Scientific Research and Essays Vol. 6(7), pp.

1573-1582, 4 April, 2011

Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/SRE
DOI: 10.5897/SRE10.949
ISSN 1992-2248 ©2011 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

A wireless application of drip irrigation automation

supported by soil moisture sensors
Mahir Dursun* and Semih Ozden
Department of Electrical Education, Technical Education Faculty, Gazi University, 06500, Teknikokullar, Ankara, Turkey.
Accepted 1 February, 2011

Irrigation by help of freshwater resources in agricultural areas has a crucial importance. Because of
highly increasing demand for freshwater, optimal usage of water resources has been provided with
greater extent by automation technology and its apparatus such as solar power, drip irrigation, sensors
and remote control. Traditional instrumentation based on discrete and wired solutions, presents many
difficulties on measuring and control systems especially over the large geographical areas. This paper
describes an application of a wireless sensor network for low-cost wireless controlled irrigation solution
and real time monitoring of water content of soil. Data acquisition is performed by using solar powered
wireless acquisition stations for the purpose of control of valves for irrigation. The designed system has
3 units namely: base station unit (BSU), valve unit (VU) and sensor unit (SU). The obtained irrigation
system not only prevents the moisture stress of trees and salification, but also provides an efficient use
of fresh water resource. In addition, the developed irrigation method removes the need for workmanship
for flooding irrigation. The designed system was applied to an area of 8 decares in a venue located in
central Anatolia for controlling drip irrigation of dwarf cherry trees.

Key words: Wireless soil moisture sensor, irrigation, real time monitoring, drip irrigation, automation.

INTRODUCTION

Agricultural irrigation is highly important in crop in water availability due to different soil characteristics or
production everywhere in the world. In Turkey, 75% of crop water needs and site-specifically controlling irriga-
the current fresh water is consumed in the agricultural tion valves (Miranda et al., 2005; Coates and Delwiche,
irrigation (Dursun and Ozden, 2010). Therefore, efficient 2006; Dursun and Ozden, 2011). Decision making
water management plays an important role in the process with the controls is a viable option for
irrigated agricultural cropping systems (Kim and Evans, determining when and where to irrigate, and how much
2009; Sezen et al., 2010). water to use. Temporal monitoring of soil moisture at
The demand for new water saving techniques in irri- different growth stages of crop could prevent water stress
gation is increasing rapidly right now. In order to produce and improve the crop yield (Doraiswamy et al., 2004;
“more crop per drop”, growers in (semi) arid regions Coates et al., 2005; King et al., 2002).
currently explore irrigation techniques in the range from Sensor–based irrigation systems have been studied in
using less fresh water (Balendonck et al., 2008; Ngaira, many applications (Stone et al., 1985; Jacobson et al.,
2007). One of them is making agriculture in a manner of 1989; Zazueta and Smajstrla, 1992; Meron et al., 1995;
sense, which uses different type of sensors (Lopez, et al., Wyland et al., 1996; Testezlaf et al., 1997; Abreu and
2009). A site-specific wireless sensor-based irrigation Pereira, 2002; Kim et al., 2008, 2009). In last two
control system is a potential solution to optimize yields decades, with development of wireless technologies,
and maximize water use efficiency for fields with variation several researches focused on autonomous irrigation
with sensors in agricultural systems (Oksanen et al.,
2004; Zhang, 2004). Amongst these works, a micro
sprinkler system has a different place, and it was
*Corresponding author. E-mail: mdursun@gazi.edu.tr. Tel: designed for latching the controlled solenoid valves in a
+903122028526. Fax: +903122120059. citrus orchard with wireless sensors (Torre-Neto et al.,
1574 Sci. Res. Essays

