This full text paper was peer-reviewed at the direction of IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society prior to the

acceptance and publication.

Capacitance-based Wireless Sensor Mote for Snail

Pest Detection
D. Garca-Lesta, E. Ferro, V.M. Brea, P. Lopez, D. Cabello, J. Iglesias*, J. Castillejo*
Centro de Investigacion en Tecnoloxas da Informacion (CiTIUS)
Departamento de Zoologa y Antropologa Fsica*
University of Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Email: daniel.garcia.lesta@rai.usc.es

AbstractPests due to terrestrial mollusks cause serious damage, both economic and ecological, in various types of agricultural
plantations. In this paper we develop a low cost capacitive
sensor that wirelessly communicates with the base, to monitor
the activity of land snails. Once implemented physically, it has
been tested in a controlled miniplot with favorable results.

I. I NTRODUCTION
The terrestrial snail is one of the possible pests to many
types of agricultural plantations. To fight them, molluscicides
are periodically used, causing both huge economical and
environmental damage [1]. Detection in an early stage eases
the correct use of pesticides, improving the quality of the
product and decreasing cost and environmental impact.
Given that the snails look for refuge to rest and protect
themselves from their predators, providing them with shelters
and measuring their occupancy levels constitutes a good
strategy to assess their presence in a crop. Wireless sensor
networks (WSN) are very suitable for this task.
Multimedia WSN with a camera and a companion chip arise
as a natural solution for agriculture monitoring [2][4]. Their
programmability permits to detect pests of many different
sizes and shapes under different environmental conditions. The
drawback is that the design of computer vision algorithms
might be lengthy, and the hardware is usually costly and power
hungry.
Sensors capturing 1D data are less expensive and draw less
current. Ultrasound, photoelectric and capacitive solutions are
among the sensors that can be adapted to our shelter shape
for snail monitoring. Such a shelter is shown in Fig. 1. It is
a PVC pipe allocated at tenths of centimeters above ground
with 25 cm height and 5 cm of diameter.
Based on our experience, commercial ultrasound sensors
have been discarded because their emitting beam produces
multiple reflections on the tube walls, leading to many false
positives.
On the other hand, previous work of the authors in the
field of snail detection with WSN lies in the design of a
photoelectric sensor that triggers detection by the reflection
of IR light from the snails [5]. Although this solution works
very well in darkness or on cloudy days, it fails during sunny
days due to the high IR background radiation.

978-1-4799-6117-7/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

Fig. 1.

Shelter and WSN mote for snail detection.

This paper addresses this issue with a capacitive sensor that

works during night and day conditions, designed to make part
of a WSN. A similar capacitive sensor for counting bees that
come in and out of the hive was presented in [6]. Although
the work in reference [6] does not provide data on power
consumption, their conditioning circuitry based on an AC
bridge leads to a relatively complex system with large footprint
and high power consumption. In this paper we introduce a
capacitive to digital converter (CDC) approach as conditioning
circuit. Its compactness allows fitting the conditioning and
communication circuits at the top of the shelter. Its low power
budget permits autonomy for more than 100 days with a 2000
mAh LiPo battery without recharging.
This paper is organized as follows. Section II outlines the
capacitive sensor and its conditioning circuitry. Section III
addresses the design of the geometry of the capacitive sensor.
Section IV describes the calibration of the system and shows
experimental results. Finally, we draw the conclusions from
the paper.
II. S ENSOR AND CONDITIONING SYSTEM
The sensor is an open plates differential capacitor at the
entry of the shelter. Fig. 2 shows such a structure with a
view of the cross section of the lower part of the tube.
The capacitor is implemented with three copper electrodes
inserted into three dents around the inner wall of the tube. An

Fig. 2. Cross-section view of the lower part of the PVC pipe. dxp is the
remainder thickness of the PVC; dxc, the thickness of the copper; d, the
distance between electrodes; and dy is the length of the electrodes.

