2017 International Conference on Engineering Technology and Technopreneurship (ICE2T)

GSM BASED SOLAR AUTOMATIC

IRRIGATION SYSTEM USING
MOISTURE, TEMPERATURE AND
HUMIDITY SENSORS
1​
Ateeq Ur Rehman, 2​​ Rao Muhammad Asif, 3​​ Rizwan Tariq and 4​​ Ahmed Javed 1,4​
​ Department of Electrical

Engineering, GC University Lahore 2​​ Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Superior University Lahore
3​
National Power Construction Corporation Ltd (NPCC), Pakistan 1​​ ateeq.rehman@gcu.edu.pk,
2​
rao.m.asif@superior.edu.pk, 3​​ rizwan@npcc.com.sa, ​4​ahmed.javed.gcu@gmail.com
​ ​The economy being highly based on agriculture
Abstract—
in the crops is of no good, not only water is wasted but it also ​demands innovative and reliable methods of
irrigation. The
destroys crops. Considering Pakistan, whose economy is ​shortcomings of manual methods of irrigation
can be rectified
mainly based on agriculture requires efficient and modern ​using automated process. This paper presents
the idea of
methods for water provision in the crops fields. The failures ​automatic irrigation method and the following
research sustains this idea. The task of automatic irrigation is done through assistance of soil moisture
sensors. In the project, apart from soil moisture sensor. Humidity and temperature sensors are also used to
make the process more advance. The proposed design also has the feature of GSM which makes this system
wireless. The electricity required by components is provided through solar panels hence this liberates us
from interrupted power supply due
caused through manual methods of irrigation has let us to think about some advance method which can
be relied upon. Anything which is cost effective, labour saving and energy saving is considered efficient.
Hence in this proposed system, a method which uses very less or no labour (runs on its own) has been
recommended, saves electricity and is easy to use [1, 12]. ​to load shedding. The water content is
constantly judged and whenever moisture level of soil gets low, the system sends a signal to motors asking
them to turn on. The motors automatically stop
The proposed system is automatic irrigation system. The automaticity means that it turns itself on and off
depending ​after soil reaches its maximum upper threshold value which is
upon the soil moisture requirement. This automatic behaviour ​decided by user. Every time the motor starts
or stops
of irrigation is achieved using different sensors which sense ​automatically, the user will get a SMS about the
status of
and tell the user if water is required or not and how much ​operation. The major advantages of the project
include avoidance from water wastage, growth of plants to their maximum potential, less chances of error
due to less labor and uninterrupted supply of water due to solar energy.
water will be enough for soil so that water wastage is also avoided. The errors which may arise when
manual irrigation is used are also rectified for the most part using this method. The major source of
electricity in Pakistan is through hydroelectric ​Keywords— ​ ​moisture sensor; humidity sensor; GSM module;
 power but this source has not paid the country with requisite ​wireless; Solar panels.
amount of electrical power hence there is shortage of electricity which is not good for process of irrigation
as
I. INTRODUCTION
motors need uninterrupted supply of electricity. As electricity deficiency is a major problem of Pakistan, so
the system is
In some countries, agriculture is considered as one of the major source of economic progress. The income
of many countries depends directly on agricultural advancement.
made more flexible through using solar energy. The system is independent of any labour but the status of
undergoing process will be received by user through GPRS [2, 10].
Moreover, the continuous increase in the population of a country demands more innovations in food
production
II. SCOPE
technology. The factors affecting agricultural progress must be
The countries where agriculture has a big impact on economy studied thoroughly to obtain maximum
results. The significant
demand a highly effective way of irrigation. A timely and building block of agriculture is the irrigation
system. In other
consistent irrigation is need of the hour in such countries. words, the efficiency of irrigation system may
induce ample
Where lack of water is not tolerated by soil during irrigation, effects on agriculture. Irrigation process
should provide water
the excess of water provision is also not recommended for to soil consistently when it is needed and stops
water flow as
crops flourishment. Hence a feasible irrigation for any land well, when soil has soaked enough water. The
excess of water
requires suitable amount of water with minimum amount of
1
978-1-53861807-3/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
delays. Today’s world demands improved methods as
compared to the old ones to carry out processes faster ande process has to be done both on software and hardware.
the world is moving towards automation of every process. Ine required equipment is as follows:
the proposed system, automatic irrigation system has been
1. PC with Arduino software 2.
suggested which detects the soil moisture level and
Arduino Mega 2560 3. Soil
programmed in a way that if water level goes below
moisture sensor (YL 69) 4.
necessary amount, it automatically starts the pumps to
Humidity sensor (DHT11) 5.
supply water. In this way, maximum results are attained out
Temperature sensor (LM35) 6.
of the fields and water wastage is also reduced to significant
GSM module (SIM900D) 7.
level [3, 13].
Relays 8. Solar panels 9. LCD
20*4 display 10. DC motors 11.
III. METHODOLOGY DC fan

