Real-time paddy grain drying and monitoring system using long range-internet of things

Abstract

Grain drying environmental parameters are an important issue throughout the paddy grain production process. A real-time monitoring system requires rapid, online, and accurate measurement results. In the paddy grain drying process, the heated air velocity, temperature, relative humidity, and moisture content have to be carefully monitored and maintained to ensure product quality and safety. This study aimed to propose a real-time paddy grain drying and monitoring system using a long-range internet of things (LoRa-IoT). The real-time monitoring system consisted of sensors, LoRa, and IoT platforms. The LoRa end node and gateway were utilized as a wireless radio communication platform of IoT for long-distance signal transmission. From the experiment, the gateway received data from the end node at a distance of 2 km with a time on air (ToA) of 981 ms. As a result, the proposed monitoring system succeeded in measuring and recording the heated air velocity, temperature, and relative humidity data during the paddy grain drying process from 25% moisture content down to 14%. Regarding moisture content, the accuracy of real-time monitoring information was confirmed with a direct measurement method, resulting in a root mean square error (RMSE) of 6.17%.