Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Modelling and simulation for automatic irrigation system with PV solar

tracking
P. Priya ⇑, R. Madhumitha
EEE Department, Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Krishnankoil 626126, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper describes about the irrigation system with the use of solar power. This irrigation system helps
Received 8 February 2021 the farmer to perform irrigation without use of commercial electricity. In normal irrigation system, the
Accepted 7 March 2021 source of the pumping system is taken from the sub-station. This system is not affordable for the farmers.
Available online xxxx
This solar irrigation system is very useful for farmers because Tamil Nadu gives 90% subsidy for solar
pumping system.
Keywords: In this irrigation system we use moisture sensor to know about the amount of water content which is
Irrigation
present in the soil. When the amount of water content is decrease in the soil, the pump will ON and after
Solar
Algorithm
the soil gets enough water automatically the pump will OFF.
Solar panel Here we use GSM module, which send the message to the owner when the water content of the soil is
Solar tracking low and high and then send the message to the owner when the irrigation system is ON and OFF. This will
helps the farmer to know, when the irrigation system is ON and OFF and then the purpose of ON or OFF of
the system.
Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Emerging Trends in
Materials Science, Technology and Engineering.

1. Introduction
Our aim of our project is to develop an irrigation system using
solar power. Solar Energy is a renewable energy, which is sending
out heat and light energy from the sun. Solar energy is attached
with the wide range of ever-developing and evolving technologies
like solar heater, photovoltaics etc. Here we fix our solar panel as
rotatable. It rotates 180°. It rotates due to the path of the sun; this
will help to generate more amount of energy. This irrigation sys-
tem helps the farmer to perform irrigation without use of power
with comes from the sub-station. In normal irrigation system,
the source of the pumping system is taken from the sub-station.
This system is not affordable for the farmers. So we use solar
energy for irrigation process.
Farmers in Tamil Nadu can get themselves of 90 per cent sub-
sidy for powered irrigation system of solar. In order to get this pro-
vision, they have asked for pump sets which are exceeding the
limit then added waiting list for new farm connections.
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: priya.p@klu.ac.in (P. Priya).
The State government gives more than 1,000 pump sets of pow-
ered irrigation system of solar pump in the power range of 5, 7.5
and 10 HP under a model program to farmers across Tamil Nadu.
These off grid units will be available with 40% State government
subsidy, 20% from the Union Ministry of New and Renewable
Energy; 30% from Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corpo-
ration and the farmer’s share will be 10%.
Now a days, water scarcity is a big problem for the farmers.
According to precious year data, nearly 230crore people were liv-
ing in water scarce areas in all over the world. When we taken
Tamil Nadu data. Chennai are struggling to meet the water demand
of the people living in it. Chennai facing drought for the past third
year in row, we are in very critical stage.
With few signs of rain across the state and reservoirs running dry,
water shortage in Madras is at its peak. Demand for water in the city
has gone up by 48 per cent in the last decade from 750 MLD to 1,100
MLD in the year of 2008 to 2018. In the same period metro water
supply has come down by 8% from 550 MLD to 500 MLD.
Against a total of 11,300mcft capacity, the 4 reservoirs supply-
ing water to Madras have less than 48mcft water left in store.
In this irrigation system we use moisture sensor to know about
the amount of water content which is present in the soil. When the

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.03.146
2214-7853/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Emerging Trends in Materials Science, Technology and Engineering.

Please cite this article as: P. Priya and R. Madhumitha, Modelling and simulation for automatic irrigation system with PV solar tracking, Materials Today:
Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.03.146
P. Priya and R. Madhumitha
amount of water content is decrease in the soil, the pump will
automatically ON and after the soil gets enough water automati-
cally the pump will automatically OFF. This automatic system is
very useful, because it will know how much the soil contains water
content and how much the soil needs water content. When the
amount of water content is decrease in the soil, the pump will
automatically ON. After the soil gets its sufficient water automati-
cally the irrigation system will OFF.
