Title :
Antenna design for a proximal soil moisture mapping sensor
Author :
Tan, Adrian Eng-Choon ; Richards, Sean ; Platt, Ian ; Woodhead, Ian
Author_Institution :
Lincoln Agritech Ltd., Lincoln Univ., Christchurch, New Zealand
Abstract :
We present the design of an antenna array for a proximal soil moisture sensor that will be mounted on an irrigator. The sensor maps the soil moisture of the ground ahead and uses the information to modulate the water volume of the irrigator. The design objective of the antenna is to enable the sensor to map the ground surface at less than 1m2 resolutions. Applying radar analysis, it is determined that the antenna needs to maintain a directivity performance of 12 dBi over a bandwidth of 500 MHz. An array of four log-periodic dipole antennas is designed, constructed and measured. Measurement showed that the array exhibit a flat gain performance of 10.3 dBi over the frequency range of 400-1200 MHz. The dimensions of the antenna array are 0.35m×0.45m×0.55m. Based on the measured parameters, we computed that the sensor is capable of achieving a ground resolution of 0.62m2.
Keywords :
hydrological equipment; log periodic antennas; antenna array design; antenna design objective; bandwidth 500 MHz; directivity performance; flat gain performance; frequency 400 MHz to 1200 MHz; log-periodic dipole antennas; radar analysis; soil moisture mapping sensor; Antenna arrays; Antenna measurements; Antenna radiation patterns; Arrays; Bandwidth; Dipole antennas; antenna design; smart irrigation; soil moisture sensing; time-domain reflectometry;
Conference_Titel :
Sensors Applications Symposium (SAS), 2014 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Queenstown
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4799-2180-5
DOI :
10.1109/SAS.2014.6798936