additional outer wall of PVC with a copper film shorted to

ground protects the sensor from electromagnetic interferences
and avoids the detection of snails when they are creeping
up the tube along the outside of its outer wall. The top and
bottom spaces between the inner and outer walls of the tube
are sealed against water. The presence of a snail over copper
electrodes modifies the differential capacitance between them
and it triggers detection due to the different dielectric constant
of the snail when compared to that of the air. Although a
single capacitance would be enough to detect the presence of
the snails, the measurement of the difference of capacitances
is necessary to discriminate whether the snail is going in or
out of the shelter.
Fig. 3 shows the WSN mote with the sensor and its
conditioning and communication circuits. There are many
options to measure the change in differential capacitances [7].
Capacitance to digital converters (CDC) are very compact and
low power solutions. The circuit chosen in this work was the
AD7153 from Analog Devices [8]. This is a low power circuit
that features 12 bits of resolution with a typical current of 100
A for a supply voltage range [2.7, 3.6] V. The CDC chosen
reaches 0.25 fF of resolution with 0.05% of linearity with a
fast enough selectable conversion rate for snail detection of 5,
20, 50 and 60 ms. Also, it has two operation modes with 4
selectable ranges, namely, a single-ended mode with a range
up to 0.5 pF, 1 pF, 2 pF and 4 pF, and a differential mode with
4 possible values of 0.25 pF, 0.5 pF, 1 pF and 2 pF. The
chip accepts up to 5 pF common-mode capacitance. This can
be balanced by a programmable on-chip digital to capacitance
converter (CAPDAC). As will be shown in Section III the
input range of capacitances of the CDC is compatible with
the capacitances of the differential structure inserted into the
PVC tube shown in Fig. 2.
The WSN mote is communicated with a base station through
the combination of an XBee module with a low cost Arduino
Fio running at 8 MHz and powered at 3.3 V [9], [10]. The
communication between the CDC and Arduino is implemented
through the I2C protocol. Also, the calibration phase requires a
multiplexer, in this case an SN74LV40153A. As Fig. 4 shows
the CDC and the multiplexer with all their required passive

Fig. 3. Schematic of the sensor with its conditioning and communication

circuits.

Fig. 4.
Fio.

Conditioning system integrated on a PCB mounted over Arduino

Fig. 5. Copper electrodes and coaxial cables over the wall of the inner PVC
pipe.

components are integrated onto a PCB which is directly

mounted over the pins of the Arduino Fio, resulting in very
low footprint for the conditioning and communication circuits.
Such circuits are inside a waterproof box at the top of the
shelter (see Fig. 1), and connected to the copper electrodes
through three coaxial cables that go between the inner and
outer walls of the shelter (see Fig. 5). Finally, the system is
powered with a 2000 mAh LiPo battery, which is recharged
with a 15 cm x 6 cm solar cell.

0,95

0,90

Distance between electrodes (d)

0,85

Length of electrodes (dy)

0,80

10

12

14

16

Distance (mm)

Maximum difference of capacitance (A.U.)

Maximum difference of capacitance (A.U.)

1,0
1,00

0,9

0,8

0,7

0,6

0,5

0,4

0,3
0,0

0,5

1,0

1,5

Copper thickness

Fig. 6. Simulation results of the maximum difference of capacitances between

the electrodes as a function of the distance between them (d) and their length
(dy).

