Living Tree Moisture Content Detection Method Based on Intelligent UHF RFID Sensors and OS-PELM

Abstract

Moisture content (MC) detection plays a vital role in the monitoring and management of living trees. Its measurement accuracy is of great significance to the progress of the forestry informatization industry. Targeting the drawbacks of high energy consumption, low practicability, and poor sustainability in the current field of living tree MC detection, this work designs and implements an ultra-high-frequency radio frequency identification (UHF RFID) sensor system based on a deep learning model, with the main goals of non-destructive testing and high-efficiency recognition. The proposed MC diagnostic system includes two passive tags which should be mounted on the trunk and one remote data processing terminal. First, the UHF reader collects information from the living trees in the forest; then, an improved online sequential parallel extreme learning machine algorithm (OS-PELM) is proposed and trained to establish a specific MC prediction model. This mechanism could self-adjust its neuron network structure according to the features of the data input. The experimental results show that, for the entire living tree dataset, the MC prediction model based on the OS-PELM algorithm can identify the MC level with a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of no more than 0.055 within a measurement range of 1.2 m. Compared with the results predicted by other algorithms, the mean absolute error (MAE) and RMSE are 0.0225 and 0.0254, respectively, which are better than the ELM and OS-ELM algorithms. Comparisons also prove that the prediction model has the advantages of high precision, strong robustness, and broad applicability. Therefore, the designed MC detection system fully meets the demand of forestry Artificial Intelligence of Things.