IoT applications: On the path of Costa Rica's commitment to becoming carbon-neutral

Changes in the world's weather due to human activities have already shown its negative impact on agriculture, food production, carbon neutrality initiatives and the environment. In order to support Costa Rica's commitment to becoming the first carbon neutral country by 2021, a local group of multidisciplinary researchers have proposed, developed and tested a general system with Internet of Things capabilities, aimed at giving technical support to their projects on renewable natural energy resources and alternative eco-friendly agricultural techniques. The system consists of electronic circuitry built with commercial-off-the-shelf components (COTS), affordable sensors, mobile communication, actuators and software running on the Internet. The functionality of the device was tested on two specific applications-a microalgae culture cultivated in a photobioreactor and a greenhouse cucumber plantation-, interchanging and configuring the appropriate sensors for the different multiple variables needed (temperature, light intensity, pH and dissolved oxygen, among others), that were captured and sent to a remote database connected to the Internet cloud for post-analysis. Preliminary results seem support the continuing development of affordable yet efficient applications based on IoT, that provide effective production tools for food and biofuel producers in developing countries.