrial revolution (Allen, 1994; O'Brien, 1977; Zambon et al., 2019)
that offered people to lead a healthy life. The rise of the industrial re-
volution has given agriculture to shoot up, yet tremendous technolo-
gical advances have yet to come to meet modern rising expectancies
from agricultural products.
Modern agriculture is an outcome of various socio-economic
changes that took place over several thousand years back. Through
years, agriculture has been a significant backbone and a source of food
production for millions of growing populations across the globe. In a
recent report from the food and agriculture organization of the UN
(FAO) human population is expected to touch 9.2 billion by 2050 and
the food production must increase by 70% to meet the asking food
consumption (Alexandratos and Bruinsma, 2012; Basnet and Bang,
2018). The growing limits of food production for paced populations has
invited several debates and preoccupations for decades. A few critical
debates which gathered mass attractions are a church leader Tertullian
in 3rd century CE, followed by Malthus in late 8th century CE (Hardin,

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: aditya@unist.ac.kr (A.N. Singh).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2020.105328
Received 2 January 2020; Received in revised form 27 February 2020; Accepted 1 March 2020
0168-1699/ © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
N. Singh and A.N. Singh
1998), and recently by Paul Ehrlich’s who coined the famous termi-
nology Population Bomb (Alexandratos, 1988). Statistics say that there
was sufficient food for each person 2770 kcal/person/day in 2005/
2007, but the condition will entirely be different in 2050. These sta-
tistics unfolds from the fact that global GDP will be just 2.5 folds,
whereas the population is going explode in the coming years if no
checks and strict rules are framed in the developing countries to curb
populations. Though the jurisdiction of this review lies outside to put
any opinion on the measures and regulations that must be taken by
various countries to control population explosions, indeed, the growth
and pace at which modern agriculture will look like in the coming few
decades have a one-to-one relation with it.
Agriculture in developing countries must undergo a significant
transformation to meet growing populations (De Bon et al., 2010).
Ensuring food to paced growth populations will require faster growth in
the agriculture outputs than the previous decades. Eventually, there are
certain unavoidable restrictions such as impounded climatic changes,
reduced rainfall, changes in temperature, and precipitations are bound
to reduce agricultural productivity and make production more erratic
(Cline, 2008; Fischlin et al., 2007; Lobell et al., 2008; Parry et al.,
2007). Specific methodologies are suggested to improve the yields of
agricultural outputs, namely: climate-smart agriculture (CSA) followed
mainly in countries like Malawi and Zambia (Sanchez et al., 2009),
conservation agriculture (CA) again practiced in Zambia, Smartphone-
based sensors in agriculture (Pongnumkul et al., 2015), and micro-
electromechanical systems (MEMS)-based agriculture (Dell et al., 2009;
Wang et al., 2018a).
This review has a circumference of the sensors used in agriculture.
However, we will be slightly more inclined to MEMS-based sensors in
this review, will try to introduce the mechanism of MEMS sensors, bring
a picture of recent developments made till date, and at the same time
will raise a few inevitable challenges in the upcoming agricultural
methodologies. Moreover, we will also elaborate on the significant
problems in data acquisition, their solutions, and will also focus on their
performance enhancements. The interest in MEMS-based sensors is an
obvious choice, as evident from the market potential and the enormous
revenue MEMS-based sensors have generated during the past few years,
as shown in Fig. 1. Furthermore, we will also try to address a few unmet
issues prevailing in the agriculture sensors, will figure out the possible
solutions, and we will present our viewpoints to address them. More
significantly, we believe that this extensive review will offer and attract
readers from different backgrounds and will give them a new window
to look at and design agricultural sensors for better productivity.
The MEMS acronym stands for the microelectromechanical system,
introduced in 1986 for the first time; since then, millions of such de-
vices have been introduced in the market and are commercialized daily
(Valente, 2017). MEMS can be seen exhaustively in the fields of printer
heads in ink-jet printers, projection systems, drones, game controllers,
Fig. 1. Market potential and future growth predictions. (Adapted from Valente
(2017) with permission from Springer).
2
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 171 (2020) 105328
microphones, digital cameras, smartphones, biosensors, optical sensors,
lab-on-Chip, accelerometers, and gyroscope are to name a few. Their
ubiquitous nature owes to their compactness, robustness, precision, and
lower production cost. Though the application of MEMS in automobiles,
health care, and consumer goods have seen unprecedented develop-
ments, their applications in the field of agriculture lie only as a sec-
ondary option in the form of MEMS in drones and a few cases in agri-
culture accelerometers. Thus, the use of MEMS sensors in the field of
agriculture is not only novel but also exciting as it can open new di-
mensions to agriculture in the form of precisions agriculture (PA)
(Barnes et al., 2019), seed sowing, and crop harvesting. With the in-
troduction of PA, the whole field is used as a sector to increase pro-
ductivity (Balafoutis et al., 2017) and thus increase profitability in
parallel with the internet-of-Things (IoT). The marriage of IoT and
MEMS-based agricultural sensors is sure to bring enormous benefits to
agricultural productivity in the coming years.
Though MEMS works on the principle of different domains such as
piezoelectric, electromagnetic, electrostatic, and thermal, etc. (Valente,
2017), but here we try to present the most acceptable working princi-
ples of MEMS sensors. Whenever a tilt is applied to the MEMS sensors,
the previously balanced mass now makes a difference within the po-
tential, and this is measured by a position measuring interface circuit.
This measurement is converted then into digital signals with the help of
analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for digital signal processing. At this
stage, it is also advantageous to define few other related devices that
will be used in parallel to MEMS, such as gyroscope-is a device that is
capable of measuring both the displacement of the resonating mass and
its frame due to Coriolis acceleration (Shakur and Kraft, 2016). Fur-
thermore, MEMS are considered to be inertial sensors. Inertial sensors
mean, they have a mass that resonates whenever a tilt is given to the
MEMS sensors.
A body constituting a mass is bound to be governed by Newtonian
equations and its laws of motion and MEMS are not an exception to it.
Newton's second law of motion can be stated as acceleration (a: m
s−2) of a body is directly proportional to the force (F: Newton/N) ap-
plied and in the same direction as force and inversely proportional to
the mass of the body (m: kg).
It is essential to understand at this point that acceleration always
creates a force that is eventually captured by the force-detection me-
chanism of the accelerometer. Thus, an accelerometer measures a force
and not acceleration; however, one receives an acceleration when it is
actually applied to any of the accelerometer axes.