III. D ESIGN OF THE SENSOR GEOMETRY

The working principle of the capacitance sensor is based
on measuring the difference of capacitances between certain
electrodes on the sensor. To do so, three electrodes are
necessary. As apparent, their sizes as well as the location
and relative distance among them will have an impact on
the sensor response. In order to obtain the optimal response,
the geometry of the sensor has been optimized by means of
simulations using the software FEMM [11]. The simulations
were performed varying the parameters dxp, dxc, d and dy
(Fig. 2), and leaving the rest of parameters, like the size of
the pipe or the width of the wall as boundary conditions.
The software FEMM solves electrostatic problems in two
symmetries: cylindrical and translational. As the snail goes
into the pipe, the cylindrical symmetry is broken, so we
simulated a planar situation just to optimize the response. First,
we simulated the system in translational symmetry, taking the
snail as a rectangle of helix aspersas typical size (3 cm
x 1.5 cm), with a relative dielectric constant of 75, looping
the position of the snail all over the sensor. To calculate
the capacitances of the capacitors, we applied 5 V and -5 V
respectively on the bottom and top electrodes, and 0 V on the
central electrode. Extracting Q from the simulation, and using
the equation C = Q/V , we calculated the capacitances at
every loop, and recorded the maximum value of the difference
of capacitances.
As expected, the results show that the bigger the distance between the electrodes and their length, the bigger the maximum
difference of capacitances. This is because as the distance is
bigger, more dielectric material is between the electrodes, and
as the size of the electrodes increases, more density of free
charge is available to polarize.
In Fig. 6, we can see that the maximum value of capacitance
after the snail has passed increases very strongly at low values
of dy and d and, at a certain point, this response saturates.
Then, these parameters will be selected at the saturation range,
taking into account as well other considerations. For example,
the smaller these parameters are, the smaller margin the snail
will have to stop in the middle of the sensor, giving with that

2,0

2,5

3,0

(mm)

Fig. 7. Simulation results of the maximum difference of capacitances between

the electrodes as a function of the copper thickness (dxc).
TABLE I
F INAL PARAMETERS FOR THE SENSOR
dxp (mm))
2

dxc (mm)
1.5

d (mm)
8

GEOMETRY.

dy (mm)
8

an anomalous signal. In addition, reasonable parameters have

to be selected to ease the fabrication process.
The behavior of the response as a function of the copper
thickness dxc (Fig. 7) is similar, but with a not so clear
saturation. Thus, the copper thickness will be selected out
of the strongly raising zone, resulting sufficiently thin to
manipulate the electrodes easily.
For the remainder parameter, dxp, the simulations show that
this magnitude has little impact on the overall system response,
so that a value thick enough not to break the PVC wall in the
implementation was chosen.
Table I shows the parameters obtained after the optimization
process. The resulting equipotential lines inside the sensor for
these values both in absence and presence of simulated snails
are showing in Fig. 8. As seen, the presence of a snail produces
a significant perturbation of the electrostatic field which is
manifested as a change in the difference of capacitance, shown
in Fig. 9. As we will show in Section IV, this simulated
response coincides with the experiments.
Once the geometry was optimized, we simulated the system
without the snail using cylindrical symmetry. In so doing, we
will know the total capacitance of the electrodes, and we can
check whether the capacitance values are under the maximum
accepted by the CDC. This value was estimated to be 5.6
pF, below the maximum value allowed by the CDC using the
CAPDAC functionality.
IV. E XPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The CDC is programmed to work in differential mode with
the widest full-scale range, which in the case of the AD7153
is 2 pF. This is is done through the use of internal registers
of the CDC. Table II lists the internal registers of the AD7153.

C(pF ) =

Equipotential lines in absence (a) and presence (b) of the simulated

Normalized difference of capacitance (A.U.)

Fig. 8.
snail.

1,0

0,5

0,0

-0,5

-1,0

-20

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Position of the snail's center (mm)

Fig. 9. Output of the simulation with the snail modeled as a rectangle with
r =75.

The CDC saves the measurement data in the internal register

Data. This value is calculated through (1) and (2), where Code
is an internal digital word of the CDC and, as their name
suggest, Offset Reg and Gain Reg are the values stored in
the Offset and Gain registers of the CDC. The measurement
procedure ends with Arduino reading the contents of Data
Reg and producing the differential capacitance of the sensor
through (3), with Input Range being the widest possible fullscale in differential mode, namely 4 pF.
Data Reg = (Code-(Offset Reg-0x8000))Gain+0x8000 (1)
Gain =

216 + Gain Reg

216

(2)

Data Reg 0x8000

Input Range
0xFFF0

(3)