The technique used for automatic irrigation discussed in this B. Arduino Mega 2560
paper is adopted after reviewing and analyzing the literature.
duino is genesis of the proposed system. The center of all
erations taking place in the system. Components are
A. Hardware and Software components nnected to Arduino through different ports and are
dependent on its instruction. Arduino Mega 2560 has been in atmosphere. The high humidity may increase dampness in
used because of its versatility. It has 54 digital I/O ports. soil. LM35 is the temperature sensor. They judge the
There are 16 analog inputs, 4 UART’s, 16 MHz crystal temperature of environment. The advantage of LM35 is its
oscillator, USB port, power port, reset button and ICSP feature that it always gives temperature in Celsius further
header. The flash memory is 256 Kb and EPROM memory is calculations are not required to convert output to get
4 Kb [4]. All the data from sensors comes directly in Arduino temperature in Celsius. The latter two sensors are used to
which processes it and sends the signal forward. The make the system more reliable [5]. These two sensors are
Arduino commands further process whether to start or stop left in open environment. They constantly give the value of
the motors. Basically, the code is being fed into Arduino will temperature and humidity. When the temperature or humidity
judge the moisture condition of soil and decides if motors level of environment alter, it may affect the moisture level of
need to be turned on or off. The code is written on Arduino soil so to eradicate any changes that may fluctuate the
software and transferred to the device using USB cable. C process of irrigation these sensors send signal to Arduino to
language is used in code and threshold values for upper and take some action. In the design, if humidity level goes above
lower points are defined in the code. Basically, the code our defined value then to mild its effect the Arduino sends
tends to keep the water content in between its threshold, if it signal to DC fans located near the sensors. The DC fans
crosses either value, the status of motor will be changed [8, automatically turn on themselves and kept on running until
9]. normal conditions are achieved [6, 11].

C. Sensors D. GSM Module

The participation of sensors in automatic irrigation is most
SIM900D has been used for GPS purpose. This module
important. They play vital role to make the system automatic.
makes the system wireless. The status of undergoing
Without them, the process cannot be imagined as automatic.
Three different sensors have been used. These three process will be updated to user via SMS. This module is
sensors measure three different parameters. The sensors connected to the Arduino board.
include:
E. Photo Voltaic Panels
i. YL 69 ii.
Solar panels are used to liberate irrigation from the shackles
DHT11 iii.
of load shedding. The requirement of water is judged and
LM35
information is transmitted to the solar circuit which modifies
YL 69 is the soil moisture sensor. They sense the water its configuration such that it provides enough DC power to
drive the pumps and fulfill the assigned task. This method is
content in soil. These are most important as the information
forwarded by them is most relative regarding water not only power efficient but also proves to be cost effective
requirement. The sensor has two prongs which when are considered in long run. The solar irrigation process
proves to be of great worth to the irrigation cites which are
submersed in the soil. It has 4 ports. Ports are for GND,
VCC and outputs for analog and digital values [15]. far from grid stations [7, 14].

DHT11 is the humidity sensor. They detect the water content

2017 International Conference on Engineering Technology and Technopreneurship (ICE2T)
 the sensor network. Moisture sensors are submersed into
il and connected back with the main system. The sensors
ve values of moisture content of soil and these values can
seen on LCD. Another circuit is the GSM module. This is
so connected with Arduino and is responsible of sending
ormation of every operation taking place to the user.

the code, there are basically two threshold values i.e

per and lower. The code carries these two values and are
fined by user. The actual value of water content in soil is
ad by the moisture sensors which are submersed in soil.
e code compares this value with the two user defined
eshold
Fig.2 Flowchart of Automatic Irrigation process

If actual value happens to be below than the lower threshold

Fig 1. Block diagram of system
value, the code will generate a signal that will turn motors on.
The process will be autonomous and the dried part of soil
Fig.1 depicts the block diagram of automatic irrigation gets moisturized. The values of moisture level are constantly
process. The diagram includes all basic components used in compared with the threshold values in code and if actual
the system. Fig.1 shows that the sensors give information to moisture value crosses the upper threshold value then again
Arduino and it forwards the information as per the program code will send the signal of turning off the motors. Fig.2
that is inserted in it to the other parts of system that includes represents the basic flowchart diagram of this project. The
LCD, relays, DC motors and GSM. process starts with sensors reading the value and displaying
them on LCD. As the value of moisture falls below the lower
IV. WORKING PRINCIPLE threshold point, the motor starts and if the content climbs the
upper threshold value the motors shuts off. In either case,
The basic working principle of the system is easy to
user will get a SMS first of undergoing process. The status of
understand. The system is divided into smaller circuitries.
motors is also displayed on LCD.
First one is solar circuit, it provides DC power to the
components when power is needed by them. Second circuit
2017 International Conference on Engineering Technology and Technopreneurship (ICE2T)
 values.
irrigation because of its consistency and usability. This
provisation in food production technology greatly
hances the opportunities to increase the economic growth
Pakistan. With the use of minimum resources, the
oposed system can save a lot of water and electricity
nce economically favorable.
REFERENCES

Fig 3 (a). Connections between basic

components

[8] Rani, M. Usha, and S. Kamalesh. "Web based service to monitor

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Fig 3(b). The constructed prototype
[9] Agrawal, Nikhil, and Smita Singhal. "Smart drip irrigation system using
raspberry pi and arduino." Computing, Communication & Automation
Fig 3(a) and (b) show the pictures of original project. The Fig (ICCCA), 2015 International Conference on. IEEE, 2015
3 (b) gives the whole project in which two plants are also
shown. Both plants have moisture sensors immersed in [10] Nallani, Sandeep, and V. Berlin Hency. "Low power cost effective
them. A separate motor is also connected to each plant automatic irrigation system." Indian Journal of Science and Technology
8.23 (2015)
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electricity issue can also be resolved by using solar energy. Conference on. IEEE, 2012
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 Conference on Science and Engineering. 2011
[15] Rajpal, Abhinav, et al. "Microcontroller-based automatic irrigation
system with moisture sensors." Proceedings of the International
2017 International Conference on Engineering Technology and Technopreneurship (ICE2T)
 VI. FUTURE WORK

The project can be made more versatile through using more

sensors. The addition of more sensors can increase the
accuracy of moisture content measurement. This project
operates on solar power (DC power), it can be made to
operate at AC power as well through two-way power supply
system. Such that, motors operate on AC and in case of load
shedding the motors take their input supply from solar circuit.

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