2000). Afterwards, soil moisture sensors and sprinkler BSU. The VU involves a 12 V, 10 W normally-closed
valve controllers are begun to use for site-specific solenoid valve and a 12 V, 26 Ah battery.
irrigation automation. (Kim and Evans, 2009; Miranda et
al., 2003; Wall and King, 2004; Perry et al, 2004; Damas
MATERIALS AND METHODS
et al., 2001). The advantages of using wireless sensors
are having the reduced wiring and piping costs, and The designed system was applied for controlling drip irrigation of
easier installation and maintenance in large areas 1000 dwarf cherry tree. This drip irrigation was performed by solar
(Panchard, 2006; Wang et al., 2006; Kim et al., 2006; powered pumps. One of them (pump-1) carries water from Dam
Baggio, 2005). Lake to water tank, another one (pump-2) is used for achieving the
required pressure for irrigation of orchards. Application area is
After the usage of wireless technology began in located in a geographical area of 40°10'48.12” North and
agricultural irrigation, a trial was made to involve different 35°51'59.21" in central Anatolia; this is within the boundaries of east
types of equipments in such instrumentations. In terms of coordinate of Zile District of Tokat Province of Turkey. In this area
controllers, Miranda et al., 2003; Coates et al., 2006a; 14 laterals which are irrigated independently with control of valves
Coates et al., 2006b were designed microcontroller site- have been setup. The configuration of this application (not as a
specific irrigation, wireless monitoring system was imple- whole, as only 2 units) can be shown in Figure 1.
mented with a field programmable gate array (FPGA) by
Mendoza-Jasso et al. (2005). In terms of protocols, infra- Hardware
red, GSM/GPRS WPANs (Wireless Personal Area
Networks), Bluetooth, WLANs (Wireless Local Area There are three different units which were designed and applied in
Networks) have been put to different utilities to implement this schema: Base station unit (BSU), valve unit (VU) and sensor
unit (SU). All of these units contain a RF module, an antenna, a 7 V
wireless sensors in precision agriculture (Wang et al., and 1.8 W solar panel(s) and a low power micro controller chip
2006; Camilli et al., 2007; Vellidis et al., 2008; Siuli and (MCU). All the electronic devices, sensors, and solenoid valves
Bandyopadhyays, 2008; Pierce and Elliot, 2008). Many were selected to meet the low power and low cost requirement for
studies have successfully demonstrated the usage of the system. The units used in the application were designed as a
active and passive microwave remote sensing too portable device. It decides which parts must be measured and
controlled.
(Engman and Chauhan, 1995; Ulaby et al., 1996;
The MCU has a 20 MHz oscillator frequency, 768 bytes of
Jackson et al., 1999; Du et al., 2006). internal RAM, 32 KB program memories, 256 bytes EEPROM
It has been seen that many irrigation scheduling memory, 8 ADC channel and 40-pin DIP package with 34
methods by wireless sensors have been developed for programmable I/O pins (TTL-level), one additional pin dedicated to
the last several decades. Many of the commercially asynchronous communications. This MCU was selected in terms of
available sensors, valves and modules assembled for the parameters according to cost, processor speed, low power
requirements, rapid software development, and ease of system
irrigation system networks are too complex and/or costly integration with custom circuits.
to be feasible for site-specific management of fixed
irrigation systems. Adoption of them by producers has
been limited due to cost, installation time, maintenance, Wireless module
and complexity of systems (Thelen et al., 2005; Miranda
This is a model named as UFM-M11 and produced / marketed by
et al., 2005). Udea Technology Inc. RF module has been chosen for soil
The main aim of the research is to develop and to test moisture sensor. A 434 MHz low power wireless modules and
an autonomous, having low cost equipped and feedback UGPA-434 Omni-direction antenna were connected. Outdoor radio
type controller for site-specific management of irrigation transmission range of the module is 400 to 500 m. RF modules use
systems with solar powered wireless acquisition stations. Frequency-Shift Keying (FSK) modulation and maximum output of
Such a system can be cost effective monitoring control power is 10 dBm. Its power consumption is 10 mW at 434 MHz and
current consumption is 17 mA for receiving mode and 30 mA
systems for growers. Moreover, this irrigation method can transmitting mode. RF wireless modules were used to have
remove work man power that is needed for flooding communication 9.6 Kbps with MCU and its view is given in Figure 2.
irrigation. It can also prevent moisture stress of trees and UFM-M11 has a special data format to communicate with the other
salification which comes from the main water reservoir. modules.
The proposed system has been realized in form of 3 Every module has got transmitting/ receiving function. Some
properties have to be fulfilled to establish connection. These are
portable units. These are named as base station unit
appropriate general data in RS232-TTL level, 8 data bits and one
(BSU), valve unit (VU) and sensor unit (SU). All of the stop bit. General data format is shown in Figure 3. A 60 bytes
units are involved in UDEA brand 434 MHz RF module, 7 maximum length data package can be sent to the transmitter
V, 1.8 W solar panel (s) and low power Microchip module by MCU which is administrated by the Radio Frequency
PIC18F452 micro controller chip. Decagon brand soil (RF) synchronizing protocol. Also the module allows optimal
moisture is seen in SU which sends data of soil moisture working frequency (433.05 to 434 MHz with 200 Hz steps).
to base station unit. BSU evaluates the data received
from SU and decides which part of area must be irrigated Power supply
and which types of signals must be sent as open or close
information to valve unit. Also all data and position of The designed system needs to have two different voltage levels.
valves were monitored by the software in a computer with The microcontroller used in the system (PIC) runs by a 5 V, the RF
 Dursun and Ozden 1575

