10-10-2012, 11:09 AM
Microcontroller-based Automatic Irrigation System with Moisture Sensors
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Abstract
Indian agriculture is dependent on the
monsoons which is not a reliable soucre of water.
Therefore there is a need for an irrigation system
in the country which can provide water to the
farms according to their soil types.This paper
represents the prototype design of microcontroller
based automatic irrigation sytem which will allow
irrigation to take place in zones where watering is
required, while bypassing zones where adequate
soil moisture is indicated.
INTRODUCTION
In a country like India, the agriculture plays the
important role in the economy and development
of the country. At the present era, the farmers
have been using irrigation technique in India
through the manual control in which the farmers
irrigate the land at the regular intervals. This
process sometimes consumes more water or
sometimes the water reaches late due to which
the crops get dried [1].
There is a need in the residential/commercial
irrigation industry for an irrigation controller that
responds to soil moisture sensors in individual
zones as a way of conserving water [2]. An ideal
controller should be "user friendly", i.e., easy to
program and requiring a minimum number of
keys or push-buttons to operate the controller. It
should also allow irrigation to take place in
zones where watering is required, while
bypassing zones where adequate soil moisture is
indicated- To add flexibility, it should be
possible to selectively deactivate any of the
moisture sensors to thereby override the
modification to the controller performance
caused by sensor inputs. Moreover, the system
should be easy to trouble shoot in the event of
faults in any of the plurality of zones.
Working of the system
The area which is to be irrigated will be divided
into a plurality of discrete zones of possible
different soil conditions, where each zone
includes at least one sprinkler head, soaker hose
or other water dispensing device and a solenoid
valve having an "on" state and an "off" state for
controlling the flow of water to such device for
that zone and which comprises a moisture sensor
disposed in the soil in each of the zones and,
when interrogated, produces an electrical signal
proportional to the level of moisture in the soil
proximate that sensor- A microcontroller is
coupled in controlling relationship to the
solenoid valves in each of the plural zones and is
effective to periodically transmit the
interrogation signals to each of the moisture
sensors. The moisture sensors then respond by
transmitting the aforementioned electrical signal
to the microcontroller. The microcontroller
includes circuitry and software for selectively
actuating the solenoid valves in the plurality of
zones to an "on" state at predetermined times
during a weekly period, unless the moisture
sensor for that given zone indicates a
predetermined sufficient level of moisture
present.
CONCLUSION
It can be seen that the combination of hardware
and software provides a irrigation controller that
can be implemented at relatively low cost and
which is extremely user friendly because it
requires only eight keys in all to carry out a
myriad of operations and the operator is, at all
times, apprised by the display of just what needs
to be done to complete the programming of the
system so that the solenoid water valves will be
made to operate in a desired mode.