IEEE 1451 standards: can the “smart transducer concept be used in system integration for precision agriculture?

As an increasing number of electronic control units with various types of sensors and actuators are embedded in agricultural machines, systematic and efficient system integration has become a critical issue. A recently developed agricultural bus standard, ISO 11783, provides a platform for mobile equipment communications, enabling a plug-and-play capability for implement controllers made by different manufacturers. This paper further recommends the use of the IEEE 1451 standards to design “smart transducers” to facilitate system integration. In this paper, the IEEE 1451 standards are reviewed, the relationship between ISO 11783 and IEEE 1451 is analyzed, an example of a smart weed sensor conforming to IEEE 1451 standards is designed, and the advantages and disadvantages of this implementation are discussed.