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Design, Development, and Testing of a Wi-Fi Enabled Minirhizotron for Ag Farms

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

ET Capstone Design Projects

Tagged Division

Engineering Technology Division (ETD)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/47131

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Paper Authors

biography

Reg Recayi Pecen Sam Houston State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-7145-0282

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Dr. Reg Pecen is serving as a Quanta Endowed Professor of Engineering Technology at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. He previously served as a president and professor at North American University; professor and chairs of Electrical Engineering Technology and Graduate Programs in the Department of Technology at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). Dr. Pecen holds M.S. in EE from CU Boulder, and a Ph.D. in EE from Univ. of Wyoming. He is a senior member of IEEE, member of ASEE, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society. Dr Pecen completed FBI Houston Citizens Leadership Academy Program in 2015-16. He successfully completed Fort Bend County Chamber of Commerce Leadership Forum for the class of 2016-17. Dr. Pecen is a recipient of 2010 Diversity Matters Award at UNI for his efforts on promoting diversity and international education. He is also a recipient of 2022 Excellence in Service for the Department of Eng technology at SHSU, 2011 UNI C.A.R.E Sustainability Award for the recognition of applied research and development of renewable energy applications in Iowa. Dr. Pecen was recognized by Iowa Senate on June 22, 2012 for his service to state of Iowa for development of clean and renewable energy and promoting diversity and international education between 1998-2012. He served on multiple U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) FOAs merit project proposal committees since 2013.

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Emily Westerman

biography

Junkun Ma Sam Houston State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-8983-1999

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Dr. Junkun Ma is currently an Associate Professor of Engineering Technology at Sam Houston State University (SHSU). He teaches courses in areas related to product design, manufacturing processes, CAD, and HVAC. His research interests include finite elemen

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biography

Faruk Yildiz Sam Houston State University

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Faruk Yildiz is currently an Associate Professor of
Engineering Technology at Sam Houston State University.
His primary teaching areas are in Electronics,
Computer Aided Design (CAD), and Alternative Energy Systems. Research interests include: low powe

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Autumn Smith-Herron Sam Houston State University

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Abstract

The real-time monitoring and control systems for the plant roots, mycorrhizal dynamics and their related plants and ecosystem processes are defined as minirhizotron modules, and they have become key tools for non-destructive investigation of plant roots specifically in the major agricultural farmlands. Facilitating minirhizotron camera systems-based proactive detection and elimination of potential cyst nematode infestation may avoid jeopardize of entire multi-million dollars crop fields. Real-time monitoring and recording of the images of living roots, mycorrhizal hyphae, soil fauna and invasive beetles over the course of a day, a crop cycle or even multiple seasons help reduce potential destruction of farmlands especially in the southern U.S. states. This applied senior design project with multi-disciplinary STEM faculty and undergraduate engineering technology and computer science students with funding from the USDA aims to design, develop, and test a cost-effective smart minirhizotron module for agricultural use in the field. This minirhizotron takes pictures of nursery crop roots, providing early detection of cyst nematode infestation, which could jeopardize entire crop fields if left unchecked. Utilizing Wi-Fi capability, the camera captures pictures via a command from a computer connected wirelessly to the same network and then sends those pictures to the user for image processing. With the continuous efforts from faculty and student researchers, this project has now the capability to be upgraded for monitoring and control from anywhere on the planet. This project utilizes a Raspberry Pi 4B and a Geekworm Raspberry Pi 4B full function motor HAT to receive and execute operation commands. Considering the types of environments and locales it may be subject to, an outer casing with small openings for ventilation and solar power capability was built into the minirhizotron’s design. The resulting minirhizotron device is complete and fully operational and a number of plants have been under investigation using invasive and non-invasive species. The overall minirhizotron system uses a solar powered camera capable of capturing quality photographs of the crop to which it is assigned and delivering said pictures to the cloud, which is a vast network of interconnected servers with remote access whose purpose is to store, manage data, and run applications in remote farmlands. The 3D model of the final design including electronic and electromechanical components with Raspberry Pi units on a transparent tube have been completed and will be reported in the full paper.

Pecen, R. R., & Westerman, E., & Ma, J., & Yildiz, F., & Smith-Herron, A. (2024, June), Design, Development, and Testing of a Wi-Fi Enabled Minirhizotron for Ag Farms Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47131

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