2. Fundamental mechanism of accelerometer
Fig. 2a illustrates the basic mechanism of an accelerometer and its
capacitance relation to the moving mass and the piezoelectric technique
based in Fig. 2b. An accelerometer mostly relies on measuring accu-
rately the capacitance generated by the acceleration in relation to the
moving mass. The other type of accelerometer is based on the piezo-
electric phenomenon (Gesing et al., 2018). Accelerometer working on
this mechanism constitutes a set of two plates one fixed and another
mobile. One or both plates are charged with an electric current. When
the tilt is applied to this accelerometer, the distance between these
plates changes which is measured in terms of the output voltage. These
accelerometers are widely known for their accuracy and stability. Their
high stability makes them a robust candidate against noise, less de-
pendent on variations in temperature, consumes less power, and works
in a larger bandwidth owing to its internal feedback circuitry
(Elwenspoek and Wiegerink, 2012). The other type of accelerometer is
based on the principle of the piezoelectric effect. When crystal inside
the accelerometer is pressed or experiences any mechanical pressure,
the charges stored inside the crystal begin to move and charges of op-
posite polarity get accumulated to plates. Charges accumulated on the
plates are then amplified by amplifiers and converted into voltage or
current.
N. Singh and A.N. Singh
(a) Movable Mass
Motion
Fixed electrode
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram illustrating the accelerometer working principle based on (a) Capacitive type, (b) Piezoelectric type.
There are few other types of accelerometer available in the market
which are less common for instance; Hall effect-based (Chen et al.,
2017) which works on measurements of variations in the voltage in-
duced by a nearby magnetic field, the piezoresistive type is also known
as strain-gauge type that works by measuring the variations in electrical
resistance inside a material on application of mechanical stress, and
another one is based on measuring the heat changes in equally spaced
thermoresistors due to changes in acceleration and such accelerometers
are known as heat transfer accelerometers. The list of accelerometers
does not end here and few others are optical (Li et al., 2018; Rong et al.,
2017), surface acoustic wave (SAW) (Shevchenko et al., 2018), re-
sonance (Wang et al., 2018b), strain (Knapp et al., 1998), servo type,
and null balance type. Accelerometers have wide applications in the
fields of detection of vibrations in electric machines, health monitoring
of machines, navigation systems, fault detections in machines, flight
stability measurements in drones, understanding the behavioral pat-
terns in biological systems by measuring the biaxial and triaxial ac-
celerations, remote sensing applications in volcano predictions, posi-
tioning of mobile phones, tilting trains, rollers, camcorders and laptops
and many innumerable field yet to explore.
A newly emerging field where accelerometer can prove to be a boon
is agriculture and forestry: the development of tilt sensors based smart
agriculture is need of the day. The shortfalls in the agricultural products
raise severe concern to raise the standards of productivity to satisfy the
growing populations. Pressure on agriculture field productions is in-
creasing day by day as to reduce the amounts of harmful pesticides,
increase the environment-friendly agronomical practices, and increase
the production without compromising the yields. The contemporary
sensors deployed in agriculture are based on oil sensors (Pajares et al.,
2013). Oil sensors have their pros and cons. Oils used in these sensors
have an inherent problem of spilling off; they can have a fear of freezing
in icy regions and their viscosity can easily alter by variations in tem-
perature. To avoid such issues, new sensors have been developed over
the past few years and the forthcoming years could experience a vital
revolution in the agriculture sensors, which are temperature in-
dependent and can be used without boundaries experiencing the dif-
ference in temperature. In light of this, wireless sensor networks
(WSNs) (Jawad et al., 2017; Moreno-Moreno et al., 2018), tilt/in-
clination sensors using 3D MEMS (Vázquez-Arellano et al., 2016),
sensors for harvesters (Choi et al., 2014; Rovira-Mas et al., 2007),
sensors for measuring interplant spacing (Saeys et al., 2009), and sen-
sors to monitor the health of soil are just to name a few. There lies an
enormous scope to progress and having gained design experiences from
the past can undoubtedly unfold a new dimension to boost the appli-
cations of sensors in agriculture.
Hereafter, we will focus on the sensors deployed in the advance-
ments of agriculture, discuss their pros and cons, will touch upon few
unmet issues, and will also try to put an unbiased view on the sensors.
As we will proceed in the review, we will also figure out the challenges
lying in the immediate future to the advancements of excellent sensors
toward agriculture developments.
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 171 (2020) 105328
(b) Applied Acceleration (a)
Mass (m)
+ Signal
+++++ + Leads
Piezoelectric Material
3. Sensors in agriculture
In this section, we will focus on the recent developments made in
the direction of agriculture sensors based on their design considera-
tions, applicability, and accuracy. For the sake of simplicity, we bi-
furcate the agriculture sensors based on the agriculture conditions and
agriculture products. In the sections of agriculture conditions, we will
address soil, environment, weed control, seed, seedling, and many other
components, whereas, in the production section, we will be involved in
the discussion on sap flow measurements, fruit diameter determina-
tions, and many other essential aspects. We will also try to understand
their fundamental mechanism, the scope of improvements, and in
summary, future challenges based on our viewpoint and the informa-
tion gained from the published literature toward making efficient and
accurate sensors.
3.1. Agricultural conditions
3.1.1. Soil
Soil constitutes the major parameter in agriculture as it determines
the productivity of the crop and yields. It is a vital component; thus,
extensive care must be taken to study and analyze it thoroughly. There
exists a one-to-one relationship between crop productivity and pH of
soil. No other parameter than pH of the soil which controls numerous
other factors that determines the productivity of agricultural fields. The
pH of the soil controls and determines the conductivity and moisture
content of the soil. Various crops require different degrees of pH for
their growth, so pH control of the soil is crucial to control and achieve
desired productivity from the per hectare of the agricultural land. To
measure the moisture content of the soil, a device extensively used is
known as single/dual-probe heat pulse (SPHP/DPHP) (Bilskie et al.,
1998; Bristow et al., 2001; Bristow et al., 1994a; Bristow et al., 1994b;
Campbell et al., 1991; Ham and Benson, 2004; Heitman et al., 2007;
Ren et al., 1999). The same instrument is also deployed to measure the
electrical conductivity in soil (Mori et al., 2003; Mortensen et al.,
2006). Measuring pH effectively allows determining the content of
acidic and basic nature of the soil. Precise measurement of acidity/
basicity of soil is important as it controls the basic reactions undergoing
in the plant such as photosynthesis, fertilizations via pollinations, and
various kinds of disease (Palaparthy et al., 2013). Recently, it was re-
ported that few polymer materials sensitive to pH can be considered as
an effective measure to measure the pH of the soil (Palaparthy et al.,
2013). The changes in chemical and physical properties of the polymer
material are then converted into stress inside the MEMS device. To
effectively measure the soil moisture content, a silicon-based DPHP
method was adopted (Valente et al., 2004). This method is based on the
application of heat pulse for a stipulated period of time (Fig. 3a). The
maximum rise in temperature is measured by a probe kept in proximity
to the heat source Fig. 3b. These short duration pulse of heat causes a
delay in time at which the maximum amount of temperature changes is
obtained. The rise in temperature is used to determine the volumetric
heat capacity and which in turn used to estimate the amount of water
3
N. Singh and A.N. Singh
Fig. 3. (a) The schematic diagram of soil moisture sensor with major components shown. (b) Temperature-time profile for different pulsed line sources. Images
adapted from Valente et al. (2004). Results obtained after moisture test obtained at (c) 25 °C, (d) 40 °C (e) A comparative study of MEMS and cyclic test regime. (f)
The hysteresis curve of a typical MEMS sensors. Images adapted from Jackson et al. (2008).