Figure 1. Overview of the system installed in the area.

Figure 2. UDEA UFM-M11 RF Module.

Figure 3. RF Module general data format.

1576 Sci. Res. Essays

Figure 4. Schematic diagram of the power supply of the modules

Figure 5. Soil moisture sensor brand by Decagon.

module runs by a 2.7 to 3.3 V DC. Power supply unit must be stable ports. In this system two LEDs were added for notifications. These
for a stable connection with the RF modules. A solar panel (1.8 W, hardwires of SU are given in Figure 6. Application of SU is given in
7 V) was used to supply the units. The input voltage is passed Figure 7. This figure also presents solar panel, PCB of SU, sensor,
through 1N4004 diodes for protecting system against the short RF antenna and dwarf cherry tree.
circuit currents. The voltages level was kept as 5 V with 7805 for
PIC and 3.0 V with LP2950 for RF module. In the circuit it is seen
that a few capacitors and inductors were used to filter ripples of the Valve unit
voltages. The power supply of the system discussed earlier is
shown in Figure 4. Valve unit has the same connection with wireless module and the
same properties with SU. It has an output for controlling the valve.
This valve was operated digital outputs (RD6) on the microcontroller
Soil moisture sensor and unit by transistor (MJE3055). PVD Brand, ½”, normally-closed solenoid
valves with a 12 V, 10 W coil was selected. This application of the
In the developed system, 10 HS coded pre-calibrated Soil Moisture VU is shown in Figure 8.
Sensor of Decagon has been used to measure water content of soil
(Figure 5). The 10 HS has a low power requirement and very high
resolution. This gives you the ability to make as many Base station unit (BSU)
measurements as you want (that is, hourly) over a long period of
time with minimal battery usage. 10 HS needs 12 to 15 mA and The BSU is a master device that is programmed to read and to
runs with 3 to 15 V DC. Output voltage of sensor is 300 to 1250 mV evaluate sensors data, to control valves and to communicate with
(independent from the excitation voltage). other units. Installing BSU in the system is given in Figure 9 as a
The 10 HS measures the dielectric constant of the soil in order to photographic view. The mounted PCB was interfaced to the
find its volumetric water content (VWC) using a capacitance outsides by a RS-
technique. Since the dielectric constant of water is much higher 232 serial port.
than that of air or soil minerals, the dielectric constant of the soil is a
sensitive measure of volumetric water content.
The SU acquires data given by the ADC, and the data sent to Software
BSU. Value of ADC input which comes from the sensor is stored in
a 10-bit register. Different type of sensors can be added easily for The flow chart of this software is shown in Figure 10. After power-
future developments. Output voltage level of PIC (5 V) is higher up, the BSU sends address data with sensor numbers to the SU for
than RF module (3 V). Cause of that 5 to 3 V level conversion was getting the data. The SU sends moisture data with sensor number.
used for communication microcontroller with RF module. In this If the BSU matches the SU data, it can evaluate the moisture data.
design, a 20 MHz oscillator was selected to use. The output value If it requires, the position of valve can be changed. Afterwards, the
which was produced by the sensor value is as an analog data and it BSU sends address data for getting new sensor value. The SU
is converted to digital data by the PIC and sent to PC via serial measures soil moisture after receiving it from the BSU and then it
 Dursun and Ozden 1577

Figure 6. Hardware schematic diagram supported by sensor unit.

