Design and Implementation of Real Time Internet of Things (IoT) Enhanced Irrigation System

Abstract

Irrigation is a practice that has existed for a long time. Irrigation is the process of supplying water to the soil during drought or unfavourable weather conditions. Over the years, irrigation practices have evolved in order to eliminate the risk of manual irrigation. This risk includes over irrigation, under irrigation, erosion among others. Modern irrigation practices aim to reduce these problems by incorporating sensor technology, Internet of Things (IoT) and automations. The aim of this work is to design and a Real-Time IoT enhanced irrigation system which utilizes data about the condition of the environment to automate the irrigation process. This system makes use of soil moisture sensor, a rain sensor and a temperature and humidity sensor to capture real time environmental data and makes logic decisions based on the collected data. An ESP 32 microcontroller functions as the brain of the system by collecting data from the sensors and controlling the pump accordingly. The system also employs lot technology using Arduino Cloud loT platform in order to provide remote accessibility. The experimental evaluation involved subjecting the irrigation system to two distinct soil conditions; one dry and the other wet. The results demonstrate the functionality of the system: when rain sensor readings fall below the set threshold of 30% and soil moisture sensor readings drop below 15%, the irrigation pump is activated to compensate for the lack of rainfall and soil moisture. Furthermore, the system responds to environmental conditions, activating the pump for an extended period when relative humidity is below 60% and the temperature exceeds 25°C. Conversely, when the soil is already wet, indicated by high soil moisture sensor readings, the pump remains permanently turned off. This automated irrigation system showcases the potential to optimize water usage and enhance efficiency in response to dynamic environmental factors.