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Overview of ESP8266 Wi-Fi module based Smart Irrigation System using IOT

Conference Paper · February 2018

DOI: 10.1109/AEEICB.2018.8480949

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4th International Conference on Advances in Electrical, Electronics, Information, Communication and Bio-Informatics (AEEICB-18)

Overview of ESP8266 Wi-Fi module based Smart

Irrigation System using IOT
Prakhar Srivastava1, Mohit Bajaj2, Ankur Singh Rana3
1
B.Tech Student, Department of Electrical Engineering,DIT University, Dehradun, India
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering,DIT University, Dehradun, India
3
Research Scholar, Department of Electrical Engineering,JamiaMilliaIslamia, Delhi, India
Emails: 1prakhar.sri4@gmail.com, 2thebestbajaj@gmail.com, 3ankurranag@gmail.com,

Abstract–This paper demonstrates the efficient use of

Internet of Things for the traditional agriculture. It shows the
use of Arduino and ESP8266 based monitored and controlled
smart irrigation systems, which is also cost-effective and
simple.It is beneficial for farmers to irrigate there land
conveniently by the application of automatic irrigation
system. This smart irrigation system has pH sensor, water
flow sensor, temperature sensor and soil moisture sensor that
measure respectively and based on these sensors arduino
microcontroller drives the servo motor and pump.Arduino
received the information and transmitted with ESP8266 Wi-
Fi module wirelessly to the website through internet. This
transmitted informationis monitor and control by using IOT.
This enables the remote control mechanism through a secure
internet web connection to the user. A website has been
prepared which present the actual time values and reference
values of various factors needed by crops. Users can control
water pumps and sprinklers through the website and keep an
eye on the reference valueswhich will help the farmer Fig.1. Water Availability
increase production with quality crops.
Pressure on the water distribution system is increasing
Keywords— Soil Moisture, Temperature, pH and the significance of water management has
Sensor,Router, ESP8266,Arduino microcontroller. increased due to the sustainability irrigated farming
[5].Generally, the main purpose of smart irrigation is to
I. INTRODUCTION1 reduce manpower, water resources and power
In the current phase, one of the world's major problems consumption [3]. Tensiometric and Volumetric
is lack of water and water is consumed abundantly in methods are used to manage the soil moisture based
agriculture. Therefore an appropriate water irrigation, which is nearly simple but this is similar to
consumption system is required [1]. Currently,almost the characteristic curve of soil water which is different
all irrigation systems are physically regulated. The from the type of soil [1]. Routine maintenance is
transformation in the information technology has required for the legitimate performance of all sensors.
removed lots of impossibilities. Very smart irrigation system works automatic and use
In these years, the rise of our cell phones, tablets, the moisture sensor to systematically water the plants
automobiles, "smart" technology has expend the without human observation [7].Therefore, the main
market and has transformed into another standard in purpose of the work is to design the irrigation system,
the business [3]. Internet of things empower which provides all the above quality with the
thespecificinterrelationship amongseveralappliances, traditional feature available in irrigation system such as
equipment, and services based on Internet and this measuring moisture analysis of the area to prevent crop
technology also helps further to provide comfort to damage issues. Temperature is observed so that the
people to do work easily [9].Smart irrigation is an surrounding temperature can be examined as the crop
innovative scenario where many researchers are taking temperature is also sensitive.
interest and for decades it is developing and emerging.

