INTERNET OF THINGS BASED A WATER DEPLOYMENT

SYSTEM FOR IRRIGATION

Abstract

The aim of this project is to design a water deployment system for irrigation which is based
on the combination of embedded system and integration of Internet of Things technology for
system automation & monitoring. The system has a distributed wireless network of soil-
moisture, temperature sensors placed in the root zone of the plants. The wireless sensor
network consists of two main units Wireless Sensor Unit (WSU) and Wireless Information
Unit (WIU). Real time data is collected by wireless sensor unit and transmitted to wireless
information unit using IoT device. Data is received, identified, saved and displayed at
wireless information unit to achieve soil moisture and temperature monitoring. The data is
continuously monitored at wireless information unit on the android smart phone through web
apps for controlling actions. The main objective of the work is to simplify the method of
irrigation using IoT. The implementation of system hardware and software are given,
including the design of wireless node and the implementation principle of data transmission
and communication modules. This system helps the farmer to save water as well as reduce
effort of the farmer and has the advantage of efficient monitoring, highly sensitive, feasible
and simple to design and install.

Introduction

The Irrigation is the artificial application of water to the soil for assisting in growing crops. It
minimizes the use of water & fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants,
either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone due to which a large quantity of
water is saved & also the fertilizer which comes to the plant with the water. In agriculture,
various parameters including soil type and temperature vary dramatically from one region to
the other and therefore any irrigation system must be flexible. [3].
Agriculture uses freshwater resources worldwide, which is dependent on the monsoons, and it
is not a reliable source of water, so there is an urgent need for water deployment system to
sustain use of water & provide water to the farms according to their moisture, temperature
and soil types & fertilizers.[3]
In this project, a wireless sensor network based intelligent system is implemented and applied
for monitoring of soil, temperatur. The motivation of developing this system came from the
countries where economy is depends on agriculture and the climatic conditions lead to lack of
rains. The farmers working in the farm lands are dependent on the rains and bore wells.
The network consists of sensing stations & a weather station. Each of the sensing station
contained data logger, a soil temperature sensor & IoT communication. The development of
WSN based on microcontrollers & communication technologies can improve the current
methods of monitoring to support the response in real time. The aim of implementation was
to demonstrate that the water deployment system can be used to reduce water use. The soil
moisture & temperature sensors deployed in plant root zones. The sensor measurements are
transmitted to a microcontroller based receiver. This gateway permits the automated
activation of irrigation when the threshold values of soil moisture & temperature are reached.
The communication between the sensor nodes & data receiver is via ESP8266 protocol.

Literature Review

After the research in the agricultural field, researchers found that the yield of agriculture goes
on decreasing day by day. Use of technology in the field of agriculture plays important role in
increasing the production as well as in reducing the extra man power efforts. Some of the
researches tried for betterment of farmers and provides the systems that use technologies
which are helpful for increasing the agricultural yield. Some of such researches carried out in
field of agriculture are summarized here.

N. G. Shah & I. Das developed a system for precision irrigation using sensor network mainly
aimed for monitoring soil moisture and estimating evapotranspiration by considering soil
moisture, soil temperature and relative humidity as parameters for measurement. The
objectives ofthe system were to provide precision agriculture and irrigation, to increase the
agricultural production, to provide precise monitoring system and to use resources at the
fullest extends so as to give efficient system. The system was analyzed for 3-4 months for
calculating evapotranspiration rate. For more precise results, the system should be analyzed
for 3-4 seasons. [2]
Some of the researchers developed a remote monitoring system in agricultural greenhouse
using wireless sensor and short message service (SMS).[5] The system was applied to
strawberry farm and has capability to measure different levels of temperature and thus
providing the necessary information to the farmers so that early precaution steps can be
taken. System was divided into four parts namely data acquisition, data communication, data
presentation and alert notification which also allowed the reverse communication i.e. from
farmer side to the base station. The system was cost effective and reliable. The system can be
made more effective by considering other environmental parameters and by using recent
technologies such as artificial intelligence, neural network, etc. [4]

Block Diagram

Wi-Fi Enabled Internet

system/Laptop Of things Server

PC

Soil Moisture
Sensor

Node McU DC Motor

Relay
Wi-Fi Module Pump

Temperature
Sensor
3.2 Functional Description of Block diagram

The above figure we show the hardware requirements & Technical approach of the system.
The system consist of mainly NodeMcU, IoT technology, Load drivers, which are described
briefly below.

