Wireless Sensor Networks for Smart Gardening: ESP-NOW and Blynk IoT Integration for Water and Energy Optimization

Ibrahim A. Ameen and Mustafa A. Al-Sheikh
International Journal of Computational and Electronic Aspects in Engineering
Volume 5: Issue 3, September 2024, pp 101-115

Author's Information
Ibrahim A. Ameen1 and Mustafa A. Al-Sheikh1 
Corresponding Author
1Department of Mobile Communications and Computing, College of Engineering, University of Information Technology and communications, Baghdad, Iraq
Ibrahim.ameen@uoitc.edu.iq
Research Paper -- Peer Research Papered
First online on – 30 September 2024

Open Access article under Creative Commons License

Cite this article –Ibrahim A. Ameen and Mustafa A. Al-Sheikh “Wireless Sensor Networks for Smart Gardening: ESP-NOW and Blynk IoT Integration for Water and Energy Optimization”, International Journal of Computational and Electronic Aspects in Engineering, RAME Publishers, vol. 5, Issue 3, pp. 101-115, 2024.
https://doi.org/10.26706/ijceae.5.3.20240804

Abstract:-
Conventional gardening and farming approaches struggle with freshwater shortage, wasting water and fertilizers, quality of plants, energy, and costs, which are mitigated by employing smart agricultural systems that utilize wireless sensor networks and IoT technologies. A bidirectional wireless sensor network is essential to monitor and control a water management system for medium and large areas of land. Also, the IoT provides the mobility for that smart system by accessing it from anywhere in the world using the internet connectivity. Toward minimizing drawbacks and reinforcing farmers’ efforts to gain optimal results from their gardens and farms. This research aims to investigate the use of ESP-NOW to create a star-topology wireless sensor network that includes four end nodes communicating bi-directionally with a gateway node. Also, this paper discusses the nodes’ energy consumption optimization by applying two operation modes of ESP boards: a fully active mode and a hybrid mode (active and deep sleep). In addition to uploading air temperature and humidity, soil moisture, and light intensity to a Blynk server and controlling four water valves distributed with the nodes. As a result, we implemented Blynk web and mobile dashboards to visualize and control the system. We achieved a manageable irrigation system by setting upper and lower thresholds of soil moisture. Finally, we made the network nodes live eight times longer when we applied the hybrid operating mode instead of fully active mode.
Index Terms:-
Blynk IoT, ESP-NOW, Internet of Things (IoT), Wireless sensor networks, Smart gardening, IoT node energy optimization
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