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2019
Tran Daniel, Dutoit Fabien, Najdenovska Elena, Wallbridge Nigel, Plummer Carrol, Mazza Marco, Raileanu Laura Elena, Camps Cédric
Scientific Reports, 2019, vol. 9, art. no. 17073
Link to the publication
Summary:
Living organisms have evolved complex signaling networks to drive appropriate physiological processes in response to changing environmental conditions. Amongst them, electric signals are a universal method to rapidly transmit information. In animals, bioelectrical activity measurements in the heart or the brain provide information about health status. In plants, practical measurements of bioelectrical activity are in their infancy and transposition of technology used in human medicine could therefore, by analogy provide insight about the physiological status of plants. This paper reports on the development and testing of an innovative electrophysiological sensor that can be used in greenhouse production conditions, without a Faraday cage, enabling real-time electric signal measurements. The bioelectrical activity is modified in response to water stress conditions or to nycthemeral rhythm. Furthermore, the automatic classification of plant status using supervised machine learning allows detection of these physiological modifications. This sensor represents an efficient alternative agronomic tool at the service of producers for decision support or for taking preventive measures before initial visual symptoms of plant stress appear.
Fabien Dutoit, Laura Elena Raileanu, Marco Mazza
Proceedings of ROeS: 31st Conference of the International Biometric Society of the Austro-Swiss Region, 9-12 September 2019, Lausanne, Switzerland
2018
Marco Mazza
Proceedings of IMCS 2018, 17th International Meeting on Chemical Sensors , 15-19 July 2018, Vienna, Austria
A low power analog frontend (AFE) for Ion-Sensitive Field effect Transistor sensor readout is presented. The AFE is demonstrated with off-the-shelf components. It includes a biasing circuit to bias an ISFET sensor, a noise rejecting current readout circuit, and a sigma-delta analog to digital converter. The digital output can be interpreted by a simple counter to acquire the ion-concentration in a drop of liquid on top of the calibrated ISFET sensor. A PH sensing experiment is performed to validate the AFE. Total power consumption is less than 40 µW with 1.8 V supply.
Achievements