Automated Irrigation System based on irrigation gates using fuzzy logic

Muhammad Farooq Aamir Hussain Sarfraz Hashim

2020 International Conference on Internet of Things and Intelligent Applications (ITIA) | 978-1-7281-9301-4/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ITIA50152.2020.9312344

Department of Computer Science Department of Computer Science Department of Agriculture Engineering

Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of
Agriculture Agriculture, Agriculture,
Multan, Pakistan Multan, Pakistan Multan, Pakistan
farooqsahir@hotmail.com aamir.hussain@mnsuam.edu.pk sarfraz.hashim@mnsuam.edu.pk

Lin Yang Mubashir Ali

CIA Lab at School of Engineering Huazhong Department of Software Engineering
Agricultural University Lahore Garrison University
Wuhan, China Lahore, Pakistan
Lin.yang@hzau.edu.cn dr.mubashirali1@gmail.com

Abstract— Water resources in the world are running down
rapidly. In Pakistan, 93 % of water is used to irrigate agricultural
land, and more than 60% wasted during irrigation. The main
causes of this wastage are lack of irrigation knowledge and
improper scheduling. Which causes the wastage of water, loss in
soil fertility, loss in production, and wastage of electric power. This
wastage can be controlled by adopting modern technologies in the
agriculture sector. IoT based automated solutions can facilitate to
accomplish the optimized distribution of water in the context of
irrigation. In this study, a smart gate equipped with water level and
flow measuring sensors has been developed for open channel
precision irrigation. Multiple sensing nodes were deployed to
collect soil moisture, temperature, and humidity from the field by
applying WSN techniques and forwarded collected data to
Firebase Realtime Database. Fuzzy logic techniques have been
used for decision making by evaluating collected data according
to fuzzy rule-base. Smart gate delivers water content as per the
crop’s needs by calculating water quantity based on fuzzy
decisions. The mobile dashboard provides Realtime information
and control to the farmer. The system has been tested on a pilot
scale and MATLAB simulation. Moisture decrease rate at
different temperatures has been tested to predict irrigation days.
Keywords— Automated Irrigation; Internet of things IoT;
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN); Irrigation gates, Fuzzy Logic
1. INTRODUCTION:
According to the World Bank agriculture sector account for
about 70% of total water consumption, industry uses 20%,
and 10% water used at the domestic level worldwide. By
2050, the population of the world is predicted to grow up to
10 billion, this population will consume more water and food.
[1]. The watering system has been securing farming for a
long time and is the commodity of numerous societies.
Historically, it was the establishment of the economy, from
Asia to the Southwestern United States. The traditional
methods of irrigation cause the massive wastage of water,
require full human engagement, and less productive because
of overwatering. In Pakistan, the watering system consumes
93% of the total available water, and it becomes dangerous
when 60% of the 93% water is wasted during this watering
practice. This irrigation failure also destroys soil fertility. The
main reason for this wastage is improper handling of the
watering system, this handling includes overwatering and bad
scheduling.
Precision Irrigation (PA) is an IoT based agricultural system,
planned to progress the rural forms by accurately checking
each step to ensure the greatest agricultural production with
minimized natural effect. PA can be defined as the supply of
the measured amount of water at a suitable time after the
calculated interval. This management results in a decrease in
water wastage and a rise in yield. Agriculture is a major part
of the IoT application area. 70% of Pakistan’s economy is
dependent on it. According to an estimate, IoT will feed 9.6
billion people on this earth in 2050. IoT helps to increase the
productivity of yields by effective use of fertilizers and
reduced wastage. [2].
In this research, we proposed an IoT based irrigation system
based on automated irrigation gates with water level and flow
sensors. Different nodes have been installed in the field for
detecting the moisture using WSN technology. Fuzzy logic
has been used to decide irrigation. This system is
environment friendly, low cost, and control the overwatering.
A user-friendly mobile interface provides full control to
farmers for remotely monitoring and controlling the watering
procedure.
2 RELATED WORK:
A system can be developed to monitor crop fields using
sensors that are soil sensor, humidity sensor, temperature, and
light sensors. The system will automate the irrigation. The
wireless technology will be used to transfer data from sensors
to android/web applications. The server acts as a middle
source and uses JSON format to encode the data; then data is

