L & M Farm: A Smart Farm based on LoRa & MQTT

Abstract

Smart farms are the future of Agriculture, which are expected to increase productivity with low-cost and high convenience. Nevertheless, farmers are skeptical of running smart farms, due to their expensiveness, inefficient energy consumption, difficult management, and potential data leakage. Many studies suggest using LoRa (Long Range), a type of LPWAN (long power wide area network) technology, which is capable of long-range with economical price and small battery consumption. However, studies overlook on how to transmit data proficiently, safely and assuredly. Therefore, this study proposes L & M Farm, a LoRa and MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport) based smart farm. MQTT is a lightweight messaging protocol that guarantees the reliability and security of data while minimizing the wastage of packet space. The prototype uses two Arduino Boards with Dragino LoRa Hat, in which one is connected to the VH400 soil moisture sensor and DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor, the other connected to a solenoid valve irrigation actuator. Also, there is a Raspberry Pi irrigation node, which uses Open Weather API to get 5 days of weather data. In addition, a web-based application for farmers to conveniently manage the smart farm.