content of the soil. To measure the amount of relative humidity (RH) of
soil where the measuring probes are subjected to a constant tempera-
ture of 25 and 40 °C (Fig. 3 c, d) (Jackson et al., 2008). Subsequently,
the RH is increased from 0.5 to 90% and then kept steady over 10 h and
then followed back in the same way to reach 0.5% RH. Fig. 3e shows
the responses of RH recovery time and repeatability cycled over at a
constant temperature of 35 °C. It can be clearly seen from Fig. 3c, d, and
e that MEMS devices closely follow the RH regime cycles. A stark
contrast can also be seen after 4 h in Fig. 3d which makes it necessary to
incorporate the effect of temperature in the sensor response. Fig. 3e
shows a combined plot of MEMS and RH where the effect of the RH
regime is evident. MEMS shows better recovery and repeatability de-
cisive of its robustness, preciseness, and versatility to operate in a broad
temperature range. Voltage hysteresis plot is a trusted and reliable way
to determine the ability of a sensor device toward data repeatability. A
linear relationship between RH and sensor output (Fig. 3f) justifies
precision in MEMS devices applied in soil moisture measurements.
Recent innovations and developments in the field of nanotechnology
devices propel its application in MEMS device fabrication. In-
corporating the benefits of nanotechnology for instances: compactness,
precision, lower delay time, and low voltage hysteresis in MEMS allow
them to better and quickly respond to the rapidly changing environ-
ments via inherently deployed a microcircuit control in them (Jaeger,
1987; Madou, 2011; Wolffenbuttel, 1996). Modern MEMS-based de-
vices are better arsenal with signal processing capability, computational
feasibility, and combined with many other versatile non-electrical ele-
ments (Charlot et al., 2001; Colclaser, 1980) for precise, accurate, and
reproducible data outputs. In another effort toward soil moisture
measurements, a conductive polymer-based microsensor is developed
(Liu et al., 2008). Microsensor consisting of conducting polymer poly
(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PDOT-PSS) is
used to determine the moisture content of the soil by variations in
electrical sheet resistance of the polymer films. The plot of change in
sheet resistance of polymer films against % RH is a useful technique to
determine the moisture content of the soil indirectly. The increase in
resistance due to an increase in moisture content is reflected in a de-
crease in conductivity. This technique is used to measure the amount of
4
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 171 (2020) 105328
gravimetric water content in highly plastic soils which find wide ap-
plicability in geological studies. The increase in resistance of PDOT-PSS
polymeric sheet, when exposed to environments with moisture con-
tents > 70% RH, is reflected in an OH and CH stretch between 3000
and 3700 cm−1 and 2850 and 2980 cm−1, respectively as measured
from ATR-IR. The following mechanism can explain the increase in the
resistance of the conducting polymeric sheet on exposure to high
moisture content environment. The absorbed water molecules on the
surface of the conducting polymers initiate a state of dipole which re-
duces the amount of effective carrier mobilities. Since water molecules
behave as a source of large molecular dipole center, the intersite dis-
tance increases, which leads to augment in longer hoping distances
resulting a decrease in conductivity of the polymer sheet (Crispin et al.,
2003). This conducting polymer sheets demonstrated excellent sensi-
tivity, response time, and repeatability. In another effort to measure the
moisture content of the soil, conducting polyamide fibers were in-
corporated inside the aqueous dispersion of PDOT-PSS (Daoud et al.,
2005). This conducting polymer showed sensitivity to the variations in
the humidity and temperature fluctuations in the soil environments.
These devices are fabricated in conjunction with a Nafion overlayer
(Nilsson et al., 2002) and work on the mechanism of change in specific
resistance owing to change in external conditions, for instance, a
change in strain, temperature, or humidity. When these devices are
used as a humidity sensor, the change in Nafion conductivity due to
exposure to the moisture environments stands as the basis of the
moisture sensing concept. As explained earlier for bare PDOT-PSS, the
water molecules get absorbed on the polymer layer (Hoshino et al.,
2004) and in this case Nafion and change the electrical characteristic of
the sheet. Water having a large dipole moment creates holes in the
proximity to the polymer when it gets absorbed on the polymer or
Nafion sheets. But quite contrary to the previously explained that re-
sistance of PDOT-PSS increases due to an increase in humidity, the
resistance, in this case, decreases considerably. The decrease in the
resistance is attributed to the beneficial effect of surface encapsulation
and water molecule absorbed on the surface creates a large charge
density and thus increases the conductivity of the polymer sheet. This
coating offers a better reproducibility, an excellent response to the
N. Singh and A.N. Singh
variations in the environmental changes, and the humidity sensing
range has been considerably effective even in the ranges of 25–95 %
RH. This surface coating can also be functionalized to utilize as various
sensing environments.
Another important parameter that significantly assists in im-
plementing precision agriculture is water flux density (WFD: J) (Kamai
et al., 2008; Ren et al., 2000). WFD is an important parameter to
evaluate the transport properties of soil and accurate measurements
would assist in a better understanding of soil capabilities during ex-
treme conditions. The heat pulse probe (HPP) (Ravazzani, 2017) tech-
nique is based on transient methods of measuring soil thermal and
many other wide-ranging properties in lab and field conditions (He
et al., 2018). HPP also has its different variants like dual-probe heat
pulse (DPHP) and single-probe heat pulse (SPHP); however, in prin-
ciple, all work on the same science. This technique is based primarily on
measuring the soil's thermal response at a certain distance against a
heat pulse introduced by the heat probe (Kamai et al., 2015). A set of 10
data points are obtained in the range of 10–1000 cm d−1 against
temperature difference in the needles measured at upstream and
downstream (ΔTud). The DPHP consists of two probes/senors known as
a heat probe and temperature probes. The results obtained from the
measurements are fitted to a temperature response data and heat
transfer model (Basinger et al., 2003). Without going into the complex
mathematics of fitting curves and “open hardware philosophy”
(Ravazzani, 2017) we present very refined yet beneficial mathematical
formulations to establish a relationship between J and various other
thermal properties of soil is formulated as:
C
J= Vh
Cw (1)
where J is water flux density, C is bulk volumetric heat capacity (J m−3
°C−1), Cw is volumetric heat capacity (J m−3 °C−1), and Vh denotes the
heat pulse velocity (m s−1).
The precision and accuracy of the DPHP can be enhanced by the
application of open hardware philosophy, which allows access to better
and improved hardware design and their codes in parallel to “open
source software” (Agudo et al., 2014; Fisher and Gould, 2012). In this
direction, based on the philosophy of open hardware, improved,
Fig. 4. Schematic diagram showing the flow of information from the field to the end-users over various available telecommunication modes. Adapted from Masseroni
et al. (2016) with permission from Willey (Copyright 2016).
