| A cost-effective solution for water reduction based on a smart irrigation system is presented in this pa-per. The system consists of a microcontroller, moisture sen-sors, relays, solenoid valve and water pump. Depending on the conditions of a specific location (soil condition – wet, dry, etc.) the system can control the amount of used water by modifying some parameters. In this application were considered 2 zones which mean that 2 humidity sensors were used. When the humidity drops below a threshold val-ue on one of the two zones, the corresponding humidity sen-sor transmits the information to the controller, opens the solenoid valve and starts the water pump until the humidity reaches at the preset value. If humidity decreases in the meantime on the other zone the information received from the humidity sensor leads the solenoid valve to open and the pump starts until the desired humidity is attained. When the humidity is over the threshold value, the system is in “stand-by” until the sensors send new information to the microcon-troller and thus the system resumes its operating cycle. In this way various crops can be watered without using a high quantity of water. In addition, a smartphone application was used in order to provide to the user information about the soil condition. In order to implement this solution, a laboratory model was constructed and experimental results were performed to test the performance of the irrigation system. |
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