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transferred to an android application. A limit is set for
temperature and humidity according to the requirement of
crops to automation as if temperature decreases/increases and
humidity ups/lowers the appropriate action is performed
automatically (e.g. turning ON/OFF exhaust fans if
temperature increases). The former can remotely control
notification on the app to monitor and control field
conditions. The proposed system is 93% efficient then
conservative approach [2].
Proposed an automatic watering system using moisture
sensor, Arduino UNO board, and ATMEGA328P. They
show the information and graphs on the webpage by using the
GSM-GPRS SIM900A module for internet connectivity[3].
They resolve the loss of soil fertility and water wastage by
designing an intelligent irrigation system based on fuzzy
control and crop water data. This Realtime monitoring system
uses WSN technology to communicate[4]. Proposed a
service-oriented architecture for irrigation management
based on IoT. They define three layers in architecture and
interface for enabling all three layers, they define the
execution of all processes in the water management
framework. Used a platform-independent OPC UA (OPC UA
stands for Object Linking and Embedding for Process Control
Unified Architecture) protocol for enabling the machine to
machine data transmission. This architecture for the control
of processes in the logistics and manufacturing sectors [5].
Introduced cloud computing, Radio Frequency Identification
(RFID), IoT and describes how these technologies are
creating ease for humans. Cloud computing and IoT can bring
a handsome improvement in agricultural production[6]. An
irrigation technique based on LoRA (Long Range Wide
Area). It is an approach that provides low cost, secured, and
long-range data transmission for IoT applications. Used
hydroelectric generator, LoRA modules, and solenoid valve.
Develop a mobile app for controlling developed set-up[7].
IoT based irrigation system which contains the SIM900A
module for the controlled greenhouse is based on an alarm
system. The system can gather environmental information
from sensors such as air temperature and air humidity.
Additionally, by using AT commands, this system can be
controlled by SMS (Sending and receiving. Data can be sent
to users remotely[8].
The technology used in the proposed system is Wireless
Sensor Networks (WSNs). This technology increases the
efficiency of the traditional watering system and helps the
irrigation system to be highly efficient. WSN is used for
collecting, storing, and sharing data collected by sensors[9].
Describe the controlling and monitoring irrigation, they
collect sensors data and send that to the cloud for
prediction[10]. Present a Multi-agent architecture-based
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irrigation system with fuzzy logic. The architecture contains
different agents, they are responsible for decision making, on
or off the irrigation system[11]. An open-loop fuzzy logic
system based on Mamdani Control System. Use data
collecting from the temperature sensor, humidity sensor, and
flux sensor as an input to the system. As output system
control water pump and lamp[12].
3 SYSTEM COMPONENTS:
3.1.1 Soil moisture: The soil water substance (SWS) is the
sum of water present within the soil. This substance impacts
plan development, soil temperature, chemical transportation,
and groundwater revival. The two broadly utilizes parameters
for measuring SWS or water accessibility for the plant are i)
Volumetric water substance (VWS) ii) soil matric potential.
In this research, we used the Adafruit STEMMA capacitive
sensor for detecting moisture in the soil and set a
threshold value of 30% for experiment purposes by using
the formula in code.
float moisture = ( 100 - ( (sensor_readings/1023) * 100 ) );
Soil moisture sensing is a key element to make the decisions
about watering and the quantity of water to be given.
Capacitive soil moisture is made of corrosion-resistant
material and operates on 3.3v to 5v.
3.1.2 Water Level Sensing:
Water level sensing is a key parameter for decision making.
It plays a vital role to maintain the water stream from the
irrigation gate.
3.2 HARDWARE COMPONENTS:
3.2.1 Linear Actuator:
The linear actuator creates motion in a straight line. Inside
actuator, there is a screw or leadscrew which creates the
motion. The screw works like a shaft and rotates clockwise
and anticlockwise. The dc motor is used which operates on
12v and 4amp, but ampere goes high when it drags the
weights. In this experiment, it goes up to 8 amperes. At the
end of the shaft, there is a switch that disconnects the power
when it reaches its maximum point (200 mm).
3.2.2 Designing of the gate:
A sluice gate has been developed with the effort of physics
laws using stainless steel with a linear actuator. An irrigation