5
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 171 (2020) 105328
sustainable soil irrigation, and monitoring system was built (Masseroni
et al., 2016) shown in Fig. 4. These techniques are benefited from
several factors by having open hardware and software capability. In the
very preliminary step 1: it consists of the Arduino board and Micro-SD
shield at the workstation. The schematic diagram of the workflow
clearly reveals that the data is manually downloaded into a PC in the
desired format, which was originally stored in a Micro-SD card. Then
the data via internet were stored to web-server. In step 2; the field data
were also sent to the web server via a global system for mobile (GSM)
communication module. In step 3; the users were informed through a
set of communication device for instance; mobiles, pagers, tablets, and
portable PCs.
This open-hardware philosophy has several advantages as the
double data storage obtained from the field ensures safety against any
theft or loss. The other very crucial benefit of having data over the
server is their full accessibility from the authorized persons.
Information delivery over mobile devices also makes the data quick and
hassle-free. This ad hoc stand-alone platform system has several other
commercial and economic benefits. Undoubtedly, the user must rely on
external enterprises to design their system efficiently and theft-proof;
this also brings new work sectors for small enterprises with skilled
workers in computers, experts in system software, and hardware, si-
multaneously lowering down the prices to the end-users.
Electrical conductivity is yet another vital aspect that must be
considered to understand the complete behavior of soil. In addition to
the thermal, water content flux density, and pH, electrical conductivity
(EC) plays a decisive role in administering the overall productivity of
the soil. Efforts can also be made to design probes and sensors that can
perform multiple tasks in one go, which will reduce the cost of devel-
oping separate tools for individual parameter measurements and will
also assist in miniaturizations of the electronic devices. In this direction,
a multifunctional probe for simultaneous measurements of soil thermal,
water, and electrical conductivity measurements has been developed
(Valente et al., 2006). The designing of the multiprobe system un-
doubtedly requires high skill and is a herculean task, and discussion of
all those that detail is beyond the scope of the present review, yet we
will pinpoint the critical aspects that assist in EC measurements. EC
measurement is achieved via a Wenner array ring (Umar, 2018; Zhu
N. Singh and A.N. Singh Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 171 (2020) 105328

Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of (a) multifunctional probe, (b) Wenner array. Images adapted from Valente et al. (2006) with permission from Elsevier Copyright
(2006).

et al., 2007), consisting of four parallel ring electrodes that are engaged variety of inhabitants on the sphere of the earth for instance; metabolic
in measuring the electrical resistivity, which indirectly also estimates activities in human beings, photosynthesis in plants, the sun warms our
the soil EC. It is to note here from fundamental physics that an inverse ocean, stirs our atmosphere, and gives energy to green plants that
relationship exists between electrical conductivity and resistivity. Thus, provide food and energy to sustain life on the earth. As stated earlier
the EC (σs) measured by Wenner array is formulated, as shown in Fig. 5. that radiations from the sun are electromagnetic waves, but we only are
and represented by: benefitted from ultraviolet (UV), visible, and infrared (IR) spectrum
(Wondraczek et al., 2015). To our interest, we focus on the electro-
1 I
σs = magnetic spectrum ranging from 400 to 700 nm only. This range is also
2κπ VMN (2)
known as the visible range/photosynthetically active radiation (PAR)
where I (A) is the current source, VMN is the measured voltage across (Singh et al., 2008) and a range responsible for photosynthesis to occur
the two inner electrodes M and N, and 1/2Кπ (m−1) is a cell constant inside the green plants (Kadam et al., 2018). A photodiode is a device
used to measure the light in the visible spectrum and convert it into
(
1 1
) ( 1
)
1
with 1/К = [ AM − BM − AN − BN ]; with a particular case in
electricity. Several semiconductors materials are engaged in photo-
Wenner array with К = a resulting cell constant into 1/2Кa.
diodes; the prominent ones are silicon (Si) (Li et al., 2016), germanium
Few facts about soil must be considered while designing the mul-
on silicon (Michel et al., 2010), selenium (Se), sulfides of cadmium (Pei
tiple probes, firstly soil behaves as a capacitor (Gao et al., 2018) and
et al., 2016), lead, and bimetallic phosphides. Of these, Si and GaAsP
thus, the associated phenomenon is dielectric and secondly, it also acts
(Butera et al., 2017) are the most prominent ones and widely deployed
as a conductor thus the phenomenon of conductivity (Hazreek et al.,
in photodiodes. The ideal responses of all the visible range sensors
2015) of the soil must be accounted. To cater to these things and to
having optical filters embedded in them look alike, as shown in Fig. 6.
satisfactorily measure the EC of soil, a sinusoidal current source must be
In a recent study, a PAR sensor is developed cost-effectively and effi-
used to involve the interactions of conductive and capacitive behavior
ciently to measure the light intensity even in forest canopies (Caya
of soil. An alternative to this, a scaled current mirror can also be used to
et al., 2018). This PAR sensor is developed based on an array of silicon
generate a sinusoidal wave. Peak detectors measure the voltage drop
across two inner electrodes. The obtained voltage is then converted to a
digital converter through an analog-to-digital (ADC) converter.

3.1.2. Environments
One of the substantial aspects that control the productivity of the
farmland is the environmental factors; thus, it becomes imperative to
precisely measure and control them to obtain a better yield. Measuring
several intriguing factors, for instance, solar radiation, wind velocity,
air temperature, air humidity, and wind directions, etc. require precise
technology, which is expensive and is bound to increase the agricultural
investments. Thus, ultimately care must be given to technologies that
are cost-effective yet very precise to serve farmers' purpose with a
minute tradeoff in their productivity.
Solar radiation is an abundant source of heat and energy to life on
earth and energy for photosynthesis. The solar energy from the sun is
received in the form of electromagnetic waves which is then used by a Fig. 6. The ideal response of all visible range sensors.

6
N. Singh and A.N. Singh
photodiodes kept in an 8 mm enclosed casing coated with an IR
blocking filter. The developed PAR sensor has a correction coefficient of
0.99 (close to 1 indicates a positive correlation coefficient). This PAR
sensor also has a data logger in it to integrate agriculture data. The
other factor that boosts its commercial viability is its capability to test
and calibrate the proposed system along with the data storage cap-
ability enhances its broader applicability and commercialization. The
absolute difference error between commercial PAR and the proposed
PAR lies in the range of ± 4.7%. There existed a close linear relation-
ship of the fitted data measured from commercial and the proposed PAR
sensor and when the regression coefficient was also analyzed, it re-
vealed that there exists a perfect agreement between the proposed PAR
and the reference PAR sensor (the data was measured against a stan-
dard Apogee SQ-520). The other benefit this PAR sensor had was its
data storage capability which was saved in raspberry pi which can be
further put to display by connecting it to a LCD monitor displaying the
time, date reading obtained from the three photodiodes along with their
average values too. The inbuilt 3 photodiodes Si sensors were also ef-
fective in chopping down any spectrum beyond the visible spectrum.
