Wireless Soil Probes Eliminate Buried Wiring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing soil condition monitoring systems for landscapes like golf courses require burying communication and power wires, making it difficult to move or install soil condition probes without extensive digging, as the wires are subterranean and hard to manage.
Innovation Solution
Soil condition probes with wireless communication modules that use long-range wireless networks, such as cellular data networks, and local weather stations to transmit data without the need for buried wires, allowing for wireless installation and operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If wires are buried underground to connect soil condition probes, then communication and power transmission are achieved, but installation complexity and difficulty of moving probes increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical wire-based connection system with a wireless communication system. Soil condition probes are equipped with wireless transceivers that communicate with a base station via radio frequency signals, eliminating the need for buried communication wires. This substitution maintains reliable data transmission while dramatically reducing installation complexity and enabling easy movement of probes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the communication function from the physical wire infrastructure. By removing the buried wire component entirely and replacing it with wireless transmission, the system eliminates the complex underground wiring while maintaining the essential communication capability between probes and the central monitoring system.
2Reliability
If wires are buried underground, then power and communication are established, but ease of moving or reinstalling probes is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical wire connection system with wireless communication, allowing probes to be easily moved between locations without disturbing buried infrastructure. The wireless transceiver maintains power and communication connections through electromagnetic fields rather than physical wire connections, enabling flexible probe relocation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic flexibility to the system by eliminating fixed wire connections. Probes can be dynamically repositioned as monitoring needs change, and the wireless system adapts to these movements without requiring physical reconnection of buried wires, thereby enhancing operational ease.
3Reliability
If more ground is dug to install wires, then communication and power connections are achieved, but installation time and resource consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent substitutes the time-consuming process of digging and burying wires with wireless signal transmission. Installers no longer need to excavate ground to lay communication and power wires, dramatically reducing installation time and resource consumption while maintaining reliable connections through wireless technology.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the time-consuming wire burial component from the installation process. By removing the requirement to dig and bury wires, the system eliminates the majority of installation time spent on ground disturbance while maintaining essential communication and power transmission capabilities.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the installation of soil condition probes without digging up more ground than necessary, improving the efficiency of monitoring soil conditions and reducing the complexity of managing buried wires, while allowing for precise location determination and data transmission.
Implementation Method 1
The wireless soil condition detection probes include batteries. Thus, a given soil condition detection probe may be buried subterranean at a golf course without having dig up more ground than is necessary to bury the probe itself—no digging to bury communication or power wires is required.
Data Source
AI summary
Multiple subterranean probes at an area of land detect soil conditions and wirelessly transmit soil condition information to a service provider's backend server or to a technician's hand-held wireless device. The server provides multiple user interface screens of a customer application that display soil condition information and irrigation's system status. Local micro weather stations may determine and wirelessly transmit weather condition information to the server. An installer may use the customer application to determine that received signal strength at a given probe is weak and should thus be relocated, or to determine refined location information corresponding to the probe. Historical soil condition information and artificial intelligence may predict soil conditions where a previously installed probe has been moved or quit working. Probes' housings seal internal electronics, including soil condition sensors, wireless communication modules, processors, and memory. Location coordinates may be acquired at a supra-high rate to increase location determination precision.