Smart Irrigation System Using Arduino

Climate change exacerbates the competition on a resource (water) already experiences shortage around the world. Irrigation one of the crucial competitors of water. Optimizing irrigation water use has becomes standing objective for long time. Efficient irrigation systems have been designed to optimize irrigation water use. Efficient irrigation is defined as an application of the exact amount of water at the exact time to the soil around the needy plant. To help apply the exact amount (volume flow rate) of water at the right timing, smart and automatic irrigation system was designed, built, and tested. The smart irrigation system comprises of several components (sensors, automatic valves and pump) automatically communicate through Arduino (controller). The sensors detect the soil moisture and determine the exact amount of water required. Then the sensors communicate with the pump and the valves via the controller to apply the proper amount of water at the time it is required. Based on the pump flow rate, timers are used to stop the pump when the required amount of water is applied. Regardless of the difficulties encountered the smart irrigation system was successfully designed and a prototype was built and tested. The different system's components were, matched, tested for compatibility, and assembled. The software that facilitates the communication between the different system's components was developed, installed, and tested. Then the system's workability and operation ability were tested. At the beginning there were some complications hindered the system to run smoothly. The complications include: mal functioning of the moisture sensors; moisture readings were qualitative (high/low); Arduino failed to receive information from multiple sensors; the dripping nozzles were leaking. After taking care of these problems the system was running smoothly. However, the smart irrigation system was found to be versatile, flexible, and working effectively