Wind velocity and its directions are other equally important factors
that must be taken into account while considering the productivity of
agricultural lands. To date, all the sensors engaged in measuring the
wind and wind directions are mechanical in origin and are anemometer
(Pindado et al., 2014) consisting of vanes to detect wind directions and
propeller/cup to measure wind speed. Other sensors belong to the fa-
mily of ultrasonic sensors (Nosov et al., 2019), which operates by
measuring the time taken between two pulses of a transducer. The time
taken depends upon wind velocity along the axis of transducer, speed of
sound, and the distance between the pair of the transducer. A 3-di-
mension (3D) wind velocity, along with its direction, can be measured
by arranging a set of 3 transducers on all the 3-axis (Cuerva and Sanz-
Andrés, 2000; Yakunin, 2017). A practical alternative to the mechanical
anemometer is ultrasonic sensors, which are not only quick, reliable,
and robust but also portable with the only cost being slightly higher
than the mechanical sensors. However, modern progress in MEMS
technology has boosted rapid growth and advancements in this tech-
nology and can give tough challenges to the developments of ultrasonic
sensors. MEMS-based sensors enjoy being very cost-effective, miniature,
and lightweight. To measure wind speed, cantilever based MEMS sen-
sors are developed which usually bends in relation to wind velocity.
MEMS-based wind sensors are based on the principle of thermal or
mechanical principle. In thermal sensors engaged in wind velocity
monitoring, a heated element is exposed to air and the wind velocity is
obtained about the amount of heat loss. A set of temperature sensors
and heat elements can be systematically arranged to measure wind
velocity and direction simultaneously. Advanced MEMS-based minia-
turized wind sensors consume very low power and thus are fierce
competitors to other sensors commercially available sensors. In this
direction, an octagon-shaped wind sensor is recently developed with
better accuracy and precision (Ye et al., 2018). This newly developed
octagon-shaped wind sensor consists of 16 resistors perfectly divided
into saltire and cross-type groups. Both groups work independently, and
the measured wind velocity and direction are collected independently
and analyzed and compared with the real experiments. It is surprisingly
found that even with high wind speed, the error level is less than ± 1%
and with wind direction measurement capability of 360°, there is just
an error of less than ± 1.5°. This high accuracy in the proposed 2D
octagon based MEMS sensors is ascribed to following key factors: (1)
the other sensor engaged in wind velocity/direction measurements re-
lies on the suppression of unwanted heat generation/conduction
whereas in the present sensor the skillfully designed octagon-shaped
sensing schemes further improves the accuracy. (2) These independent
groups allow a greater accuracy on the obtained wind direction/velo-
city measurements. As the final obtained wind direction/velocity is an
average of two sets of data thus error is minimized. (3) the two-step
MEMS lift-off process used in sensor fabrication on a ceramic substrate
7
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 171 (2020) 105328
is highly accurate and provides better reliable data than the con-
temporary sensors engaged in the wind velocity/direction measure-
ments. Thermal wind sensors are further divided into two major cate-
gories: in-plane and out-of-plane where sensor element is placed inside
the substrate surface and the airflow is in-plane and the sensor is kept
perpendicular to the substrate and airflow is out of plane (Yang et al.,
2015). The inherent design of out-of-plane thermal sensors allows its
exposure to higher flow speed, thus enhancing its performances over
inflow thermal wind sensors.
Air humidity is yet another aspect that must be considered while
designing the MEMS sensor for agriculture. Humidity sensors are
widely used in pharmaceutical, electronics, biomedical, semiconductor,
metrology, and agriculture (Farahani et al., 2014). Based on the design
consideration, they are primarily characterized into resistive, capaci-
tive, hygrometric, optical, gravimetric types (Ahmad et al., 2017), and
positive impedance humidity sensor types (Qian et al., 2016). Each
sensor is fastened with its pros and cons for instances; the resistive type
collects information about air humidity by recording the changes in
electrical conductivity/resistivity, it has a prompt response, easy to
fabricate, and often has high sensitivity, whereas a capacitive type
humidity sensors rely on the linear change in the dielectric constants in
relation to changes in surrounding humidity, it has advantages of low
power consumption and has condensation tolerance (Ahmad et al.,
2008), a hygrometric type receives a transduction of change in air
humidity by relative changes in their mechanical domain, to measure
the amount of moisture in the surrounding environments, a gravimetric
type relies on the changes in its thin plates of piezoelectric quartz
crystal framework, whereas in optical type, the absorption wavelength
of water becomes the decisive factor in judging the amount of water
present in the air. To effectively measure the amount of humidity in the
environments, a recent study reported that an integrated capacitive and
resistive approach based on organic nickel phthalocyanine (NiPc) is
effective even in the 35–95 and 35–75% relative humidity (RH) for
capacitive and resistive type humidity sensor, respectively (Ahmad
et al., 2017). This NiPc belongs to an organic semiconductor type hu-
midity sensor attracting several befits like eco-benign, economical and
displays a more straightforward fabrication pathway. Sensing humidity
via organic semiconductor sensing devices proceeds via a two-step
pathway. The first transduction steps initiate when water vapor ad-
sorbed/condense on the sensing layer, followed by the second step
where these adsorbed water vapors are allowed to change a certain
specific electrical property of the organic film and the changed elec-
trical property of the film is measured to conclude the surrounding
humidity. The humidity sensors were fabricated in planar type config-
uration onto a glass substrate with silver electrodes denoted as Ag/
NiPc/Ag as shown in Fig. 7 a. The results obtained from the fabricated
humidity sensors in the RH of 35–95% for capacitive are shown in Fig. 7
b. The capacitance value increased from 19 to 10,191 pF with an in-
crease in RH from 35 to 95% resulting in a reduction in sensitivity as
evident from inset. Earlier studies with polyimide well support the
decline in sensitivity due to the increase in the thickness of humidity
(Harrey et al., 2002). The reduction in sensitivity is ascribed to change
in dielectric constant values of films on adsorption of water droplets in
the pores and thus the capacitance of the sensor increases. Inset of Fig. 7
b. also shows the temperature variations of capacitance which show a
positive increment with the increase in temperature. An increase in
temperature cause polarization of free charges thus increases the ca-
pacitance values. Fig. 7 c shows the resistance relationship between
resistivity and RH. The results were obtained by varying RH in between
35 and 75 % and it is conclusive that the resistance declines with an
increase in RH. This behavior is ascribed to the adsorption of water
molecules in the pores and it boosts the charge carrier capacity by
acting as a dopant. In another aspect, it is also believed that the ad-
sorbed water molecules may dissociate into ions and charges that may
additionally increase the conductivity. Thus, change is resistivity is a
combined effect of ions and electronic conductions. We can also
N. Singh and A.N. Singh Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 171 (2020) 105328

Fig. 7. The schematic representation and humidity measurements by integrated capacitive and resistive humidity sensor (a) molecular structures of NiPc and the
fabrication process of the proposed humidity sensor. (b) Capacitance vs humidity relationship shown for Ag/NiPc(100 nm)/Ag sensor. (c) Resistive vs humidity
relationship shown for Ag/NiPc/Ag sensor. (Rs being the surface resistance and Rsh1 and Rsh2 being two shunt resistance added when surface adsorbs plenty of
water vapors). (d) Capacitive response time obtained for Ag/NiPc/Ag sensor with inset showing the similar response time obtained for resistive type sensor. Images
adapted from Ahmad et al. (2017) with permission from ESG Copyright (2017).