sluice gates are generally in irrigation channels. It consists of
an internal slider that slides up and down to open or close the
channel as shown in fig.3. A rubber seal has been fitted at the
border of the moving panel to control water leakage.
4 METHODS AND TECHNOLOGIES USED
4.1 Automation of the sluice gate using (IoT).
This research focuses on the utilize of numerous sensors as a
device to control water amount in watering system
framework in real-time. The system has been designed for
low-power utilization, low cost, water’s waste diminished,
labor decreased, and data communication between sensors
hubs. IoT is the best way to connect the different things and
operate them remotely. Water level sensor and flow sensor
connected with the main controller module (MCM).
Figure 1 System configuration
A 150W solar panel that produces 9.8 amp current and 18
volts has attached through a battery charger to the 12v
rechargeable battery and attached a voltage regulator to create
a 5v input for ESP board. Water Level sensor and flow rate
sensor have been attached to GPIO 27 and GPIO 2,
respectively. A 43Amp driver module has connected between
actuator and controller, GPIO 33 is used for upward signals,
25 is used for downward signals and 26 is used for enabling
the signal process (fig 1).
4.2 Moisture Sensor Node:
A T-Higrow ESP32 module used as a node for moisture
sensing, this module has built-in dht22 sensor for measuring
temperature, humidity, and capacitive moisture sensing panel
with a 3000mAH lithium rechargeable battery which has 17
hours life. The sensor has been dipped 5 inches inside the soil
wrapped with a secured shield to ensure the data accuracy.
Moisture sensor gives low values on high moisture. As shown
in fig.2.
Each node sends its data to the database directly through a
wireless network, to identify the nodes different identification
numbers have been given to the nodes.
Moisture in percentage formula:
float moisture = (100 - ((readings/1023) * 100));
Figure 2 Moisture Sensing Node
The sensor readings variable contains the analog values
collected by the sensor. The second value 1023 is the
maximum reading which a sensor can measure.
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An average has been taken of collected values from all nodes
and a single value has been generated which sends the
instruction to the connecting gate with the land or notify a
user about action
4.3 Firebase Database:
Firebase is a NoSQL database developed by Google. This is
a lightweight Realtime database which means it can perform
read and write the operations faster than the SQL database.
Firebase stores the data in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation
is a lightweight method to handle data) form which make a
JSON tree to store the values. Its code for reading and writing
is very shorts. In this research, we use Mobizt [13] library to
connect esp32 to firebase.
4.4 Working Diagram and layered architecture:
ESP board collects readings from the sensors and send them
to cloud database where decisions making has been done,
these decisions can be seen by the user on the mobile
application and the copy of these decisions also sent to the
database. All data transmission has been done through the 4G
network. Users can connect mobile app locally to the specific
gate within the range.
Data collection layer include the most important part of the
system, it based on sensor used to collect field data, these
sensors create a mesh of wireless sensor network and send the
collected data to firebase by using network gateway. The
sensor attached to the irrigation gate also shares their data
with firebase by using the same gateway. This collected data
fetched from the database and processed by using Node.js
code written on the web API and upload back the results in
the database. The mobile application syncs the processed data
and shows it to the user or does operation according to the
control situation (Auto or Normal).
Figure 3 Data collection diagram and layered architecture
4.5 Fuzzy logic: Fuzzy logic is based on observations the
same as humans. This term deals with vague inputs, in real
life, there are many examples when a human cannot take
decisions in yes or no and have some other options also
because their fuzzy logic offers flexibility for decision. By
using this approach, uncertainties and inaccuracies can be
considered for any situation. In the Boolean system, 1.0
represents true value, and the absolute false value is
determined by 0.0. But the fuzzy logic system represents no
absolute truth or false, there is always space for more than
two outputs. Fuzzy logic represents an intermediate value
which is between 1.0 and 0.0. The fuzzy architecture contains
these four parts: 1) RULE BASE: It includes the instructions
(set of rules) and If-THEN conditions for making decisions.
2) FUZZIFICATION: the conversion of numbers has been
done by this; it changes the Crips input to fuzzy sets. Exact