978-1-5386-4606-9©2018 IEEE
It has resilience in controlling the irrigation system
from anywhere in the Internet available
world.Moreover, another benefit of this planned
irrigation system is that it would give update of crops
and alert the farmer before any unfavorableposition
come in the farms.It will grow rapidly to control and
monitor the smart irrigation.
II. LITERATURE SURVEY
Pushkar Singh and SanghamitraSaikiaintroduced the
design and implementation of anArduino-Based Smart
Irrigation System. The Arduino-based communication
has been created toease the function, application,
maintenance and the price.The device is fully
automated and reliable. Sensors interact with the
website communication system from a large distance in
nanoseconds which makes the user more prolific. The
entire system is based on the arduino which use
inexpensive microcontroller;this system can be applied
to large areas for relatively small investment [3].
S. Darshna, T.Sangavi, Sheena Mohan, A.Soundharya,
SukanyaDesikan proposed Smart Irrigation System. In
the current scenario, manually controlled irrigation
method is used by the farmers, in which farmers
sprinklethe land at systematic periods. The process
depletes more water and the outcome is water loss.
While dry areas have less rainfall and irrigation is
challenging. Thus there is a need for an automated
system that will accurately control and monitor the
amount of water needed in the fields. Introducing IOT
based smart irrigation system which preserves time and
assures prudent uses of water. Furthermore, this design
uses Esp8266 WiFi module and microcontroller which
assure a rise in system life by diminishing power
consumption [1].
Ravi Kishore Kodali and Borade Samar
Sarjeraopresent the Low Cost Smart Irrigation System
Using MQTTProtocol.Efforts have been made to make
an easy water pump controller based on soil moisture
sensor and are useful in the agriculture sector using
Esp8266 NodeMCU-12E.Esp8266 NodeMCU-12E is
inexpensive, uses a small microcontroller in size and
consumes less power which makes the proposed
system suitable for the given operation.
Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Socket
Layer (SSL) cryptographic protocols provide system
security. Soil moisture sensor is highly accurate which
give analog readings and measures the value of soil
moisture correctly. This mobile app and web page
displays the soil moisture price and water pump state
[4].
G. Parameswaran and K.Sivaprasath
introducedanArduino Based Smart Drip Irrigation
System Using Internet of Things.This irrigation system
gives better production than prior and water usage is
limited.Due to routine updates to the server and getting
the proper knowledge of the system indefinitely, the
production rate may also increase in some unusual
circumstances. It mitigates the human work, power and
cost. The server updates farmers about the nature of the
crop area and everything else. [2].
PriyankaPadalalu, SonalMahajan, KartikeeDabir,
SushmitaMitkar and DeepaliJavale proposed Smart
Water Dripping System for Agriculture. The presented
model control and monitor accurately the water
necessity in the field automatically. Smart irrigation
system assures prudent use of water. This design uses a
microcontroller which increases system life and
curtails power consumption. This water dripping
system has proposed a smart solution for proper
utilization of water which is a very big problem in
flourishing countries like India. The whole system is
easy to operate by using the android system [5].
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM
The artificial method of watering crops in farms is
irrigation. In the current scenario, water shortage due to
increased exploitation has urged to develop a new
technology which can save water from wasting and
since agriculture is the most cost-effective business,
therefore there will be a smart way to check the loss of
water in the irrigation system [6].
Pressure on existing water allocation has increased and
the significance of water management has been raised
for the sustainability of irrigated farming. The purpose
of this idea is to make the irrigation system smart,
autonomous and efficient, to optimize the water supply
to the crops to decrease manual intervention. It
observes soil, climate, dehydration conditions and plant
water consumption and automated adjustment of the
water schedule. Therefore, smart irrigation has become
a major concern near the system so that a smart device
can be given to the farmer who supports them in the
production of quality crops.
Since India is an agriculture-based country and has
plenty of water resources. But population expansion
and over-utilization have led to a condition where the
demand for water is exceeded then the supply. In the
smart irrigation system, different types of sensors are
used to make farmer updated about their land. Soil
moisture, water flow, temperature and pH sensors are
used to measure the water required by the area. A soil
moisture sensor determines the moisture content in the
field in order to forestall crops from water
desertification problems and the temperature of the
crops are monitored by the temperature sensor because
crops are delicate towards temperature.Smart irrigation
system warns farmers about the temperature of crops
and provides instructions for using sprinklers to reduce
the temperature, so it will save the farmers' money
4th International Conference on Advances in Electrical, Electronics, Information, Communication and Bio-Informatics (AEEICB-18)
along with crops. An attempt to create a system which
can be operable from a longer distance, this can help
farmers to monitor and control the area 24x7 during the
whole year.Arduino has a microcontroller that controls
the entire setup and an ESP8266wifi module is used to
transmit and receive data.
Fig.2. Block Diagram of Smart irrigation system using ESP8266
IV. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
Arduino microcontroller is the intellectual part of the
system. It is an open source electronics platform in
which complex electronics prototypes with hardware
and software have been designed, developed and tested
[10]. Arduino interacts with the user through a website,
a server is created that can receive and transmit data to
the website from the ESP8266 WiFi module (connect
with the arduino microcontroller). Arduino – ESP8266
– server – user.
To obtain a desired output, a correct algorithm is
needed. There are following steps the algorithm
consists of:
Step 1: Switch the power ON of the system that
energies arduino microcontroller, sensors and other
gadgets.
Step 2: Start the system, which includes sensors,
ESP8266 Wi-Fi modules and user interfaces.
Step3: Interpret the system instruction from the
