Application of an intelligent dielectric sensor for soil water content, electrical conductivity and temperature

This paper describes prospective applications of an intelligent dielectric sensor for measuring water content, electrical conductivity and temperature in soil. The sensor incorporates an application specific integrated circuit for dielectric measurement. It has an embedded micro-processor which handles calibration, data processing, control and communication as well as rewritable memory for storing calibration data. The sensor can be used in agricultural practices for continuously monitoring water related parameters in soil and growing substrates in which field-busses or digital networks are used to read-out multiple sensors. A prototype of the sensor was tested in a LONWORKS/sup (R)/ network environment.