Short Paper—Automatic Plants Watering System for Small Garden

Automatic Plants Watering System for Small Garden

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v15i02.12803

Maria Beata Inka Astutiningtyas,

Monika Margi Nugraheni, Suyoto ()
Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
suyoto@staff.uajy.ac.id

Abstract—Background: Automation is starting to dominate the world to-

day. We are entering a new era of computing technology, the Internet of Things
(IoT), which is experiencing rapid development. IoT is a worldwide neural net-
work in the cloud that connects a mixture of things, aiming to maximize internet
connectivity benefits in transferring and processing data. Using IoT, one can
monitor and control a device remotely with a computer or smartphone. IoT can
apply in various fields, one of which is the smart garden. Objective: This re-
search aims to design an automatic plant’s watering system used in small gar-
dens in houses. Smart Garden is an electronic control and garden monitoring
system for the process of watering plants so that it can help people care for
plants. Method: This paper presents a design of the Internet of Things for small
gardens inside houses using Wireless networks and sensors. In automatic water-
ing plants, information about soil moisture is needed for plants. Sensors are de-
vices used for smart agriculture. Arduino Uno will control all system operations
as monitoring the plant watering system. Result: The result of this paper is a
Plants Watering System Design for Small Garden at Homes.

Keywords—Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Garden, IoT Application

1 Introduction

One of the things that can help IoT with daily activities is the agriculture section.
Currently, the flawless integration with wireless sensors and IoT in smart agriculture
can raise agriculture to a previously unthinkable [1]. The sales of agricultural products
have always been challenging, so real-time monitoring in the processing, production,
and circulation [2]. Supporting farmers with decision tools and automation technology
is a purpose of application in agriculture. Integrate products, knowledge, and services
for better quality, productivity, and profit expected to increase from 30 million in
2015 to 75 million in 2020 [3]. Smart Garden System is a breakthrough that is cur-
rently popular. At home, there are presently gardens in front and back yards. With
uncertain climate change, a beautiful garden is needed and can provide coolness to the
house. However, daily activities leave many people without enough time to water
their plants. Plants that are not treated will wither and do not provide benefits.
Smart solutions are needed for better crop maintenance for more efficient water re-
sources, even in adverse weather conditions. Besides, different plant species require

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different amounts of water, intelligent systems necessary for efficient water utilization
and dynamic plant growth [4]. Because it becomes crucial to combine developing
technology with plantations and carry out smart farms [5], the Smart Garden System
appears. Features allow us to use various IoT applications such as integrating sen-
sors/actuators, digital transmissions, low power consumption, scalability, and WSN
security [6].
This system is a process in which automation water the garden through a humidity
sensor in the ground or air. This system will facilitate with the help of the internet.
The humidity sensor is connected to the watering plant and smartphone so we can
monitor soil moisture. If the air or soil does not have enough water or humidity, the
system will turn on the watering machine. Soil moisture, rainfall, evaporation are
essential parameters for designing Smart Garden Systems [7], [8]. Some of the Smart
Garden System’s main features are real-time feedback from garden sensors, park
monitoring, application-controlled water systems, and automatic watering systems.
Mobile devices have robust computing, sensing, and connectivity resources. Tools
such as smartphones and tablets can run applications for various purposes [9]. In this
particular case, we would like to apply the Smart Garden System on mobile devices.

2 Literature Review

IoT technology plays an essential role in various applications in the agricultural

