Report on

AUTOMATIC
PLANT IRRIGATION
SYSTEM
  TABLE OF CONTENT:
1. Objective________________ (1)

2. Introduction______________ (1)

3. Construction______________ (2)

4. Working_________________ (4)

5. Advantages______________ (5)

6. Limitations_______________ (6)

7. Application_______________ (6)

8. References_______________ (6) 1

OBJECTIVE:
-- To get information about how Mechatronics is involved in PLANT
IRRIGATION SYSTEM and to see how human control can be removed
from irrigation.

INTRODUCTION:
-- Water is precious resource and must be properly utilized.
-- Agriculture is one of those areas which consumes lot of water
and lots of get wasted, because farmers just feed water to the
plants by pumping without any measures. They have to wait
until the field is properly watered, which compels them to stop
doing other activities, so it is time consuming also.
-- We know that people could not pour water to plants when
they are on vacation or often forget to water plant, as result
there is chance to plants get damaged, especially in case of
farmer and they cannot afford it.
-- Every irrigation system such as drip, sprinkler and surface can
be made automated with the help of electronic components
and detectors such as computers, timers, sensors and other
mechanical devices.
-- An automatic irrigation system not only helps farmer, but
also helps other to water their plants.
-- An automatic irrigation system does the work quite
efficiently and with the positive impact on the place where it is
installed. Once it is installed, the water distribution to crops
and nurseries become easy and does not require any human
interfere permanently. 2

CONSTRUCTION:
-- If we divide construction of automatic plant irrigation system
into four sub branches of mechatronics, it would be
1. Mechanical system: Which deals with water supply
along with motor considered as design and actuation
system respectively.
2. Electrical and Electronics system: Which deals with
electric signal transmission and power supply and
sensing elements (Like Sensor probe, Sensor circuit
Arduino, GSM module, Relay etc).
3. Computer system: It deals with the algorithms
predefined that tells system to do or perform specific
operations according to moisture level compared to
set level.
4. Information system: It displays information about
moisture content is soil and water level in reservoir on
LCD or gives massage to user.

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM:
 3

-- First part in A.P.I. system is sensor probe, made up of etched

copper clad board.
-- Basically, there are two types of probes available,
(i) Non-contact type:
- They are involved with an optical property of materials
called spectral emissivity or spectral emittance.
(ii) Contact type:
- These type of sensor probes are directly in contact with
material, whose property is to be sensed.

(A)CONTACT TYPE SENSOR PROBE

-- Since the remote measurement of soil moisture is depth
limited, it may happen that plant temperature may yield
information about soil moisture within the root zone, that is
why contact type sensor probes are used in agriculture
application.
 4

-- The sensor circuit consists of Hex Inverter (A type of IC);

whose main function is to give the complemented output for its
input i.e. it will give output which is opposite to input. For
example, if the input is low to inverter, then the output will be
high.
-- The microcontroller circuit may consist Arduino board and
GSM module(optional). The output of soil sensor circuit is
directly connected to digital pin of Arduino. A LED is used at the
sensor circuit, this LED’s ON state indicates the presence of
moisture in the soil and OFF state indicates the absence of
moisture in the soil.
-- GSM module is used for sending SMS to the user.
-- A Relay is used to control the water pump, relays are
switches that open and close circuits electromechanically or
electronically.
-- The relay is driven by a Transistor which is further connected
to digital pin of Arduino.
-- Power supply consists of battery in case of DC is supplied or
Step-down transformer in case of AC supply to run all the
components.
-- Motor supplies the water when the signal is given by the
relay.
-- Last is an optional LCD for displaying status and massages.

WORKING:
-- Soil will have high resistance when it is dry and it will have
very low resistance when soil is wet, we use this simple logic to
water the plants and make the circuit work.
 5

-- Two probes which are connected to the circuit are placed

into the soil, the two probes will conduct only when soil is wet
(resistance is low) and they cannot conduct when soil is dry due
to high resistance, the voltage is given to the probes to conduct
is given from the battery connected to the circuit.
-- If moisture is present in soil then there is conduction
between the two probes and due to this high signal inverter
will set Arduino pin to low and nothing will happen and LCD will
show normal water level.
-- But if the moisture became less then set value then there will
no conduction between probes and this low signal will be given
to the Arduino as high.
-- Then Arduino will send signal to the transistor and it will turn
on relay.
-- When transistor has turned on relay, it will drive motor and
water is poured on to the plants.
-- When the water content in the soil is increased, the
resistance in the soil will get decreased and conduction into the
probes will again take place and Arduino will be set to low.

ADVANTAGES:
-- Highly sensitive.
-- Works according to the different soil condition.
-- Complete elimination of manpower.
-- Completely reliable system.
-- System can be switched into manual mode whenever
required.
 6

LIMITATIONS:
-- HIGH COST:
- There are costs in purchasing, installing and maintaining
automatic equipment of irrigation system.
- Regular maintenance is required in order to ensure that all
components are working properly.

APPLICATIONS:
-- Roof Gardens
-- Lawns
-- Agriculture Lands
-- Home Gardens

REFERENCES:
circuitdigest.com
electronicshub.org
electronicsforu.com
elprocus.com
agrotechnomarket.com

END