Project Report

on

Smart Irrigation System using

Arduino
Submitted to:
Prof. Usha K

by:
P Sai Gowtham –17BCE0529
Pranav Jeyakumar –17BCE0268
Udhayakumar R -18BCB0158

in fulfilment of the requirements for Project

J-Component – CSE2006

SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

VELLORE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

May, 2020
Abstract
The history of agriculture dates back to Indus Valley Civilisation. India sits at the second place
worldwide in terms of farm outputs. According to a Wikipedia article, as per 2018, agriculture
employs approximately 50% of the Indian workforce and contributes around 17-18% to the
country’s GDP. Moreover, agriculture is even a common hobby for nature lovers. But the plants
need continuous care and proper nourishment in order to grow. Many a times, they do not receive
adequate amount of water due to the careless attitude of their very owners. The biggest example
of this when the farm owner needs to travel due to business chores or other work, the crop may
remain unchecked and devoid of water for quite some time. The IOT can offer a solution to this
problem for monitoring and watering via the Automated Irrigation System Using Arduino. The
crop could be modernised with novel technologies which can be continuously monitored, so the
plants could be provided adequate water and sunlight.

As part of our project, we propose to design an automated irrigation system using Arduino and its
monitoring using IoT. We plan to build an IoT device on Arduino UNO in addition to placing
sensors like moisture sensor and LDR light sensor and visualising the data on an IoT platform in
different formats. We propose to connect the device to a water pump which shall be turned on or
off automatically based on the readings of the moisture sensor.
Introduction
Freshwater is needed for crop and energy production, industrial fabrication as well as human
ecosystem needs. Water can be considered as a critical requirement in the sector of agriculture for
the global food security in the future. However, there is an urgent need in today’s time to create
strategies based on science and technologies for sustainable use of water to account for the
increased risk of freshwater shortages with each passing day. Industrialists and workers are
working to build efficient and economic automatic systems to control water usage in order to
reduce much of the wastage.

Irrigation is an artificial application of watering the land for agricultural production. The
requirement of water to the soil depends on soil properties such as soil moisture and soil
temperature. Effective irrigation can influence the entire growth process and automation in
irrigation system using modern technology can be used to provide better irrigation management.
In general, most of the irrigation systems are manually operated. These traditional techniques can
be replaced with automated techniques of irrigation in order to use the water efficiently and
effectively. Conventionally, farmers need to be physically present in their fields for this process to
do irrigation process. Nevertheless, nowadays farmers need to manage their agricultural activity
along with other occupations. A sensor based automated irrigation system provides promising
solution to farmers where the presence of farmers at the field is entirely obviated for the process
of irrigation.
Literature Survey
A Smart Drip Irrigation System using Cloud
In the paper titled Smart irrigation: A Smart Drip Irrigation System Using Cloud, Android and
Mining microcontroller is used and it acts as the heart of the system, where the information from
all the nodes is collected. All the nodes collect the values of soil moisture from soil at respective
places and if any values are less than the threshold value the drip system is turned on. In this system
a local PC acts as central unit and stores the all the readings from the microcontroller in a database
and if a user needs, he can read the values from the PC using his Android mobile. And user can
also get the future trends of the soil moisture applying data analytic techniques on the data
collected.
The advantage of this system is that it runs on solar panels which erases the problems those arise
due to insufficient load and other power related problems. It also incorporates humidity and
temperature sensors which gathers additional information about the environment and intimidates
the farmer if there is any abnormality.
The principle is that the moisture and other sensor readings are sent to the master node which in
turn sends the data to the cloud. The cloud processes the data, depending on the crop raised the
server detects the threshold value of the soil moisture and thus gives the direction to the
microcontroller weather to the water the crops or not. The DHT11 sensor measures the temperature
and humidity and note the readings. The digital readings of temperature and moisture are sent to
the Pi board which in turn pushes this data on to the cloud server.
Methodology
Automated Irrigation Systems in Use
To improve irrigation efficiency, intelligent irrigation systems has been introduced. In recent days,
smart irrigation is the subject of popular discussion for researchers. The irrigation system is the
smart climate monitoring system, soil conditions, evaporation, using plant water and automatic
irrigation program. Intelligent irrigation systems beautify watering schedules and automatically
running times to meet the specific needs of the landscape. The controllers significantly improve
the efficiency of outdoor water use. There are several options for smart irrigation controllers, such
as climate-based soil moisture sensors and on the site. The right solution depends on the
geographical solution and the landscape environment.

