RFIoT Architecture for Perishable Food and Vegetable Delivery Tracking
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This article describes an IoT-based architecture for tracking the delivery of perishable foods and vegetables. It highlights the benefits of such a system, ensuring fresher produce for consumers.
Introduction:
The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly transforming various industries, thanks to affordable microcontroller (MCU) boards equipped with wireless communication capabilities like Wi-Fi, cellular (GSM/LTE), Zigbee, Z-Wave, and LoRa. This article focuses on an application that helps deliver perishable food items and vegetables before they spoil.
Perishable Food and Vegetables Delivery Tracking Architecture
Figure 1: Perishable Food and Vegetables Tracking System Architecture
The system is divided into three key components:
- Data Acquisition: Gathering real-time data from the transported goods.
- Data Storage and Analysis: Storing and processing the collected data to assess quality.
- Grade Data Monitoring: Monitoring the condition of the goods and their delivery status.
At the heart of the system is an ESP32-based board (or similar), which acts as the central processing unit. Let’s examine each component in detail.
System Components
ESP32 Board
The ESP32 board is a cost-effective solution that incorporates essential system functionalities. It includes:
- A 12-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) for converting sensor data into digital format.
- A 32-bit LX6 microprocessor for processing data.
- SRAM and various peripheral interfaces like GPIOs, I2C, UART, I2S, and SPI for connecting to sensors and other devices.
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for wireless connectivity.
The ESP32 board is powered by a portable USB power bank. In this specific implementation, Wi-Fi is used to connect to the Adafruit cloud platform for data storage.
Data Acquisition
Sensors for temperature, humidity, and odor are strategically placed within the food and vegetable boxes to acquire environmental data. The analog data from these sensors is fed into the ESP32’s ADC. The ESP32 then reads the digitized data and transmits it to the Adafruit server for storage and further analysis.
Cloud Data Storage and Analysis
Adafruit cloud storage serves as the primary repository for sensor data. Other popular cloud platforms, such as Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and AWS from Amazon, can also be used.
Adafruit’s dashboards offer a visual representation of the sensor data, facilitating easy monitoring. The data is then transferred to Google Sheets using applets created on the IFTTT website for in-depth analysis.
Google Sheets compares the real-time sensor data with pre-defined optimal thresholds for temperature, humidity, and odor levels. Based on this comparison, each box is assigned a quality grade within the spreadsheet.
Data Monitoring
Using JSON (or another suitable data format), the data is transferred from Google Sheets to an application running on an Android mobile phone. The mobile phone requires an internet connection to ensure real-time data monitoring. The grade and delivery location of each box can be monitored to ensure timely delivery before spoilage occurs.
Advantages of Perishable Food and Vegetables Delivery Tracking
The perishable food and vegetables delivery tracking system offers several key advantages:
- Improved Quality Control: Enables real-time monitoring of food quality during transportation, preventing spoilage.
- Reduced Waste: Minimizes losses due to spoilage of agricultural products between the source and the destination.
- Ease of Management: Provides delivery personnel with an easy-to-manage system for monitoring and managing perishable goods.
