The proposed intelligent wireless sensor network platform is considered to be used in the large outdoor environment such as an open farm or orchard. It is consisted of three major parts including wireless sensing node, a communication bridge for data relay and database for data analysis and remote access. In the structure of the proposed wireless sensing node, it will combine the sensing component and communication circuit to form a wireless sensing node. A solar panel will also be integrated with sensing node to provide enough power for normal operation of the node. In addition, a Wi-Fi based communication node will be proposed to act as a bridge for data relay with data receiving from the sensing node and sending out to the main frame. Moreover, a database will be built for data collection and analysis. Based on the proposed platform, the sensing data can be automatically recorded into database and the user can access the data for usage by his privilege.

Instead of the application to the usage on indoor or small local environment, the proposed techniques consider to develop an intelligent wireless sensor network platform to be used in the large outdoor environment such as an open farm or orchard. Compared with those existing designs, the proposed techniques will have three different features. One is the sensing component would be integrated with communication circuit to form a wireless sensing node. The second one is a solar panel will also be integrated with wireless communication node to support enough electric power for normal function of the node. Finally, a human-machine interface is also proposed to provide user a friendly data accessing scheme through computer and/or APP from the hand-held device.

An application to the growth monitoring of an orangery can be attained by using the proposed platform in this study, which will provide people an opportunity to access the up-to-date production record of agricultural product. During the growth of the oranges and tangerine, the environmental data of the orchard as well as the growth of plants can be automatically recorded and transmitted to the cloud database. Then the farmer or people will then access those data through the computer network or the APP of the hand-held device. Based on those data analysis, the farmer can enhance the production plan to improve the production rate and hence increase the incomes. In addition, the ordinary people can gain trust of the agricultural product after accessing the daily growth data of the plant.