Due to the crop’s type the amount of water will be vary, so
already we feed the data about the types of crops and its condition
of living to this irrigation system. Based on this data that amount of
water pumped will be varies.
This may reduce the wastage of water and some crops are
grown well in certain level of water. Over level of water will
destroy the growth of the crops.
Here we use GSM module, when the moisture sensor deduct
low level of water content in the soil, it makes the pumping system
to turn ON as well as it will make the GSM module to send the
message to the owner as the water content of the soil is low so that
the system is ON.
When the moisture sensor deduct water level is enough for the
soil, it makes the pumping system to turn OFF as well as it will
make the GSM module to send the message to the owner as the
water content of the soil is in good state so that the system is OFF.
This will help the farmer to know, when the irrigation system is
ON and OFF and then the purpose of ON or OFF of the system. This
system is a smart system, which reduce the human efforts and
reduce the wastage of water and electricity. It is very useful system
because the government will give 90% subsidy for the solar pump-
ing system. So, that the construction of this system setup will not
be a big deal for the farmers.
This will reduce electricity bill, wastage of water, so that it will
reduce lot of amount and helps the farmer to earn more money in
the period of crop cultivation.
2. Literature survey
The irrigation system which is consisting of irrigation pump
operated from solar. This irrigation system consist of pump is oper-
ated from solar energy. It is difficult to monitor the level of water in
soil content and operate in manual mode. It will be operating on
automatic mode with the help of solar power instead of commer-
cial electricity. Here we fix the solar panel as rotatable. It rotates up
to 180°. We fix a solar panel in a motorized tray. We program it to
rotate in the following angle: 0° at 6:00AM, 30° at 8:00AM, 60° at
10:00AM, 90° at 12:00AM, 120° at 2:00PM, 150° at 4:00PM, 180° at
6:00PM. Reason for the rotating panel, if the panel rotates in the
path of the sun, the sun radiation is higher than the normal fixed
panel. It will collect more amount of energy.
The project requires an Arduino, we have to feed the program
based on our needs. This requires moister sensor which is used
to sense the level of moisture in soil. By the way of measuring
the moisture content in soil, two copper wires are injected into
the soil with a certain distance. With the help of sensors, read
the data and it send to arduino. The command signals sending from
arduino to relay driver which is used to control pump motor. This
automatic system is very useful, because it will know how much
the soil contains water content and how much the soil needs water
content. When the amount of water content is decrease in the soil,
the pump will automatically ON. After the soil gets its sufficient
water automatically the irrigation system will OFF.
Due to the crop’s type the amount of water will be vary, so
already we feed the data about the types of crops and its condition
of living to this irrigation system. Based on this data that amount of
water pumped will be varies.
2
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
This may reduce the wastage of water and some crops are
grown well in certain level of water. Over level of water will
destroy the growth of the crops.
Here we use GSM module, when the moisture sensor deduct
low level of water content in the soil, it makes the pumping system
to turn ON as well as it will make the GSM module to send the
message to the owner as the water content of the soil is low so that
the system is ON.
The GSM based microcontroller, interfacing with user can be
especially used 32-bit ARM7TDMI-S based LPC2148 microcon-
troller, which is having flash memory & SRAM and more number
of peripherals. It is a capable of 32-bit code execution with high
speed at maximum rate of clock. RS232 protocol which is used
communicate the data in between GSM to microcontroller.
When the moisture sensor deduct water level is enough for the
soil, it makes the pumping system to turn OFF as well as it will
make the GSM module to send the message to the owner as the
water content of the soil is in good state so that the system is OFF.
This will help the farmer to know, when the irrigation system is
ON and OFF and then the purpose of ON or OFF of the system. This
system is a smart system, which reduce the human efforts and
reduce the wastage of water and electricity.
It is very useful system because the government will give 90%
subsidy for the solar pumping system. So, that the construction
of this system setup will not be a big deal for the farmers.
