AUTOMATIC IRRIGATION SYSTEM ON SENSING SOIL MOISTURE CONTENT (electronics project)

Automatic Irrigation System on Sensing Soil Moisture Content

Synopsis- short description:

The main purpose of this project is to develop an automatic irrigation system which switches the pump motor ON and OFF on sensing the moisture content of the soil. As we know that the use of proper method of irrigation is very important in the field of agriculture. The main advantage of using this technique is to decrease the human intervention and still make certainappropriate irrigation systems.

Here in this project we are using an 8051 series microcontroller which is programmed to receive the input signal of varying moisture circumstance of the soil through the sensing arrangement. This operation is obtained by configuring an op-amp as a comparator which acts as interface between the sensing arrangement and the microcontroller. Once the controller receives this signal, it generates an output that drives a relay for operating the water pump. An LCD display is also interfaced to the microcontroller to display status of the soil and water pump. The sensing arrangement is made by using two stiff metallic rods inserted into the field at a distance. Connections from the metallic rods are interfaced to the control unit.

 Block diagram:

Block diagram description:

The above diagram is representing the block diagram of an automatic irrigation system which is separated in some parts – DC power supply part, sensing part, control part and output load.

Here in this block diagram we are using a step down transformer for decreasing the high  AC voltage to the safer low voltage AC and the output of the transformer is given to the rectifier, the rectifier sends the unregulated DC voltage to the regulator,the regulator is a three terminal device with fixed output voltage, the output of the regulator is fed to the sensing terminal which is interfaced with a comparator and the programming of the microcontroller with the relay driver delivers the status of the output which is connected to the submersible pump through which the final output is obtained and displays that output through the LCD display.

Hardware used:

·         8051 microcontroller

·         Operational amplifier

·         LCD

·         Relay

·         Water pump

·         Voltage regulator

·         Diodes

·          Capacitors

·         Resistors

·         LED

·         Crystal

·         Transistors

Software used:

·         Keil complier

·         Languages embedded

·         C & assembly language

Circuit explanation:

The inverting input of a comparator is given to a fixed voltage through the regulated power supply and the non inverting input of the comparator is pulled down and is also given to moisture sensing arrangement at sensing terminal. When the soil is dry, the soil resistance between the positive supply and the non inverting input is high resulting in voltage to the non-inverting input less than the inverting input making comparator output going logic low. This command is given to controller. In this condition the output of the controller is logic high that switches ON a relay driving transistor due to which the relay is switched on and the pump motor is in ON condition. Thus water flow is started.

Then while the soil goes sufficiently wet, the soil resistance falls making available a voltage to the non-inverting input higher than inverting input, so that the output of comparator is logic high which is fed to microcontroller. In this condition microcontroller outputs logic low to a transistor which stops conducting and thereby making the relay ‘OFF’ and the pump motor stops. Based on the program the conditions they all appear in the LCD display indicating as to whether the pump is ON or OFF.

Output video explanation:

This project is used for operating a pump for an automatic irrigation system. The circuit is consisting of the sensor partsbuilt using an operational amplifier.This is completely based on the arrangement which is interfaced on an op-amp configured as comparators to stiff copper wires here;the copper wires are inserted into the soil in order to sense it.  And the complete operation of this project is based on microcontroller, the microcontroller turns ON the motor or OFF which is based on the sensor conditions. When the motor gets ON,the water shall flow and the moisture content of the soil will increase.  When we switch ON the power supply of the transformer we find that the microcontroller will display the output, and we have a pump which is a submersible pump which is connected through the relay to the microcontroller. The pump is inside the water through which the water comes out.  The microcontroller displays the status of the soil and the pump condition. When we switch ON the microcontroller it shows that the soil is under wet condition. Wet condition means the two wires which are connected to the sensor should be shorted to create a condition that the soil is in wet state, as a result the motor goes to the OFF condition. While the soil condition gets dry that it is expected that the motor should be in OFF conditionand we can see that once we open the wire imposing a condition that the soil is dry now the motor is made ON, and the pump starts running. When the pump is running the soil substance gets wet, achieved by again connecting the two wires of the sensors causing the motor to stop.

Future scope:

This concept can be improved in future by enhancing it by integrating with GSM technology, such that whenever the water pump switches ON/OFF, an SMS is delivered to the concerned person regarding the status of the pump.

Conclusion:

The project “automatic irrigation system on sensing soil moisture content” has been successfully studied. The project is developed to sense the moisturecontent present in the soil. We can detect if the soil is dry or wet with motor operation. The advantage of this project to decrease the human involvement and still makecertain appropriate irrigation systems with high efficiency.

Advantages:

·         Consumes time-it the system is installed once then we can set a timer to water for specific time interval.

·         By using this type irrigation systems the position of the water is effectively targeted where there is a need.

·         High frequency due to water distribution.

Disadvantages:

·          Design of the system is expensive

·         High amount of  energy is required

·         Loss of water due to evaporation

IEEE reference:

Top of Form

Research of flow adaptive function and structure design for subsurface drip irrigation emitter

Bottom of Form

Feng Jun-jie; Fei Liang-jun; Deng Zhong; ZhaiGuo-liang; Liu Yang; Zhao Hong-shu;
Inst. of Water Resources & Hydro-Electr. Eng., Xi'an Univ. of Technol., Xi'an, China

This paper appears in:  New Technology of Agricultural Engineering (ICAE), 2011 International Conference on
Issue Date :  27-29 May 2011
On page(s): 377 - 381
Print ISBN: 978-1-4244-9574-0
References Cited: 19
INSPEC Accession Number: 12095962
Digital Object Identifier :  10.1109/ICAE.2011.5943823
Date of Current Version :   07 July 2011

ABSTRACT

According to the application style and technical characteristics in surface irrigation and subsurface irrigation, we analyze the function of flow adaptive for emitter based on understanding the development present situation of subsurface drip irrigation system and emitter. At the theory of soil moisture, we put forward a specific measures about realizing the capacity adaptive function to emitter, that is, a kind of emitter with flow adaptive function for subsurface drip irrigation has been designed. This emitter takes the soil negative pressure as power, the soil moisture as control condition, the actual water requirement of crop as the final control object, and its drip status is controlled by the changes of elastic membrane in it. So the emitter can reflect the change of soil moisture automatically and realtimely, with obvious function of self-adjusting current capacity.