understand the variations in resistance due to humidity in the following
way. Equivalent circuit shown in inset of Fig. 7b shows that as the re-
sistance of NiPc layer increases it can be equivalently represented as
two shunt resistance (Rsh1 and Rsh2) knowing the fact that resistance (R)
and length (l) of a conductor bears an inverse relationship with area (A)
and conductivity (σ) as related by:
R = l/ σA
Furthermore, it is also obvious that during excessive adsorption of
water vapor on the surface, Rsh1 + Rsh2 ≫ Rs. To further characterize
the fabricated humidity sensor, it was operated in the capacitive mode
and its response time was measured as shown in Fig. 7 d. In this ex-
periment, the adsorption and desorption were conducted to reveal the
response time of the organic NiPc film. The response and recovery time
from 40 to 90 % RH was 10 and 6 s, respectively. Inset shows the re-
sponse time of the sensor operated in the resistive mode with response
and recovery time with 35–75% RH was 8 and 4 s, respectively. Thus, it
is evident that the response time obtained from the resistive sensor is
better than the capacitive type sensor.
The response time comparison of resistive and capacitive type sen-
sors is debatable, as a recent report suggested that a quick response
obtained in capacitive sensors has its origin in their small hysteresis
curves evident from ZnO nanopowders/PVP-rGO layers (Yang et al.,
2017). In another report on the mechanism of numerous sensors and
their detailed comparison, the author tried to put a win-win situation
for all the sensors leaving it up to end-user to decide (Farahani et al.,
2014). Many at times, end users are mainly interested in low-cost
sensors fabrication pathways with a slight tradeoff between sensitivity
and price. In that situation, resistive type or ceramic type (Pandey et al.,
2012) sensors are ideal members. Despite detailed discussions on all the
sensors available in the market, they finally concluded that resistive
and capacitive type humidity sensors are the obvious choice of end-
users due to their low cost, straightforward architecture, adaptability to
various kinds of electrical/electronic circuits, and ease of fabricability.
Rapid developments in electronics and semiconducting industries have
revolutionized the extensive use of semiconducting based humidity
sensors owing to their much-reduced price with acceptable sensitivity
and sensing features. Eventually, we leave this discussion at the mo-
ment for the future work and development of a few other research
outputs which can bring further insights into this arena.
3.2. Agricultural products
The automated system of monitoring to the plant growths would
foster greater opportunities in the field of optimal growth of plants in
concern to varying climatic changes (Bhosale and Sonavane, 2016;
Bleyaert et al., 2012; Janpla et al., 2019). These become even more
important in the case of ornamental plants (Ubudi et al., 2017), com-
mercial plantations (Lakhiar et al., 2018), measuring the well-growing
health of crops (Chen et al., 2016). It is to be noted that to monitor
different types of vegetation a set of different monitoring systems are
required, for instances; sap flow gauges to monitor sap flow, to monitor
fluctuations in stem diameter and to measure moistures on leaves a
displacement transducer is often engaged (Rascio et al., 2019; Steppe
and Lemeur, 2004).
3.2.1. Agricultural crops
Crops are the backbone of a growing economy (Qadri, 2018) and a

8
N. Singh and A.N. Singh
developing nation's progress entirely depends upon it. However, with
the progress of time and sensing the accelerated pace of population
explosions in some countries of Asia and African countries, it is urgently
needed that the traditional method of farming must be upgraded (Singh
and Singh, 2017). The progress in agriculture has witnessed a very
steady growth in the past few decades, whereas few other sectors, for
instance, science and technology (Council, 2007), electronics, semi-
conductors, telecommunications, and mass transportation has wit-
nessed unprecedented developments; the reason is not far to seek.
Agriculture and its products are widely affected by climatic changes
and agricultural food products have continued to decline since years
past (Bandara and Cai, 2014; Tripathi et al., 2016). The situation is
further aggravated by a recent report that the population is expected to
reach a high of 9.5 billion by 2050 (Godfray et al., 2010). The popu-
lation expansion has a detrimental effect on the all-round development
of a nation and the entire human civilization on the sphere of the earth
(Ehrlich and Holdren, 1971; Josephson et al., 2014; Zahid et al., 2016).
Thus care must be taken to curb it as soon as possible at the same time
technologies must evolve to increase the agricultural productivity to
meet the existing populations to lift their social status and decrease the
amount of deep-rooted malnutrition among the masses (Pierik et al.,
2017; Roberts et al., 2019). Though this review aims at the MEMS
devices engaged in agriculture, certain aspects cannot be discarded as
they are somewhere directly/indirectly connected with agriculture or
agricultural products. To monitor the agricultural products from a plant
or vegetation, it is of utmost importance that crop or plant itself grows
very healthy. To monitor a well-growing plant, it is highly desirable to
measure growth of its stem, as the stem is a responsible factor to
transport the minerals and water to the leaves where they are converted
to usable products from the process of photosynthesis occurring inside
the leaves and then again transporting them to all the part of the plants
(Serrano-Mislata and Sablowski, 2018). In order to monitor the good
growth of a stem, their incremental growth can be monitored by a
displacement sensor placed around a cuff placed around the stem.
Diameter Dendrometer small (DDS) (Anemaet and Middleton, 2013;
Drew and Downes, 2009) is a specially designed instrument to measure
the growth or expansion of small trees. Dendrometers are available in
different classes: radial class are used to measure the radius of the stem,
point type also known as diametral type are used around the cir-
cumference of the stem at a certain height or across the diameter of the
stem and the third class consists of the band type or circumferential
types as the name suggests are used around the circumference of the
stem at a particular height (Sevanto, 2003). When using such a high
precision measuring device, care must be taken to capture data without
any biases or inaccuracy as even a small inaccuracy would lead to
humongous error in data. The external factors like temperature can
greatly play with the precision of dendrometer so temperature correc-
tion must be made in band type instruments. A study on dendrometers
revealed this fact that several other environmental factors must be
considered during the data acquisition of stem growth monitor by
dendrometers. Fig. 8 shows a recent study on the influence of en-
vironmental aspects like wind on the growth of vessel size (Downes and
Drew, 2008). On a spatial scale, it is but obvious that the stems growth
can be monitored as a uniform growth; eventually, if they are mapped
on a temporal time scale, their growth and other environmental vari-
able properties can be monitored at a very high-resolution and data can
be more reliably collected with high precision. This technique is ex-
tensively used in the laboratory to obtain very high-resolution data with
the assistance of lasers (Dünisch et al., 2002). The data measurements
become even more complicated in diffused porous species like eu-
calyptus. In such species, point type dendrometers with the rescale-time
axis is an important tool to acquire data. This technique has a benefit
that a point can be marked on the stem and the growth pattern can be
measured in relation to that point and at later point of time these
growth factors can be related to the properties of wood that actually
contributed to the growth. However, there are also some associated
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Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 171 (2020) 105328
drawbacks to using these techniques. There are certain changes taking
place in the volume of tissues located outside of the xylem; thus an
external device must also be involved to measure those changes. Other
water-induced changes are occurring inside the plants which are much
more dominant than the growth-induced changes occurring inside the
plants which are arduous to dendrometer to precisely measure the exact
growth time of tissues (Zweifel and Häsler, 2001). In a recent study, it
was found that the actual xylem formation measurement is dubious as
daily precipitations greatly influence the changes in stem size (Mäkinen
et al., 2003). Controversies also grew up against the measurement of
xylem formation measurements to account for the radial growth; in-
stead measurements of the timing of onset of wood should be con-
sidered (Mäkinen et al., 2008). In spite of several raised displeasure
against dendrometer, several groups (Deslauriers et al., 2007; Downes
et al., 1999) support the continued use of this with a focus on receiving
a very high-resolution data and this is indeed a pathway to get insight
into xylem growth mechanism and cambial activity. The importance of
this technique is illustrated in a study where stored carbon in the
cambial zone or remains dormant in any other tissues is inducted by
water-stress, which reflects in a linear relationship between growth,
availability in soil water and Carbon-13 can only be achieved by this
method. (Drew et al., 2009)
Moving from stem to the fruit width measurements. It is often de-
sirable to monitor the continuous growth of fruits is an orchards or in
the vineyard. Cost-effective devices must be developed, which could
precisely measure the continual growth of the fruits. A recent study in
this direction has shown to develop very accurate, continuous mon-
itoring of fruit diameter, and yet cost-effective (Morandi et al., 2007).
