Soil Moisture Sensing
Our StressCam is an open-source, low-cost, stationary, continuous camera monitoring tool that integrates hardware and embedded machine learning algorithms to calculate the water stress in corn and soybeans. Using this technology, farmers have access to real-time drought detection and can assess the degree of water stress at any time during the growing season. Its hardware and software are publicly available through GitHub.
Our Water Sensors use cellular technology to collect soil water data throughout the growing season at four depths. PSA researchers collect these data remotely to make it available to farmers in near real time, to develop PSA’s Decision Support Tools and other agricultural technology, and to ensure that sensors are working properly. The Water Sensors are low cost and provide more flexible use than other available water sensors. To date, PSA has installed its Water Sensors on more than 220 farms in 20 states as part of its on-farm research network.