SOLAR POWERED AUTOMATIC

IRRIGATION SYSTEM

Dr.S.Lokesh
ASP/CSE
Hindusthan Institute of Technology
Coimbatore, Tamilnadu

A.Mukilan
Department of CSE
Hindusthan Institute Of Technology
Coimbatore,Tamilnadu

R.Priyanka
Department of CSE
Hindusthan Institute Of Technology
Coimbatore,Tamilnadu

G.Siva
Department of CSE
Hindusthan Institute Of Technology
Coimbatore,Tamilnadu

P.Sharath
Department of CSE
Hindusthan Institute Of Technology
Coimbatore,Tamilnadu

pa rs in water conservation and to use solar energy for

Abstract—In recent days, people working in agricultural per irrigation purpose.
fields are facing lot of problems in cultivating their crops. is
The solution to such a problem is provided by the solar to Index Terms— soilmoisturesensor; submersible
powered irrigation system. Here with the help of solar hel pump;power transfer; auto irrigation.
panel, submersible pumps, PV cells are used in producing p
energy. In this system, the moisture sensor is powered using a the I.INTRODUCTION
wired connection . The sensed data values are transferred to the far In India, the field of agriculture is facing a lot of problems
user mobile via GSM communication method. The aim of this me
due to water scarcity and interrupted power supply. This
condition leads to poor irrigation systems and hence the soil
losses its moisture level. Thus, making the land unfit for A.PV cell
agricultural purposes.To avoid this condition proper irrigation
Photovoltaic (PV) cells are used to convert the light
system must be developed, which will help to keep the soil
energy into electrical energy. They can be used to generate
moist in nature. electricity in some remote areas, where it is impossible to
The proposed system uses the solar energy to supply the power from the grid. They can be used in both
produce the required electric energy using solar panel. Hence simple applications like the calculators, watches and
the system can function at any time irrespective of supply complicated applications like providing electricity to pump,
from the grid. The solar energy is used to power the home appliances. They are also called as “Solar cells”,
submersible pump to pump and store the water. since they mostly convert sunlight into electrical energy.
These PV cells act as photo detectors, which detects the
The system consists of moisture sensor and level
electromagnetic radiation near its surface.
sensor, which are placed in the field in order to monitor the The operation of the solar PV cells occurs in three
performance of the field. They are powered by wireless stages. When the light comes in contact with the PV cell,
power transfer method, which makes the system highly the absorbed energy produces the electron-hole pair in the
reliable. The whole system is controlled by cells. Then the opposite charge carriers gets separated from
a arduino microcontroller. When the level of each other. When this cell is connected to an external circuit,
moisture in the field is decreased, the sensing device detects the current starts to flow in the circuit.
The solar PV system usage is increasing
it and arduino microcontroller issues a command to exponentially, since this system is eco-friendly and the
switch ON the pump . lf the required moisture level is sunlight is abundant in nature. Due to increase in its demand,
achieved, pump is turned OFF.
the cost of the production of solar panels has reduced
significantly. The reduction in cost allowed its application in
both the residential and commercial areas. Solar PV cells are
also used in space applications.
The system proposed contains the solar panels,
which converts the source of sunlight into electrical power.
This power is transferred for the functioning of entire module,
where it is stored for future usage. The power from the
battery is used to power on the pump. It is also used to
power the electronic circuits that transfer the power the
wirelessly to the sensors.