This will reduce electricity bill, wastage of water, so that it will
reduce lot of amount and helps the farmer to earn more money in
the period of crop cultivation.
3. Components
3.1. Solar irrigation system
 Solar Panel
 Battery
 Arduino
 Moisture Sensor
 GSM Module
 DC Pumping Motor
3.2. Automatic irrigation system with PV solar tracking
 PV cell
 Humidity Sensor
 Temperature Sensor
 IC PIC16f877A
 Step-up Motor
 Motor Drive
 LDR
3.3. Simulation software
 Proteus 8.1
4. Comparison based on modeling
Here we compare our system with the system which are given
below;
Automatic Irrigation System with PV Solar Tracking
Basim Alsayid1, Jafar Jallad2, Muhammad Dradi3, Ola Al-
Qasem4
Department of Electrical Engineering, Palestine Technical
University-Kadoorie
Fig. 1.
In this system they use IC’s for the Microcontroller PIC16f877A
(Fig. 2).
P. Priya and R. Madhumitha
Fig 1. Comparison based on modeling.
Fig 2. The Microcontroller PIC16f877A.
But in our system, we use arduino as a microcontroller, reason
for using arduino over microcontroller is:
 Debugging:-The arduino provide easiest debugging system
which is cross-platform.
 We can’t dump our required program in IC but we can dump
required program in arduino (Fig. 3).
In this system, LDR which is used for track the sunlight with
high degree of accuracy in tracking. And it was a two axis solar
tracking system.
An LDR which is consisting of a (variable) resistance its working
based on the intensity of light falls upon it. It is used in light sens-
ing circuits.
LDRs which are used to sense the position of sun light and a
error signal received from feedback component and then generated
to the control system to sequentially receive the maximum solar
power from the panel. By using different axial structures can be
achieved maximum tracking system for higher accuracy. In gen-
eral, the single-axis and dual axis tracker follows the Sun’s move-
ment and elevation angle during a day (Fig. 4).
In our system, we using Solar MPPT for tracking the sun light.
MPPT - is an electronic DC to DC converter that optimizes the
match between the solar array (PV panels), and the battery bank
or utility grid. Here we fix the solar panel as rotatable.
Fig 3. LDR tracks sunlight.
3
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
Fig 4. Solar MPPT for tracking the sun light.
By using MPPT tracking system to extract the power at maxi-
mum from PV module.
Using MPPT algorithm checks output of PV module, whether the
output is maximum or not. If the maximum power available in PV
module can produce to charge the battery and also converts the
best voltage to get maximum current. It is also be used to feed
the power to a DC load.
The working of MPPT is more effective under the following
conditions:
4.1. Under cold weather
PV module which gives better accuracy at given cold tempera-
tures. By using MPPT tracking system can extract the maximum
power available.
4.2. When battery is discharged
MPPT tracking system can be used to extract the current and
charge the battery continuously even the charge in the battery is
lowers. In our system, we use Solar MPPT for tracking the sun light.
MPPT – is an converter of DC to DC which is used to optimize the
match between the PV panels and the battery bank. Here we fix the
solar panel as rotatable. It rotates up to 180°. We fix a solar panel in
a motorized tray. We program it to rotate in the following angle: 0°
at 6:00AM, 30° at 8:00AM, 60° at 10:00AM, 90° at 12:00AM, 120°
at 2:00PM, 150° at 4:00PM, 180° at 6:00PM. Reason for the rotating
panel, if the panel rotates in the path of the sun, the sun radiation is
higher than the normal fixed panel. It will collect more amount of
energy.
Compare to LDR, Solar MPPT will absorb more sunlight.
5. Simulation COMPARISON
Simulation is done in PROTEUS software (Fig. 5).
Here they use LDR for capturing the solar radiation, and use
Microcontroller PIC16f877A for processing. For detecting the soil
water level, they using humidity sensor and to detecting the atmo-
spheric temperature they using temperature sensor.