Figure 7. System’s application around dwarf cherry tree with sensor unit.

sends data. The VU changes the position (on or off) after receiving EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
the data from BSU.
Figure 11 represents an instantaneous case during irrigating a
dwarf cherry tree and its soil moisture. The position of the soil The soil moisture sensor which is used in this application
moisture sensor is given in Figure 12. has been located 20 cm of depth from ground and 50 cm
1578 Sci. Res. Essays

Figure 8. Application of the valve unit.

Figure 9. Application of Base station unit.

far away from the dwarf cherry tree. Figure 11 shows the 150 min per 3 s, a total of 3000 data have been taken
position of the soil moisture sensor. The location of the and recorded. The curve regarding to the recorded data
mounted sensor is demonstrated as a schematic diagram is shown in Figure 13. All the analog values taken from
in Figure 12 with irrigation drippers. The irrigation system the soil moisture sensor is sensed by a PIC, and they are
entirely has started to work and the ordinary data has converted to real volumetric water content. The
been received by BSU during irrigation at time 09:00 to conversion equation is given in Equation 1 (Decagon,
11:30. 2009). The analog to digital converter (ADC) is referred to
All of instantaneous the data have been recorded within an analog value sensed by a PIC microcontroller.
 Dursun and Ozden 1579

Figure 10. Software flow charts of units.

Figure 11. A picture of the mounted sensor while irrigating a dwarf cherry tree.

VWC ( m 3 / m 3 ) = 1.17 * 10 −9 * ADC 3 − 3.95 * 10 −6 * ADC 2 + 4 .90 * 10 −3 * ADC − 1 .92 The characteristic curve related with the VWC and time
(1) follows circa linearity. In the first hour, increasing of the
1580 Sci. Res. Essays

Figure 12. Location of the soil moisture sensor in this application.

19.50

19.00

18.50

18.00
VWC (m / m )
3

17.50
3

17.00

16.50

16.00

15.50

15.00

14.50

14.00

Figure 13. The curve of the recorded Volumetric Water Content (VWC) versus the time values.

curve is changed slowly; however, some ripples are developed system is given in Table 1. As an example the
being seen at passing up level as shown in Figure 13. BSU contains somewhat fundamental components and
its price is about $ 96. As it is affordable, it can be used
by growers in their own agricultural irrigations. In the
THE COST OF THE EQUIPMENTS system all of component was selected low cost materials.
So that it can be use all of commercial application. The
The cost of all electronic components and devices of the item prices of each equipment which were used in the
 Dursun and Ozden 1581

Table 1. The cost of the electronic components and devices.

Unit price (USD)

Equipment
BSU SU VU
Wireless module 40 40 40
Antenna 27 27 27
PIC 8 8 8
Electronic component 5 6 5
PCB 5 5 5
Sensor - 125 -
Valve - - 45
Solar panel 11 11 22
Battery - - 60
Total (USD) 96 222 212