configuration file and operate it according to the files.
978-1-5386-4606-9©2018 IEEE
Step 4: Read the data from the sensor and analyze the
data to check whether the user needs to be alerted or
monitored continuously.
Step 5: Transmit the data to the user using the ESP
8266 and wait for the user to respond.
Step 6: If the response is YES, analyze the irrigation
pumps and sprinklers, toggle the state and save the
current state in the system configuration file. A user
can transmit distinct commands for the selection of
irrigation pumps and sprinklers [3].
The sensors using this prototype are as follows [5]:
A. pH Sensors:Crops soil required water to maintain the
pH. A sensor called pH sensor is used for the
measurement of nutrient contents in the soil.
B. Temperature Sensors:The resistance temperature
detectors (RTDs) measure resistance and
conversion factor are used to find the temperature.
Higher the resistance implies higher the
temperature. The range of the temperature is 0 –
110 degree Celsius and belongs to the LM35 series.
C. Soil Moisture Sensors:It is a low cost and user-
friendly gadget, which is used to observe soil moisture
value. A capacitance is used to evaluate dielectric
permittivity of the encircling medium. The water
content is the function of the dielectric permittivity in
the soil. Dielectric permittivity and the water content of
the soil is proportional to voltage created by the sensor.
The average value is taken over the entire length of the
sensor. Since different crops needed a different level of
moisture so that productivity increases. By using soil
moisture value, farmers should know about how much
water is present on the farm so that water is provided
accordingly [8].
D. Water pump:It is used to water the crops and the
driver circuit operates it.
E. Servo motor:It manages to rotate from 0 – 180O and
control the angular movement of the pipes to circulate
water properly.
F. Power supply: 5V power supply is used.
G. ESP8266 WiFi Module:
Fig.3. ESP8266
This is a system on chip (SOC) and Wi-Fi networks
that have software applications. The TCP/IP protocol is
present in it and allowed the access to the Wi-Fi
connectivity. It is capable of hosting an application or
removing all Wi-Fi networking functions from any
other application processor. Flash memory can start
directly from an exterior move. Built-in cache memory
will decrease memory requirement and supports
upgrade system performance. Another situation is the
wireless internet access that understands the function of
the Wi-Fi adapter, it can add to any microcontroller-
based design, easy connection due to the SCI / SDIO
interface. It is a sophisticated device with a fine
processing system and storage capacity. It integrates
with GPIO ports sensor and other application specific
machine, which is initially loading and at least during
the runtime. ESP8266 require little external circuits
due to highly integrated chip. The antenna switch and
front-end module are included, which is designed to
reduce the PCB area. The ESP8266 system supports
the following features: Bluetooth interference, Energy
saving VoIP applications and has auto-generated RF,
this operating condition does not allow working with
any external RF parts. The module has 3.3 V input
voltage. It has 8 pins and these are 1 TXD and 1 RXD,
2 GPIO pins i.e. GPIO 0 and GPIO 2, RST (Reset),
VCC and GND (Ground). This module is inexpensive
and transforms the IOT method into a specific
version[12].
H. Router:It is the networking machine invented to
interpret, receive and transmit the data from one
network to another. It performs the “traffic directing”
function on the internet. A data packet is typically sent
from one router to the other on the networks which
authorize inter-networking before it enters its terminal
node [13].
I. Voltage Regulator [AMS 1117-3.3] :
It is designed to provide a flexible and fixed voltage
regulator up to 1A output and it has been operated on
5V input. The maximum guarantee of the device's
dropout voltage is 1.3V, which decreases in low load
currents. In order to limit the current and to reduce the
stress under the overloading condition both the Power
Source Circuitry and Regulatory are used. It has less
current drop and turns5V, 0.7A into 3.3 V for the
ESP8266 module.
J. Sofware [Arduino IDE]:
A sketch is programming code written in the Arduino
IDE.This IDE is used to develop sketches for ESP8266
and has the following sections [11]:
• Text editor: The conventionalized version of C++
programming language is used to write the interpreted
code.
• Message section: This error shows and also gives a
response to save and export code.
• Text: Easy to display text output by Arduino IDE
with full of error messages and other data.
• Console Toolbar: This toolbar includes various
buttons like verification, upload, new, open, save and
use the development board and serial port in the bottom
right corner of the serial monitor window.
V. EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS
When the system shutdown then process is
closed,otherwise it will move more than the specified
limit and switch on the alarm according to the
moisture, temperature and other sensing
elements.Similarly, to check and control the process it
will display on the LCD display. This interpretation is
done without any humanpowerand alarm
automatically. It will enhance the proficient utilization
of energy saving.
This technology can help in preserving water planning
and irrigation timing which is prolonged to other
analogous agricultural crops due to which this system
is endorsed for efficient automated irrigation systems.
To minimize the wastage of water, it is distributed
systematically using a servo motor will ensure maximal
absorption of the water by plant. Soil moisture and
temperature are monitored according to the types of
plants and water is delivered to the plants when it is
needed.
This process controls the distribution of water and
lessens the human work when used in a large
agricultural area. Many of the system's features can be
customized for the needs of a plant and properly
installed by software.
The system can be designed by integrating a Webs
caper which can forecast the climate and water the
plants systematically.
If the rain is anticipated then low amount of water is
needed for the plants and a GSM module can also be
added to the system by which user can able to control
the system via a smartphone. To measure
the amount of water delivered for the irrigation a water
meter can be installed that gives cost estimation. The
volume of water flow can be varied by using solenoid
valve. Moreover, Wireless sensors can also work.
 4th International Conference on Advances in Electrical, Electronics, Information, Communication and Bio-Informatics (AEEICB-18)

