Avaliação do sensor de umidade S12 para arduíno no monitoramento automático da umidade do solo

Abstract

Water is a fundamental abiotic resource for life on Earth, present in various human activities, especially in agriculture. Population growth has led to an increase in water demand, which has necessitated the implementation of new agricultural technologies focused on controlling and using water in a sustainable and improved way, with the use of water monitoring through soil moisture sensors. Arduino systems have been gaining popularity in the market and in scientific research related to agricultural engineering due to their operational simplicity and low cost, enabling the development of automated sensor systems for soil moisture monitoring. The objective of this study is to evaluate the potential performance of the corrosion-resistant Arduino soil moisture sensor model S12 by analyzing its response time compared to the response time of a properly calibrated neutron probe. The methodology consists of evaluating the response time of the Arduino S12 moisture sensor using a calibrated neutron probe as a comparison for soil moisture measurements. The variation in moisture readings made with the Arduino S12 sensor will be observed relative to those taken with the neutron probe within a tank system with soil, where the moisture and temperature of the soil are kept under constant control. Moisture measurements will be taken from saturation to the lowest moisture limit detected by the sensor, and from these data, the calibration curve and the response time curve of the sensor will be constructed and compared with the neutron probe's response time. The calibration curve of the Arduino sensor showed consistency with its linear behavior and a positive correlation between the measured soil moisture values and time, with a coefficient of determination of 0.98, a value within the acceptable range for the equation. Moreover, the results of the analysis of variance for the variation in soil moisture measured by the sensor and time showed no significant difference between measurements taken from different soil samples, which indicates good precision of the sensor for estimating soil moisture.