application are shown in Table 1. Camilli A, Cugnasca CE, Saraiva AM, Hirakawa AR, Corrêa LP (2007).
From wireless sensor to field mapping: Anatomy of an application for
precision agriculture. Comput. Electron. Agric., 58: 25-36.
Coates RW, Delwiche M, Brown P (2005). Precision Irrigation in
CONCLUSION Orchards: Development of a Spatially Variable Microsprinkler
System. Information and Technology for Sustainable Fruit and
Vegetable Production (FRUTIC). pp. 611-624.
In this study, a wireless data acquisition network was
Coates RW, Delwiche MJ (2006). Solar-Powered, Wirelessly-Networked
implemented and applied to irrigate dwarf cherry trees. Valves for Site- Specific Irrigation. ASABE Annual International
The developed irrigation automation system can be Meeting. Paper, pp. 062165
proposed to be used in several commercial agricultural Coates RW, Delwiche MJ, Brown PH (2006a). Control of individual
microsprinklers and fault detection strategies. Precision Agric.,
productions since it was obtained in low cost and in
7: 85-99.
reliable operation. This application of sensor-based site- Coates RW, Delwiche MJ, Brown PH (2006b). Design of a system for
Specific irrigation has some advantages such as individual microsprinkler control. Trans. ASABE, 49(6): 1963-1970.
preventing moisture stress of trees, diminishing of Damas M, Prados AM, Gomez F, Olivares G (2001). HidroBus®
excessive water usage, ensuring of rapid growing weeds system: fieldbus for integrated management of extensive areas of
irrigated land. Microprocessors Microsyst. 25: 177-184.
and derogating salification. Doraiswamy PC, Hatfield JL, Jackson TJ, Akhmedov B, Prueger J,
If different kinds of sensors (that is, temperature, Stern A (2004). Crop condition and yield simulations using Landsat
humidity, and etc.) are involved in such irrigation in future and MODIS. Remote Sensing Environ., 92: 548-559.
Du Y, Ulaby FT, Dobson MC (2000). Sensitivity to soil moisture by
works, it can be said that an internet based remote
active and passive microwave sensors. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote
control of irrigation automation will be possible. The deve- Sensing. 38: 105-114.
loped system can also transfer fertilizer and the other Dursun M, Ozden S (2010). A Prototype of PC Based Remote Control
agricultural chemicals (calcium, sodium, ammonium, of Irrigation. International Conference on Environmental Engineering
and Application (ICEEA), pp. 255-258. (IEEE Catalog Number:
zinc) to the field with adding new sensors and valves.
CFP1020L-PRT)
Dursun M, Ozden S (2011). Application of Solar Powered Automatic
Water Pumping in Turkey. International Conference on Electrical
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Energy and Networks (ICEEN), pp. 52-57. (IEEE Catalog Number:
CFP1155M-PRT)
This project was fund by Turkish Ministry of Industry and Engman ET, Chauhan N (1995). Status of microwave soil moisture
Trade as a project numbered 00228.STZ.2008-1 measurements with remote sensing. Remote Sensing Environ., 51:
SANTEZ and Zile Mercantile Exchange province. 189-198.
Jackson TJ, Vine DL, Hsu AY, Oldak A, Starks P, Swift C, Isham J,
Haken M (1999). Soil moisture mapping at regional scales using
microwave radiometry: the Southern Great Plains Hydrology
REFERENCES Experiment. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing, 37:2136-2151.
Jacobson BK, Jones PH, Jones JW, Paramore JA (1989). Real-time
Abreu VM, Pereira LS (2002). Sprinkler irrigation systems design using greenhouse monitoring and control with an expert system. Comput.
ISAMim. p. 022254. Electron. Agric., 3: 273-285.
Baggio A (2005). Wireless sensor networks in precision agriculture. In: Kim Y, Evans RG (2009). Software design for wireless sensor-based
On-line Proc. of the Workshop on Real-World Wireless Sensor site-specific irrigation. Comput. Electron. Agric., 66: 159-165
Networks, pp. 50-51. Kim Y, Evans RG, Iversen WM (2008). Remote sensing and control of
Balendonck J, Hemming J, Van Tuijl BAJ, Pardossi A, Incrocci L, an irrigation system using a distributed wireless sensor network.
Marzialetti P (2008). Sensors and Wireless Sensor Networks for IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., 57(7): 1379-1387.
Irrigation Management under Deficit Conditions (FLOW-AID). Kim Y, Evans RG, Iversen WM (2009). Evaluation of closed-loop site-
International Conference on Agricultural Engineering (AgEng2008). specific irrigation with wireless sensor network. J. Irrig. Drain. Eng.,
Conf. Proc. p.19. 135(1): 25-31.
1582 Sci. Res. Essays

