Diffused capacitance-based sensing for hydric control and watering optimization

Soil moisture measurements are essential especially in the agricultural field, where it is crucial to guarantee that the optimal amount of water is provided to the cultivations. Most soil moisture measurement systems are local sensors; hence, a multitude of sensors must be distributed all over the field to obtain a comprehensive picture of the soil condition. Starting from these considerations, the present work addresses the feasibility of employing diffused sensing elements (in a wire-like configuration) for sensing soil moisture variations, based on capacitance measurements. To this purpose, for a preliminary validation of the proposed methodology, several experiments were carried out, thus identifying the suitable setup configurations and the potential of the method.