[6] K. Lekjaroen, R. Ponganantayotin, A. Charoenrat, S. Funilkul, U.

Supasitthimethee and T. Triyason, “IoT Planting: Watering system
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[7] V. H. Andaluz, A. Y. Tovar, K. D. Bedøsn, J. S. Ortiz and E.
Pruna, “Automatic control of drip irrigation on hydroponic
agriculture: Daniela tomato production”, 2016 IEEE International
Conference on Automatica (ICA-ACCA), Curico, 2016, pp. 1-6.
[8] V. V. h. Ram, H. Vishal, S. Dhanalakshmi and P. M. Vidya,
“Regulation of water in agriculture field using Internet Of Things”,
2015 IEEE Technological Innovation in ICT for Agriculture and
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[9] J. Shenoy and Y. Pingle, “IOT in agriculture”, 2016
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[12] SaraswatiSaha; AnupamMajumdar. “Data centre temperature
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VIII. Conclusion Advanced Research Trends in Engineering and Technology, Vol: 04,
Currently, farmers control irrigation methodmanually Issue: 06, June -2017.
and irrigate their area at a systematic period.These
mechanisms deplete high amount of water and the
outcome is water loss. While dry areas have less
rainfall and irrigation is challenging.Therefore,
ESP8266 Wi-Fi based communication system has been
taken because of the ease of application, maintenance
and price. The gadget is automated that will accurately
monitor and control the water requirement and reliable.
The communication through the websites authorizes
the user to interact with sensors from anywhere in the
world in nanoseconds which is fruitful for the user.
Besides, this design uses ESP8266 Wi-Fi module and
arduino microcontroller that diminish power
consumption by ascending the system life and executes
on large areas for relatively small investment.
REFERENCES
[1] S. Darshna1, T.Sangavi, Sheena Mohan,
A.Soundharya,Sukanya,“Smart Irrigation System”, IOSR-JECE,
May – Jun 2015.
[2] G. Parameswaran and K.Sivaprasath,“Arduino Based Smart Drip
Irrigation System Using Internet of Things”, IJESC Volume 6 Issue
No. 5.
[3] P. Singh and S. Saikia, “Arduino-based smart irrigation
usingwater flow sensor, soil moisture sensor, temperature sensor
andESP8266 WiFi module”, 2016 IEEE Region 10
HumanitarianTechnology Conference (R10-HTC), Agra, India, 2016,
pp. 1-4.
[4] Ravi Kishore Kodali and Borade Samar Sarjerao, “A Low Cost
Smart Irrigation System Using MQTT Protocol”, IEEE Region 10
Symposium (TENSYMP), Cochin, India, 2017, pp. 1-5.
[5] PriyankaPadalalu, SonalMahajan, KartikeeDabir,
SushmitaMitkarandDeepaliJavale, “Smart Water Dripping System
for Agriculture/Farming”,2nd International Conference for
Convergence in Technology (I2CT), Mumbai, India, 2017, pp. 659 –
662.

978-1-5386-4606-9©2018 IEEE

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