LDRs can be used to sense the light and error signal has been
generated to the control system. In order to achieve the maximum
solar power; tracking system can be used by using single-axis
structure dual-axis structures.
When reduce the value in humidity sensor and temperature
sensor, which indicates LOW water level, then the pump, will ON.
When increase the value in humidity sensor and temperature
sensor, which indicates HIGH water level, then the pump will OFF.
This process is so much complicated (Fig. 6).
In our system, we using Arduino for processing, no more stuff
are included, so the processing speed will increase. We use only
moisture sensor for detecting the water level.
P. Priya and R. Madhumitha
Fig 5. Simulation is done in PROTEUS.
Fig 6. Arduino for processing.
When reduce the value in moisture sensor, which indicates
LOW water level, then the pump will ON.
When increase the value in moisture sensor, which indicates
HIGH water level, then the pump will OFF.
Moisture sensor is enough for detecting the water level in the
soil.
And here we use GSM for send the processing state to the
owner, this system will reduce electricity bill, wastage of water,
so that it will reduce lot of amount and helps the farmer to earn
more money in the period of crop cultivation.
6. Conclusion
Main target of Solar Irrigation System for farmer is to provide
the basis for improvement in automatic based systems for usage
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
in the process of irrigation. The Solar Irrigation System has been
finally made into prototype which can be used to reduce the
man power and the commercial electricity amount. Its aims to
solve the problems faced by the farmers in the process of irrigation.
This project will operate to help all the farmer in the world to make
them easier to irrigate and cultivate crops. This will reduce elec-
tricity bill, wastage of water, so that it will reduce lot of amount
and helps the farmer to earn more money in the period of crop cul-
tivation. This platform can be used as a learning platform for
researches in automatic irrigation systems. This can be considered
as an important usage of the system.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
P. Priya: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Visualiza-
tion, Writing - original draft. R. Madhumitha: Data curation,
Supervision, Validation, Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Further Reading
[1] R. Suresh, S. Gopinath, K. Govindaraju, T. Devika, N. Suthanthira, Vanitha, GSM
based automated irrigation control using raingun irrigation system, Int. J. Adv.
Res. Comput. Commun. Eng. 3 (2) (2014).
[2] Chetana A. Kesrikar, Rutuja M. Bhavsar, ‘‘Automated wireless watering system”,
Int. J. Appl. Inf. Syst., 2 (3), 2012.
[3] S.Harishankar, R. Satish Kumar, K.P. Sudharsan, U. Vignesh, T. Viveknath, ‘‘Solar
powered smart irrigation system”, Adv. Electron. Electric. Eng., 4 (4), 2014.
[4] N. Dhana Lakshmi, K.S. Gomathi, Smart irrigation system autonomous
monitoring and controlling of water pump by using photovoltaic energy,
SSRG Int. J. Electron. Commun. Eng. 2 (11) (2015) 23–28.
[5] Basava Sidramappa Dhanne, Sachin Kedare, Shiva Sidramappa Dhanne, Modern
solar powered irrigation system by using ARM, Int. J. Res. Eng. Technol. 3 (3)
(2014).
[6] Prof. Rupali S. Sawant, Shreejit Gubre, Swathi Pillai, Monica Jain, ‘‘ Solar panel
based automatic plant irrigation system”, Int. J. Innov. Sci. Eng. Technol. 2(3),
2015.
[7] M. Dursun, S. Ozden, ‘‘A Prototype of PC Based Remote Control of Irrigation,”
International Conference on Environmental Engineering and Applications,
Singapore, pp. 255-258, Sept. 2010.
[8] M. Sheikh, ‘‘Efficient Utilization of Solar Energy for Domestic Applications” 2nd
International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Lahore, Pakistan, pp. 1-3,
March 2008.
[9] G. Yang, Y. Liu, L. Zhao, S. Cui, Q. Meng, H. Chen, ‘‘Automatic Irrigation System
Based on Wireless Network,” 8th.