Node MCU (ESP8266):

Node MCU is a microcontroller which is connected to IOT server through internet . MCU
will receive the ON OFF packets from server and switches appliances respect to server
signal.

Espressif Systems’ Smart Connectivity Platform (ESCP) is a set of high performance, high
integration wireless SOCs, designed for space and power constrained mobile platform
designers. It provides unsurpassed ability to embed WiFi capabilities within other systems, or
to function as a standalone application, with the lowest cost, and minimal space requirement.

ESP8266EX offers a complete and self-contained WiFi networking solution; it can be used to
host the application or to offload WiFi networking functions from another application
processor. When ESP8266EX hosts the application, it boots up directly from an external
flash. In has integrated cache to improve the performance of the system in such applications.
Alternately, serving as a WiFi adapter, wireless internet access can be added to any micro
controllerbased design with simple connectivity (SPI/SDIO or I2C/UART interface).
ESP8266EX is among the most integrated WiFi chip in the industry; it integrates the antenna
switches, RF balun, power amplifier, low noise receive amplifier, filters, power management
modules, it requires minimal external circuitry, and the entire solution, including front-end
module, is designed to occupy minimal PCB area.
IOT server :
IoTserver will triggered by the IFTTT server i. e it send the ON OF commands packets to the
Node Mcuecp8266 .

 Adafruit IO is a system that makes data useful. Our focus is on ease of use,
and allowing simple data connections with little programming required.
 IO includes client libraries that wrap our REST and MQTT APIs. IO is built
on Ruby on Rails, and Node.js.
 Adafruit IO is currently in beta. If you would like to join the beta, head over to
io.adafruit.com to sign up.

Relays (Load Driver)

Relay is an electromagnetic device which is used to isolate two circuits electrically and
connect them magnetically. They are very useful devices and allow one circuit to switch
another one while they are completely separate. They are often used to interface an electronic
circuit (working at a low voltage) to an electrical circuit which works at very high voltage.
For example, a relay can make a 5V DC battery circuit to switch a 230V AC mains circuit.
Thus a small sensor circuit can drive, say, a fan or an electric bulb.

Soil Moisture Sensor

The Soil Moisture Sensor is used to measure the volumetric water content of soil. This makes
it ideal for performing experiments in courses such as soil science, agricultural science,
environmental science, horticulture, botany, and biology. Use the Soil Moisture Sensor to:

• Measure the loss of moisture over time due to evaporation and plant uptake.
• Evaluate optimum soil moisture contents for various species of plants.
• Monitor soil moisture content to control irrigation in greenhouses.
• Enhance your Bottle Biology experiments.

LM35 temperature sensor

The LM35 series are precision integrated circuit temperature sensors. Their output voltage is
linearly proportional to the Celsius temperature. The LM35 thus has a benefit over linear
temperature sensors calibrated in° K, as there is no need to subtract a large constant voltage
from its output to obtain Centigrade reading. It does not require any external calibration or
trimming to provide typical accuracies of ±1⁄4°Cat room temperature and ±3⁄4°C over a full
−55 to +150°Ctemperatu re range. Low cost is due to trimming and calibration at the wafer
level. The LM35’s linear output, and precise inherent calibration make interfacing to
readout or control circuitry especially easy. LM35 can be used with single power supplies, or
with plus and minus supplies. It draws only 60 μA from its supply, so it has very low self-
heating, less than 0.1° C in still air. It is rated to operate over a −55° to +150°C temperature
range, while the LM35C is rated for a −40° to +110°C range (−10°with improved accuracy)

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