II. SYSTEM DESIGN

The design consists of a solar panel, which acts as the

important source of energy and helps in maintaining exact
charging voltage and current so that the battery can be
charged and its life can be increased. Microcontroller with
soil moisture sensor is used for water conservation in farm
land.
The boost converter is used to obtain a higher output DC moisture sensor. The pH sensor measures the pH level present at the
power in spite of certain conditions where the light energy soil which varies for different types of crops. The solar panel gives a
available is limited. Boost converter consists of a diode and a supply of 12V to the boost converter circuit. The voltage from the solar
transistor acting as a switch mode power supply with panel is controlled using the two resistances of the boost converter as
capacitor as the storage element. Output voltage ripple are RI and R2. The voltage controlled device is the diode D1 of IN4007.
reduced by using the filters. The stored voltage in capacitance is increased by T/2 cycle with the
The current flows along the clockwise direction as the help of PWM pulse generated by MOSFET. It provides regular water
switch is closed through the inductor and as a result of supply whenever its required and it reduce the human errors for
generating the magnetic field it stores some energy. The analyzing land soil condition and weather condition like moisture
current will be decreased at the time of switch being opened content and pH level of soil. As we use the sensor based system, these
if the resistance is high. The capacitor is charged through a sensors will control the water supplying system .We have used GSM
diode with a higher voltage due to the presence of two Modem for communication like as weather monitoring and controlling
sources in series. The level of moisture in the field is process. It will be done by using short message service communication
detected with the help of the sensing device which is placed and also we have used wireless power transfer method for remote
in the soil which can also indicate various moisture levels for sensor network places.
different types of crops. One of the most important parts of
the system is the solar panel as the power required for the
operation is driven trough this part. The electricity produced
from the conversion process of light energy into electricity is
transferred to boost converter and to the battery. Two kinds
of sensors such as moisture and pH level sensor are used.
Wireless power transfer is used to charge the sensors that are
used to monitor the properties of soil.

III. PROPOSED SYSTEM

The system that has been proposed uses solar power
panel to supply power to the system. Two sensing devices are
used to measure the level of moisture and pH values. The
water level present at the field is being measured by the soil
 The system is being constantly controlled by the Before storing it in the battery, it is given to a charge
arduino microcontroller. In the case of moisture level controller that regulates the voltage and the current so that it
being low in the field a signal will be sent to the maintains a constant charging voltage. This improves the life
microcontroller by the sensors used. The
time of the battery and avoids damages due to the overvoltage.
microcontroller is used to check the program for
different conditions. Various types of crop will have The submersible pump helps to pump and store the water in
different program stored in the microcontroller. Each the water tank. This system uses two sensors to sense the
type of crop will have different levels of humidity moisture level of the soil. These sensors are powered
for their normal growth. Thus depending upon the wirelessly by resonant converter method. Depending upon the
nature of crop required amount of water is being values obtained from the moisture sensor and , the
supplied. The will detect the soil as it varies for microcontroller supplies water to the crops by drip irrigation
different types of crops. Thus the presence of the soil
technique. The user is updated about the current status of the
moisture and relay unit will make the irrigation
automated. Depending on the signal sent from crops with the help of GSM module through SMS.
moisture sensor being low or high the relay will turn The proposed system consists of the following hardware
ON or OFF the motor. components:
• Arduino microcontroller(ATmega232)
s • Solar panel (15W min)
Solar panel energy is used for the entire
system. The electrical energy required for the
process is conserved as solar energy is being used.
The motor needs 230V and the Arduino
microcontroller needs 5V supply. The power supply
is regulated from the solar panel by connecting the
regulator and the arduino microcontroller.

IV. HARDWARE AND SIMULATION RESULTS

The proposed system contains the solar PV panel,

that converts source of sunlight into electrical power.
This energy is stored in the batteries for later usage.

• Battery 12V/10Ah C.Flow diagram of soilmoisture module

• Transformer 12Vdc to 230Vac
• Water pump 230V, 100W
• Relay switch(resonant converter method) D. Gsm module
• GSM
 the wires. The user is also provided with the information
about the current moisture content and pH level of the soil
through SMS with the help of Zigbee module. Thus, the
farmers can use the available water effectively to do
agriculture without having to fear about the moisture and pH
level of the soil.

VI.FUTUREWORK
ln future, the Automated Irrigation System Using Linear
Programming provides to be a real time feedback control
system. This control system monitor at the same time the
cultivation of the entire irrigation system is controlled and
Relay module also efficient water management gives more profit in less cost.
Using this system, man power and water can be saved, as well
V. CONCLUSION
as with this system the productivity improved and ultimately
The proposed system will be very much useful to the
the profit. In future with some modification in this system can
farmers in order to save the limited water resource,
also supply agricultural chemicals like sodium, ammonium,
which is available for them. The solar based system
zinc, calcium to the field along with fertilizers by adding new
will reduce their dependency on power supply from
sensors and valves.
the grid. Also the battery backup helps them to use
the power at anytime they need it. The sensing
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