Before any reading the system is calibrated only once. The

calibration process accounts for the offset, the gain, and the
common-mode capacitance. In so doing, the multiplexer, and
the internal registers of the CDC are used.
The offset is caused by the CDC chip itself, by all the
parasitic capacitances from the metal lines on the PCB, from
the coaxial cables along with the wielding that connects them
to the copper electrodes, and from the pins of the different
ICs on the PCB, as well as by any mismatch caused by the
manufacturing of the electrodes that make up the differential
capacitive structure.
The gain is calibrated with the Gain registers to reach
the full-scale range of differential capacitances (2 pF). In
our case, we have employed 2.7 pF and 4.7 pF standard
capacitances (see Fig. 3).
The common-mode capacitance was determined experimentally to be around 5 pF, overcoming the maximum common
mode capacitance allowed by the CDC AD7153, which is 5 pF
too. Thus, compensation is needed. This is done by subtracting
a safety margin of 2 pF with the CAPDAC registers on the
CDC.
Before the deployment of the final system in the controlled
miniplot, lab tests were performed to check the sensor. Instead
of a snail, a material with high dielectric constant was used
(organic materials, such as fruits or meat, have a similar
value of r given their high water content). Fig. 10 (top)
shows the measured values for the different possible scenarios:
absence of simulated snails, entrance and/or exit of one or
more simulated snails. As seen, when a snail enters the shelter,
the C signal reaches a maximum, and then a minimum
value before returning to its reference value. This situation
is reversed when a snail leaves the shelter. Given the systems
output, a simple signal processing algorithm counts the number
of snails present in the shelter. First, a threshold value is
established and compared to the mean value of the last 30
minutes. When a minimum value of C is found after a
maximum, then the snail counter is increased one unit and
decreased when the opposite is true. This is shown in Fig. 10
(bottom).
TABLE II
R EGISTERS OF THE AD7153 AND
Register Name
Status
Data MSB
Data LSB
Offset MSB
Offset LSB
Gain MSB
Gain LSB
Setup
Configuration
CAPDAC POS
CAPDAC NEG
Configuration 2

THEIR SUBADDRESSES

Subaddress
0x00
0x01
0x02
0x05
0x06
0x09
0x0A
0x0B
0x0F
0x11
0x12
0x1A

Difference of capacitances (pF)

1,0

1,0

0,8

0,8

0,6

0,6

0,4

0,4

0,2

0,2

0,0

0,0

-0,2

-0,2

-0,4

-0,4

-0,6

-0,6

-0,8

-0,8

-1,0

-1,0
0

10

20

30

10

Time (min)

Fig. 12.
shelter.
Results of the lab tests.

30

40

Signal corresponding to two snails of different sizes entering the

0,4

(a)
0,2

Difference of capacitance (pF)

Fig. 10.

20

Time (min)

0,0

-0,2

-0,4
0,06

(b)

WATERING

0,04

0,02

0,00

-0,02
0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Time (min)

Fig. 11.

Final system installed in the controlled miniplot.

Once the validity of the system has been established, we

built a prototype ready to be installed in the field. Lab tests
showed that the system is very sensitive to external perturbations. Thus, to avoid noise sources, principally caused by
the rain, the sensor and the conditioning and communication
circuits were totally shielded with a copper layer of 30 m
thick connected to ground. As said before, both the box that
contains the circuits and the top and bottom parts of the pipe
were sealed against water.
The system was installed in a controlled miniplot, where the
snails could not scape. As we can see in Fig. 11, the activity
of the snails was recorded by an infrared active camera and,
with this recording, a comparison between the signal collected
and the video can be made.
The results show that the system is totally robust to the
pass of snails over the surface of the device, detecting signal
variations only when a snail goes into the shelter. In Fig. 12
we can see two signals corresponding to different inputs of
snails. Depending on the mass of the snail, the amplitude of
the waveform will be different, which permits us not to only
detect the presence of snails but also to estimate their sizes.
A possible source of unwanted signals is the random move-

Fig. 13.
(b).