measures taken by the sensor are defined as Crisp values like
moisture content and water level. 3) INFERENCE ENGINE:
It matches the current input concerning a set of rules decided
in the rule base and judge which rules fulfill the condition. 4)
DEFUZZIFICATION: It converts the fuzzy sets into Crips
values obtained by an interface.[14]
Fuzzy logic is applied to the system to operate the gate, five
parameters have been considered to determine the
appropriate action (1) moisture value, (2) water level near
relative gate (3) humidity (4) temperature. The data of
moisture and water level has been divided into categories
high, medium, and low, in the graphs (fig. 5) x-axis represents
the degree of membership and the y-axis represents the
Figure 4 Rule Base
percentage values. Readings from water levels are taken as
percentages instead of inches. The rule base has been
designed for example when the moisture content in the field
is low then open the gate of the land and ON the turbine.
These graphs are used in the defuzzification process to
operate the irrigation gate and turbine. [15] These five inputs
considered as five subsets of set S (T temp, H humidity, N plant_need,
M moisture, and L water level) is defined.
Figure 5 Membership functions
4.6 Mobile Dashboard
An android application is also developed that allows the user
to distantly control the system.
Figure 6 Mobile App
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The Mobile app allows farmers to set a schedule for watering
by using calendar and time picker. Real-time values of
sensors are processed on the server and sent to the user’s
mobile.When a specific date & time of schedule arrives or the
water level gets lower in a specific field it alerts to the user to
set water pump in ON state and if the system is on auto then
it set water pump ON itself.
5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Water management or irrigation is a difficult task in
agriculture because water resources are decreasing rapidly
and in Pakistan, approximately 60% of water wasted during
irrigation. In this research, a complete watering solution
based on automated gates and WSN has been designed with
a low budget. The development of automated gates on the
local level and smart controlling system is the main objective
of this research. Successfully designed and installed the
system and test its accuracy, the results were satisfactory
enough.
The decrease rate in water content has been measured at
different temperatures as described in table 1. This decreased
rate provides help to predict the next irrigation day because
high temperatures can disturb the irrigation schedule [14]
Fuzzy logic and wireless sensor networks provide markable
efficiency in these types of systems. Defuzzification of Crisp
values has been done successfully, ESP board and sensor
worked accurately. Nodes for soil moisture detecting play a
vital role in the system, when water reaches all nodes then the
system closes the gate and send the OFF signal to the water
pump. By proper scheduling of irrigation, this system reduces
up to 70% of water wastage.
Table 1 DECREASE IN MOISTURE
TABLE 1: explains the decrease in moisture content after
irrigation, to conduct the experiment node readings has been
taken after the interval of the 4 hours in the daytime moisture
decrease rate MDRday is greater than MDRnight. The
timestamp was to measure the accuracy of the data. These
readings had been taken under 23C at 10:30 am, 26C at 14:34,
25C at 18:33, and 19C at 22:34.
MDRday =AVG2nd - AVG1st = 12.16-8.315= 3.84%
MDRnight =AVG4th - AVG3rd = 16.125-14.407 =1.725 %
MDR day > MDRnight by 2.115 %
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its effects on the moisture decrease rate, soil dry rate and Jani, K.: ‘Sensor based automated irrigation system with
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in Editor (Ed.)^(Eds.): ‘Book Smart irrigation system with
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estimation is the most important and critical factor. Moisture 0275
is affected by several environmental factures such as 10 Paucar, L.G., Diaz, A.R., Viani, F., Robol, F., Polo,
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13 (Mobizt): ‘K. Suwatchai Download from:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: https://github.com/mobizt/Firebase-ESP32’, The MIT
License (MIT)
The authors acknowledge supports from the Fundamental 14 Suntaranont, B., Aramkul, S., Kaewmoracharoen,
Research Funds for the Central Universities M., and Champrasert, P.: ‘Water Irrigation Decision Support
(2662019QD002), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei System for Practical Weir Adjustment Using Artificial
province (2020CFB867). Intelligence and Machine Learning Techniques’,
Sustainability, 2020, 12, (5), pp. 1763
15 Azhar, F.C., Irawan, B., and Saputra, R.E.:
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