Sensors 2010, 10(5), 4968-4982; doi:10.3390/s100504968
Article

Testing ZigBee Motes for Monitoring Refrigerated Vegetable Transportation under Real Conditions

Luis Ruiz-Garcia 1,* email, Pilar Barreiro 1 email, Jose Ignacio Robla 2 email and Loredana Lunadei 3 email
1 Laboratorio de Propiedades Físicas y Tecnologías Avanzadas en Agroalimentación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, ETSI Agrónomos, Edificio Motores, Avda. Complutense s/n 28040 Madrid, Spain 2 Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Metalúrgicas (CENIM-CSIC), Avda. Gregorio del Amo, 8, 28040, Madrid, Spain 3 Dipartimento di Ingegneria Agraria, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria, 2-20133 Milano, Italy
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 23 March 2010; in revised form: 7 April 2010 / Accepted: 30 April 2010 / Published: 18 May 2010
(This article belongs to the Section Physical Sensors)
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Abstract: Quality control and monitoring of perishable goods during transportation and delivery services is an increasing concern for producers, suppliers, transport decision makers and consumers. The major challenge is to ensure a continuous ‘cold chain’ from producer to consumer in order to guaranty prime condition of goods. In this framework, the suitability of ZigBee protocol for monitoring refrigerated transportation has been proposed by several authors. However, up to date there was not any experimental work performed under real conditions. Thus, the main objective of our experiment was to test wireless sensor motes based in the ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 protocol during a real shipment. The experiment was conducted in a refrigerated truck traveling through two countries (Spain and France) which means a journey of 1,051 kilometers. The paper illustrates the great potential of this type of motes, providing information about several parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, door openings and truck stops. Psychrometric charts have also been developed for improving the knowledge about water loss and condensation on the product during shipments.
Keywords: ZigBee; wireless sensing; cold chain; logistics; food

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Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Ruiz-Garcia, L.; Barreiro, P.; Robla, J.I.; Lunadei, L. Testing ZigBee Motes for Monitoring Refrigerated Vegetable Transportation under Real Conditions. Sensors 2010, 10, 4968-4982.

AMA Style

Ruiz-Garcia L, Barreiro P, Robla JI, Lunadei L. Testing ZigBee Motes for Monitoring Refrigerated Vegetable Transportation under Real Conditions. Sensors. 2010; 10(5):4968-4982.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ruiz-Garcia, Luis; Barreiro, Pilar; Robla, Jose Ignacio; Lunadei, Loredana. 2010. "Testing ZigBee Motes for Monitoring Refrigerated Vegetable Transportation under Real Conditions." Sensors 10, no. 5: 4968-4982.

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