This fruit gauge constitutes a linear potentiometer added with a data
logger, which provides the facility of continuous measurements of fruit
diameters. This is also arsenal with customized stainless steel (SS)
structures to adjust to any shape of the fruits. The measuring gauge is
an electronic sensor that resembles the one shown in Fig. 9. It consists
of a metal plunger with Aluminum disc and it is made to touch the
cheek of the desired fruit to be measured. The growth in fruit diameter
is marked/recorded by sensor output in relationship to equivalent dis-
tance traveled the plunger spring holding the fruit.
Another aspect that must be looked upon for metered vegetation
wetting is the measurement of leaf wetness. Leaf wetness measurement
sensors measure the amount of moisture present on the leaf surface and
help in predicting a suitable time for a particular plantation. These
sensors mainly consist of a gold plated circuit whose resistance varies in
relation to the adsorbed moisture on the sensing surface (Hornero et al.,
2017; Sentelhas et al., 2004a; Sentelhas et al., 2004b). It is essential to
notice at this stage that techniques that involve the change in resistance
or that use heat as a means and methods to measure the changes in
agricultural products put a restriction on MEMS-based devices due to
dimensions involved. To measure wetness in leaf, cost-effectively and
precisely, a novel device has been developed (Hornero et al., 2017). The
leaf wetness sensors (LWSs) is based on the principle that a change/
variation in electrical resistance bears a direct relationship to the
amount of water vapor-deposited on the sensing surface. In this study,
an electronic interface circuit (EIC) controlled by a microcontroller unit
(MCU), which gives it communication and computational capabilities
often absent in conventional LWSs and is based on the capacitive sen-
sing method to detect the surface moisture of leaves. A capacitive LWSs
relies greatly on high dielectric values (ɛr :80) in relation to the low
dielectric value of fiberglass (ɛr :3–6). The proposed sensors have a
rectangular (RECT) and oval (OVAL) shape benefitting it to achieve
better sensitivity than convention LWSs which has limitations due to its
shape, size, and materials used in it. The efficiency of a deployed sensor
also relies on the proper orientation of the sensors. Overall, there are
several parameter settings before installing a particular sensor to obtain
a desired and reliable output. Sensors that use additional MCU though
become a little complex but they offer additional benefits in terms of
sensitivity, accuracy, and offer facilities like data log where onsite data
N. Singh and A.N. Singh Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 171 (2020) 105328

Fig. 8. Mapping the measured data and rescaling it to time axis to obtain very high-resolution data to monitor actual stem growth inclusive of external effects. To
precisely obtain data point type dendrometers are used. (a) Automated dendrometers are engaged to measure pitch-to-bark stem growth which can be related to a
distinct period of growth. (b) Radial stem growth monitored on time-axis indicating the time of formations. (c) Radial stem growth rescaled to a distance axis. (d)
Distance-based measurements os stem growth can be mapped to a time-based axis. Images adapted from Downes and Drew (2008) with permission from Taylor and
Francis Copyright (2008).

can be stored and reused/used later for analysis. The presence of MCU Table 1
in the circuit also provides the benefit of direct data conversion from Response of artificial leaves connected to EIC w.r.to Model B. (Model A and
analog to digital converter without an additional ADC converter that Model B are rain and LWSs sensors, respectively) (Hornero et al., 2017).
additionally reduces their cost. The sensors having RECT and OVAL Sensor type Dry (V) 100% wet (V) ΔV (V) S (V/ml)
shape behave differently when exposed to wet and dry conditions.
Though both gave a continued response by the immediate change in RECT 0.0 1.5 1.5 1.5
OVAL 0.0 1.4 1.4 0.7
impedance when wetted but their dry rate was different. The response
Model A 0.1 0.9 0.8 0.6
of three proposed sensors compared to Model B are tabulated in Model B 0.0 0.5 0.5 0.2
Table 1. It is evident from the table that output voltage, as well as
sensitivity obtained from the RECT and OVAL shape artificial leaves,
exceeds the Model B. RECT and OVAL shape both provide a similar broad categories based on the general methods adapted to measure sap
response to voltage output but their sensitivity differs by 47%. Thus, it flow, namely the trunk sector (Kučera and Urban, 2012; Trcala and
can be summarized that though the shape and size of the sensor ma- Cermák, 2012) and stem heat balance (Langensiepen et al., 2014). It is
terial have a huge role to play in humidity detection on the surface of also true that over time different theories have evolved, giving better
the leaves. insights into the working principle and thus, it becomes imperative to
Sap flow measurement is a process by which water uptake in the discuss them, in brief, the latest accepted principle of working in these
plant can be measured. This is also a process by which the hydraulic two broad categories. Trunk heat balance (THB) methods in its original
state of a plant can be measured (Steppe et al., 2015). Understanding idea worked upon heating trunk by insertion of two metal electrodes
the movements of sap through a plant can be a strong platform to inside the tree trunk, but this idea lacked to incorporate the funda-
predict the growth of a plant in a given environment. There are a mental concept of energy distribution when heat flow in a medium. The
variety of sensors engaged in measuring the sap flow and all work on a power field and heat field can give false data on the homogenous dis-
different principle; thus, it is quite challenging to list them all in one tribution of heat and thus, data obtained from heating the trunk by the
place. So, to make them simple to understand, we divide them into two two-electrode system can be questionable. It can also be questionable

Fig. 9. Schematic diagram showing wired con-

nections used in sensors for fruit diameter mea-
surements.