Kim Y, Evans RG, Iversen WM, Pierce FJ (2006). Instrumentation and Siuli Roy AD, Bandyopadhyays S (2008). Agro-sense: Precision
control for wireless sensor network for automated irrigation. ASAE agriculture using sensor-based wireless mesh networks. Innovations
Annual Int. Meeting, p. 061105. in NGN: Future Network and Services. In: Proceedings of the First
Lopez RJA, Sotoa F, Suardiaza F, Sancheza P, Iborraa A, Verab JA ITU-T Kaleidoscope Academic Conference (K-INGN 2008). pp. 383-
(2009). Wireless Sensor Networks for precision horticulture in 388.
Southern Spain. Comput. Electron. Agric., 68: 25-35. Stone KC, Smajstrla AG, Zazueta FS (1985). Microcomputer-based
Mendoza-Jasso J, Vargas GO, Miranda RC, Ramos EV, Garrido AZ, data acquisition system for continuous soilwater potential
Ruiz GH (2005). FPGA-based real-time remote monitoring system. measurements. Soil Crop Sci. Soc. Fla. Proc., 44: 49-53.
Comput. Electron. Agric., 49: 272-285. Testezlaf R, Zazueta FS, Yeager TH (1997). A real-time irrigation
Meron M, Assaf R, Bravdo B, Wallach R, Hallel R, Levin A, Dahan I control system for greenhouses. Appl. Eng. Agric., 13 (3): 329-332.
(1995). Soil sensor actuated microirrigation of apples. In: Thelen J, Goense D, Langendoen K (2005). Radio wave propagation in
Proceedings of the 5th International Microirrigation Congress, potato fields. In: First Workshop on Wireless Network Measurements
ASABE. pp. 486-491. (co-located with WiOpt2005), pp. 1-4.
Miranda FR, Yoder R, Wilkerson JB (2003). A site-specific irrigation Torre-Neto A, Schueller JK, Haman DZ (2000). Networked sensing and
control system. ASAE Annual International Meeting. p. 031129. valve actuation for spatially-variable microsprinkler irrigation. ASAE
Miranda FR, Yoder RE, Wilkerson JB, Odhiamboc LO (2005). An Annual International Meeting. pp. 001158.
autonomous controller for site-specific management of fixed irrigation Ulaby FT, Dubois PC, Zyl JJV (1996). Radar mapping of surface soil
systems. Comput. Electron. Agric., 48:183-197. moisture. J. Hydrol., 184: 57-84.
Ngaira JKW (2007). Impact of climate change on agriculture in Africa by Vellidis G, Tucker M, Perry C, Kvien C, Bednarz C (2008). A real-time
2030. Sci. Res. Essays, 2(7): 238-243. wireless smart sensor array for scheduling irrigation. Comput.
Oksanen T, Ohman M, Miettinen M, Visala A (2004). Open configurable Electron. Agric., 61: 44-50.
control system for precision farming. Automation Technology for Off- Wall RW, King BA (2004). Incorporating plug and play technology into
Road Equipment, Proceedings, 701P1004. measurement and control systems for irrigation management. ASAE
Panchard J, Rao S, Prabhakar TV, Jamadagni HS, Hubaux JP (2006). Annual International Meeting. pp. 042189.
COMMON-Sense Net: Improved Water Management for Resource- Wang N, Zhang N, Wang M (2006). Wireless sensors in agriculture and
Poor Farmers via Sensor Networks. ICTD 2006 Conference. food industry — Recent development and future perspective. Comp.
Perry CD, Dukes MD, Harrison KA (2004). Effects of variable-rate Electron. Agric., 50: 1-14.
sprinkler cycling on irrigation uniformity. ASAE Annual International Wyland LJ, Jackson LE, Chaney WE, Klonsky K, Koike ST, Kimple B
Meeting, p. 041117. (1996). Winter cover crops in a vegetable cropping system: Impacts
Pierce FJ, Elliot TV (2008). Regional and on-farm wireless sensor on nitrate leaching, soil water, crop yield, pests and management
networks for agricultural systems in Eastern Washington. Comput. costs. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ., 59: 1-17.
Electron. Agric., 61: 32-43. Zazueta FS, Smajstrla AG (1992). Microcomputer-based control of
Sezen SM, Celikel G, Yazar A, Tekin S, Kapur B (2010). Effect of irrigation systems. Appl. Eng. Agric., 8(5): 593-596.
irrigation management on yield and quality of tomatoes grown in Zhang Z (2004). Investigation of wireless sensor networks for precision
different soilless media in a glasshouse. Sci. Res. Essay, 5(1): 41-48. agriculture. ASAE Annual International Meeting. p. 041154.