Noise due to snail movements inside the shelter (a) and watering

ment of snails inside the shelter, passing over one electrode

without going out. In this case there are two possibilities. The
first one is that the snail turns around and goes again into
the shelter, leaving a peak in the data, like in Fig. 13 (a). The
other possibility is that the snail stops over the electrode. In
that case, the signal will be constant and different from zero.
If this offset is small enough, so that when another snail leaves
or enters the shelter the signal does not saturate, it will not
constitute a problem, because the signal processing software
compares the raisings or fallings with the mean value of the
signal at this moment. However, if the signal saturates, the
device will only be able to inform that there is snail activity
in the shelter, but not the precise number.
If two snails pass over the electrodes at the same time,
the observed response would be the superposition of the two
individual signals, and the algorithm could make a wrong
interpretation. This does not constitute a problem due to its
very low probability and the fact that in the worst possible
case, one sensor inside the entire network would miss one
snail, and to monitor the snail activity in a plot the base station
collects data from many sensors.

to the base, and the processing is made on some other device.

By integrating the signal processing on Arduino, it would only
have to send data if a snail has entered or exited, decreasing
even more the energy consumption.

C (pF)

2
1
0
1
2
18

00

06

12

18

00

06

12

18

06

12

18

Number of snails

Time (hour)
6

0
18

00

06

12

18

00

Time (hour)
Fig. 14. Number of snails inside the shelter as a function of time during a
3 days long experiment.

In order to assess the robustness of the system under different environmental conditions, the plot was watered everyday.
In Fig. 13 (b) we can see that the noise signal due to the
watering is much lower than the signal corresponding to a
snail entering the shelter.
If we apply the signal processing software to a long track of
data (around three days), we obtain the results shown in Fig.
14, where we can see the number of snails inside the refuge
as a function of time, showing the robustness of the system.
Finally, the electrical consumption of the system was measured taking into account these data:
System in sleep mode: 200 A.
System in operation: 4.1 mA.
Data transmission process: 215 mA.
Also, the system measures data every 3 s (2.7 s sleeping
and 0.3 s running), and sends them every 80 measurements.
Sending the data takes 0.2 s, so that taking 80 measurements
and sending them takes 240.2 s. The charge consumed within
this time is calculated through (4), amounting up to 51.3 Ah.
Q=

1h
80 (2.7 s 0.2 mA + 0.3 s 4.1 mA) +
3600 s
1h
+
0.2 s 215 mA = 51.3 Ah
(4)
3600 s

This operation is performed 360 times a day, consuming

18.45 mAh. This low consumption was achieved including a
connector between a digital output and the XBee socket to
turn it off when the device is not sending data, increasing the
battery lifetime. As the battery has 2000 mAh, the autonomy
of the system, without any external source of energy, is 108
days. To increase the autonomy, Arduino Fio was connected to
a solar panel with a maximum intensity of 100 mA. Then, with
just one hour a day working at 20% of its maximum capacity,
the solar panel is enough to feed the system. Even more, this
estimation was made assuming that the system sends the data

V. C ONCLUSIONS
In this work we have developed a wireless capacitive
sensor mote for snail detection. After choosing the conditioning system, simulations were performed to optimize the
geometry of the sensor, obtaining the optimal parameters for
the implementation, taking into account also the viability of
the physical implementation and the random behavior of the
snails. Tests were performed, obtaining good results. This
means that signals caused by any input or output of snails
is clearly differentiated from noise.
The requisites for the device were mainly three: energetic
autonomy, wireless communication and low-cost. The first one
was achieved with the combination of low-power design and a
solar cell. The wireless communication is accomplished with
the XBee socket, which has a range of 1.6 km. In addition,
it could be programmed to have peer-to-peer communication,
increasing even more its range in a WSN. Regarding the cost,
the total price of this prototype is under 70e, which makes it
a good candidate as a low-cost WSN mote.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work has been partially funded by AE CITIUS
(CN2012/151, European Region Development Fund, ERDF
(FEDER)), GPC2013/040 ERDF (FEDER) and the Talentum
Startups Program of Telefonica.
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