AgriLogger: A New Wireless Sensor for Monitoring Agrometeorological Data in Areas Lacking Communication Networks +
Footnote †: This article is an extension of the conference paper A new system for agrometeorological data collection in areas lacking communication networks, published in Proceedings of the IEEE during the International Workshop on Metrology for Agriculture and Forestry (MetroAgriFor). [PERSON]  
1 Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, via Universita 100, 80055 Portici (NA), Italy; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (S.M. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (G.B.) [PERSON]  
2R&D Department, TopView srl, San Nicola La Strada, 81020 Caserta, Italy; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (M.I. ); [PERSON].G. ); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (A.M.)  
reduced global yields of maize and wheat by 3.8% and 5.5% respectively [3]. Thus, the major challenge identified to be addressed is to provide farmers, through precision/smart agriculture, with the required information about the climatic conditions, in a timely fashion, instead of the traditional site-specific management practiced before. For this reason, agriculture could not be left out of the technological advances taking place worldwide in all scientific fields of research. Precision farming encompasses a large array of different technologies incorporating sensors, information systems, enhanced machinery, and decision supporting systems with a main goal of re-organizing the whole agricultural system in the direction of a low-input and high-efficiency for a sustainable agriculture [4; 5]. To attain such a goal, precision farming provides the means for observing, assessing and controlling agricultural practices from the quotiian herd management through horticulture to field crop production. The industry of agriculture is, at present, capable of collecting more inclusive data on different production controlling parameters in both space and time [6]. It provides a decision support system for delivering a large vision about the possible treatments, whether field-wide or for only specific parts of the field, and the means for taking the proper reaction according to the data collected [7]. Nowadays, the quick evolvement of technology in the fields of IoT (Internet of Things), UAS (Unmanned aerial systems), low power devices and sensors, is opening up new frontiers in the agricultural applications. In this regard, it is possible to convert the traditional farm approach into the \"Smart Farm\" philosophy, which allows the access for more accurate monitoring of crop development and health status with adequate temporal, spatial, and spectral resolutions [8]. Furthermore, a UAS platform with proper sensors, based on wireless sensor network (WSN), is becoming a common combination in this field of research offering a flexible, convenient, and cost-effective way to provide enquiries about the desired observations on agricultural parameters [9]. In this regard, [PERSON] et al. [10] have provided a full literature survey about the use of WSN along with mobile vehicles generally, including robots, terrestrial vehicles, and also UAS. Moreover, [PERSON] et al. [11] have moved a step further and proposed an optimization solution to jointly ameliorate the WSN wake-up schedule with the drone's pathway in order to minimize the energy consumption. UAS are aerial vehicles that can be presented differently depending on their shapes and sizes, and can be remotely controlled or can fly autonomously throughout a software-controlled flight on the basis of a GPS system [12]. The use of a light composite materials in the made-up of UAS helps to reduce their weight and increase their position-changing capability with a strong potential to fly in high altitudes depending on data collection needs. Due to the various navigation systems and recording devices that can be possibly embedded in the UAS, they can travel inaccessible areas providing the real-time monitoring, through dedicated payloads, of the state of health of the crops and therefore quick raw data of different agro-metrological parameters [13; 14; 15].