Smart Irrigation System for Domestic Homes

Abstract

This research presents the designing of a smart irrigation system to automatically supply water and fertilizer to different plants depending on each plant ’s individual requirement and the integration of this smart irrigation system to a domestic home. The microcontroller was programmed to operate under two modes. Fully automated and semi-automated. These two modes give all the monitoring information to the user in real-time, while fully automated mode provides water and fertilizer to the plants calculating optimum conditions with minimum human interaction. Microcontroller was programmed to (1) analyze and process the received input data from soil moisture sensors, humidity and temperature sensors, (2) check the activated mode and other user settings, and (3) control the valves to water or fertilize the plants accordingly. Microcontroller and the IoT device maintain communication to receive or send data to the user through internet. A web interface was developed to display sensor data and with a control interface for the user. The user can connect to the system through Wi-Fi to access the web interface. By using the controls, soil moisture, temperature and humidity thresholds can be changed, and watering or fertilization systems can be activated. For data analysis and flowrate simulations, ‘SolidWorks’ was used. Using the same software, the enclosures and other hardware components needed to store the microcontroller, the Wi-Fi module, the power supply, and connector array of sensors were designed, 3D printed, and the complete system was assembled and tested.