10
N. Singh and A.N. Singh
Fig. 10. (a) SF gauge attached to sunflower plant, (b) Top: Tmax method engaged to measure SF, Bottom; Tmax ratio HP. Images adapted from Miner et al. (2017) with
permission from Elsevier Copyright (2017).
because heat distribution is homogenous in a larger volume rather than
a small volume; following this idea, a three-electrode system was de-
veloped to measure the heat flow inside the trunks. In modern days a SS
electrode is used to directly heat trunk and a needle-type sensor is in-
serted to record the temperature in the slots, thereby minimizing the
errors. In this direction, a recent study on sap flow measurement in corn
and sunflower plantation using the heat pule technique is discussed
(Miner et al., 2017). The use of heat pulse (HP) to measure sap-flow
(SF) has the advantage of using short pulses rather than a continuous
heat source required in the heat balance technique. This study uses a
novel temperature (Tmax) ratio HP method to calculate SF which is
basically a ratio of maximum temperature in downstream to the side of
the heat probe. The measured data in terms of heat velocity (V) must be
converted to mass flow (Kg s−1) to understand the transpiration oc-
curring inside the plant with SP gauge installed on a sunflower plant, as
shown in Fig. 10a. A comparative data obtained by (Tmax) and (Tmax)
ratio HP method is shown in Fig. 10b. To get a better comparison of the
two methods, plants were watered completely and were allowed to dry.
It can be seen from Fig. 10b that Tmax technique convincingly measured
transpiration values better till the sap flow was close to 250 g h−1, but
as soon as the flow rate was more than that it started overestimating the
values and also when the values were very low it failed to resolve those
values, but Tmax ratio HP performed well even at high values and was
able to resolve when the transpiration rate was lower than 250 g h−1.
The high precision of the Tmax ratio HP method is ascribed to its in-
sensitivity to background temperature changes and is not affected by
that whereas Tmax method changes thus it sometimes overestimates
data and underestimates on certain occasions. Tmax ratio HP method is
also sensitive to the geometrical spacing of the probe which allows it to
correctly monitor the sap flow data.
4. Other MEMS sensors
There are several other MEMS-based sensors used in agriculture and
discussing them here in a single review would be an injustice them.
Thus, to have a flavor of their application area and to give the reader a
platform to explore more about them, we will try to introduce a few
prominent ones in this section. A recent study deployed a MEMS-based
sensor to evaluate the force generated by a growing root (Hida et al.,
2014). This device consists of a V-shaped groove to incorporate the
growing root in it, which is a microchannel consisting of poly-
dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) covers and sensing elements. The growing
roots exert stress on the sensor and the sensors deform in compliance to
the root growth. Another MEMS-based sensor widely applauded in the
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Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 171 (2020) 105328
field of agriculture is the climatic condition prediction. A recent study
on prediction of real-time rainfall states that with the use of MEMS and
long short-term memory (LSTM) more accurate, timely, and detailed
description of upcoming rainfall can be achieved (Chao et al., 2018).
Prediction of rainfall is vital to a growing economy, as it has a direct
influence on our ecosystems, water resource management, our agri-
culture (Cramer et al., 2017), causes severe landslides, and every year
damage to life and property in plenty. Thus, extensive measures must
be taken to predict the exact distribution of rainfall so as to prepare well
before time so that such havoc destructions can be avoided. The de-
ployment of artificial intelligence (AI) has also boosted the precise
predictions of rainfall (Yen et al., 2019). MEMS-based sensors suffer
from a stochastic error; thus, it becomes important to integrate LSTM
with MEMS to have additional high time resolution data with better
accuracy in local predictions of rainfall. The marriage of MEMS devices
with modern MCU and other highly sophisticated sensors is bound to
bring more accurate predictions of rainfall and other natural phenom-
enon’s which will assist in giving more time to prepare to the upcoming
agricultural challenges.
5. Outlook and future prospects
The development of a MEMS-based sensor brought a resurgence of
interest in the agriculture sector. MEMS-based sensors allow the man-
ufacturing of economical and effective sensors. From the personal
viewpoints and the status of literature published in this direction up to
now suggests a few hurdles and strategies that must be considered
seriously in the direction of further developments to engage MEMS
sensors in agriculture. The following steps are vital to the realization of
MEMS-based agricultural sensors from lab to land.
The cost of the MEMS sensors is relatively higher than the tradi-
tional sensors, thus in the applicability to the real world agricultural
problem, price should be a major consideration. Therefore, to articulate
the commercialization of MEMS sensors, the price of the devices must
be taken into care that they are reasonable (Ojha et al., 2015).
The power consumption of the device should also be considered
while commercialization. Power utilization of devices deployed in
farmland may consume more power during lousy weather than normal
weather. Thus the battery system should be developed in such a way
that their performances are less affected by the external conditions and
should consume very less power (Müller et al., 2010).
Data logger or storage system is also an important aspect that must
be taken care of to commercialize the MEMS sensors in agriculture. A
humongous amount of data is generated in the agriculture lands; thus,
N. Singh and A.N. Singh
an extensive storage data system must be installed with MEMS devices.
There are also certain aspects like data reliability, sensitivity, data
security, scalability, and data management that must be taken into care
during commercialization. To see MEMS the light of commercialization
or to scale up the from lab-based research to farmland, the above fac-
tors are essential to consider. These factors are not only a guiding tool
but also a data set which a device has to understand for the rapid
growth of its commercialization.
6. Conclusion
In this review, we have tried to accumulate the long journey sensors
have traveled to shape themselves in the form of MEMS-based agri-
cultural sensors. In this review, we put forth an unbiased view on the
conventional and recent sensors being used in the field of agriculture.
At some point of discussion, we have also discussed in parallel about
traditional and modern sensors. This review consolidates a variety of
sensors spanning from soil moisture sensor, air humidity sensor, leaf
moisture, sap flow measurement sensors, rainfall measurements, and
temperature sensors, etc. are to name just a few. After the discussion on
various sensors deployed in agriculture, we analyzed that certain as-
pects need further optimizations to bring it to commercial scale. For
instance, the use of MCU undoubtedly shoots the price, but it brings
additional benefits of reducing the use of ADC converters. Thus, the
choice of specific MEMS sensors relies mainly in hand of end-users with
a certain tradeoff between price and accuracy. This aspect is elaborated
in rain-sensing sensors, where if a certain tradeoff can be accepted, then
the Tmax type of sensor can also be used. We also stress that most of the
MEMS sensors are confined to laboratories and have seen the light of
the sun only till the publications. They need to be commercialized and
would be capable enough to meet the tough challenges of farmland.
Thus, they should be economical, robust, and durable to maximize
farmer investments in buying them.
Finally, we also appreciate that there are few excellent reviews in
this direction, but they lack such a wide enclosure, as we have dis-
cussed. This review not only just discussed the pros and cons of a
particular sensor, unlike the previous reviews, but also paved the way
in the direction to maximize their performances.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our sincere thanks to valued reviewers,
whose feedback and suggestions helped this review to improve its
quality significantly. The author sincerely thanks the various publishing
house for allowing a hassle-free permission process for the figures to be
used in this review.
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