Hardware Requirements
Sensors
Arduino UNO Board
The Arduino Uno is an open-source microcontroller board developed by Arduino.cc. The board is
equipped with sets of digital and analog input/output pins that may be interfaced to various
expansion boards and other circuits. The board has 14 digital pins, 6 analog pins and programmable
with the Arduino IDE via a type B USB cable. It can be powered by the USB cable or by an
external 9-volt battery, though it accepts voltages between 7 and 20 volts.

Temperature and Humidity Sensor

The Arduino Uno is an open-source microcontroller board developed by Arduino.cc. The board is
equipped with sets of digital and analog input/output pins that may be interfaced to various
expansion boards and other circuits. The board has 14 digital pins, 6 analog pins and programmable
with the Arduino IDE via a type B USB cable. It can be powered by the USB cable or by an
external 9-volt battery, though it accepts voltages between 7 and 20 volts.

Moisture Sensor
The Arduino Uno is an open-source microcontroller board developed by Arduino.cc. The board is
equipped with sets of digital and analog input/output pins that may be interfaced to various
expansion boards and other circuits. The board has 14 digital pins, 6 analog pins and programmable
with the Arduino IDE via a type B USB cable. It can be powered by the USB cable or by an
external 9-volt battery, though it accepts voltages between 7 and 20 volts.

LDR Sensor
The LDR sensor or the photoresistor is used to sense the intensity of light in the environment. We
use the LDR sensor to check the sunlight being available to the crops and accordingly regulate the
water flowing into it.
 Actuator
Water Pump
An actuator is the mechanism by which a control system acts upon an environment. In this case, a
water pump: It is used to pump water present in the tank to water the soil in the garden if the soil
moisture is lower than the expected value.

Software Specifications
Arduino IDE Code
#include <DHT.h>
#define DHTAPIN A0
#define DHTTYPE DHT11
#define MOTORPIN 2
#define MHAPIN A2

DHT dht(DHTAPIN, DHTTYPE);

int dht_value = 0;
int mh_value = 0;

void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
Serial.begin(9600);
dht.begin();
pinMode(DHTAPIN, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(MHAPIN, INPUT_PULLUP);
pinMode(MOTORPIN, OUTPUT);
}

void dht_loop(float h, float tc) {

if(h < 30.00) {
digitalWrite(MOTORPIN, HIGH);
}
else {
digitalWrite(MOTORPIN, LOW);
}
if(h < 50.00 && tc > 45.00) {
digitalWrite(MOTORPIN, HIGH);
}
else {
digitalWrite(MOTORPIN, LOW);
}
}

void mh_loop(int moisture) {

if(moisture < 25) {
digitalWrite(MOTORPIN, HIGH);
}
else {
digitalWrite(MOTORPIN, LOW);
}
}

void loop() {
// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
dht_value = analogRead(DHTAPIN);
float h = dht.readHumidity();
float tc = dht.readTemperature();
float tf = dht.readTemperature(true);
mh_value = analogRead(MHAPIN);
int moisture = map(mh_value, 1025, 245, 0, 100);
Serial.print("Humidity: "); Serial.println(h);
Serial.print("Temperature: ");
Serial.print(tc); Serial.print(" C\t");
Serial.print(tf); Serial.println(" F");
Serial.print("Moisture: "); Serial.println(moisture);
Serial.println();
dht_loop(h, tc);
mh_loop(moisture);
delay(2000);
}
Hardware Setup
Implementation Connection – 1:
Implementation Connection – 2:
Implementation Connection – 3:
Results / Conclusion
Based on the logical conditions for the sensor values, the actuator, i.e., the water pump turns on
and pumps water into the plant / crop, thus obliviating human effort.
References
[1] Hassan, Aslinda & Bing Sheng, Siah & Md. Shah, Wahidah & Bahaman, Nazrulazhar.
(2018). An Automated Irrigation System Using Arduino Microcontroller.
[2] Akter, Sharmin & Mahanta, Pinkirani & Haque Mim, Maliha & Hasan, Rakib & Uddin
Ahmed, Raziun & Billah, Mostasim & Sultana, Arifin. (2018). Developing a Smart
Irrigation System Using Arduino. 6. 31-39.