sector. IoT uses the Cloud-Internet communication framework to store data in the
cloud and process data outside the device [10]. IoT’s real challenge is to allow users
to control objects remotely more freely and flexibly [11]. It required communication
and various assistance, such as local or remote data acquisition, intelligent infor-
mation analysis, and cloud-based decision making for the farming industry. User
interfaces and automation also can help to smooth the operations process. In the in-
dustrial chain, the agricultural sector is one of the most inefficient areas, but IoT can
revolutionize it. [1]. The quality and safety of farm products are related to public
health and can also affect social stability, economic development, and national securi-
ty, which are global problems [2]. In this agriculture topic, a smart garden system for
houses will significantly benefit a household. Using cloud computing and IoT, design-
ing an irrigation system for monitoring soil moisture will help more efficient.
In agriculture and forestry, Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) are
already implemented. The advantages of Cloud Computing are virtualization, expan-
sion, practical, and economical. The Internet of Things (IoT) plays as an essential
supporter to realize intensive agriculture, high efficiency, high quality, high yield,
ecological and safe with techniques such as photoacoustic electromagnetic sensors,
technology “3S“, and laser scanner [12]. Cloud Computing and IoT are used to build
agriculture automation by developing convenient measurement technologies and soil
temperature, air humidity, and moisture sensors. By controlling the irrigation system
for plants from a smartphone [13], [14]. It also developed with a Geographic Infor-
mation System map of the land under control [15]. The data obtained using wireless

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Short Paper—Automatic Plants Watering System for Small Garden

communication, radio frequency identification, IoT information sensing techniques,

automatic control handled with agricultural information cloud [16].
Critical applications using IoT include monitoring the quality of drinking water.
Sensors measure water parameters installed to ensure high supply quality and avoid
accidental contamination of drinking water connected to waste disposal. This same
network expanded to monitor irrigation systems in plants [17]. A precise irrigation
control system was developed using wireless sensors and scheduled to work accord-
ing to remote sensor data using specific applications [18]. Gutiérrez et al. [9] designed
an irrigation system using a camera embedded in a smartphone, enclosed in a water-
proof and lightroom. The camera is to take pictures and check groundwater levels.
According to the wet or dry soil sector, light and dark pixels are distinguished by
grayscale analysis. Router nodes are used to pass on the valuable content that drives
the sprinkler to provide water for plants automatically. Irrigation applications devel-
oped using smartphones and connectivity, including microprocessors, wifi, radio
modem, and external memory.

3 The Proposed Method

In automatic watering plants, information about soil moisture is needed for plants.
Sensors are devices used for smart agriculture. Real-time environmental parameters
such as ambient temperature, soil moisture level, and tank water level significantly
affect the continuation of the plant life cycle [19]. The soil moisture sensor is a sensor
that can measure water content and soil moisture. Joaquin et al. [20] use solar power
in irrigation systems that are significantly important for agricultural products and
organic crops in geographically isolated places. This solar power will help where
investments in the electricity supply will be expensive. Irrigation systems can also be
adapted to various specific crop needs and only require minimum maintenance. Rao et
al. [21] research research aims to monitor agricultural systems’ data and control with
high precision IoT technology. The IoT system used is Arduino and cloud to track
real-time data from the crop field. This system focuses on humidity variations that
connect with temperature change data by sensors and can control the watering system.
To provide cloud-based computing to the system, the level of precision has increased
according to farmers’ use of the system.

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Fig. 1. Monitoring and control system architecture

As illustrated in Figure 1, all system operations are controlled by Arduino as moni-

toring and controlling. Arduino is an open-source prototyping platform. Arduino ac-
cepted input and converted it to consistent output [22]. The units connected to Ar-
duino are the power supply unit, sprinkler unit, temperature, PH, humidity sensors
unit, wifi unit, and smartphone. Arduino will receive power from the power supply
and collect temperature, PH, and Humidity data from the sensor’s unit. Furthermore,
the data is programmed displayed on a smartphone due to monitoring the garden’s
soil moisture using wifi.
This process is compiled by the Arduino Uno Board and becomes the primary con-
trol. The volume of water in the soil is measured by a soil moisture sensor consisting
of 2 probes. These probes allow an electric current to pass through the land and meas-
ure soil moisture levels based on its resistance. When there is more water, the soil
conducts more electricity and causes less resistance, so its humidity becomes high.
Conversely, when there is less water, the ground conducts little electricity to lower
soil moisture.
Figure 2 shows the flowchart of the system design. The power supply will be
turned on and will initialize the connection with the Arduino Board. After initializa-
tion, the relationship with the wifi module established — authentication required for
connections with sensors. The system will check the humidity level on the soil period-
ically and repeat the steps shown in Figure 2.

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Fig. 2. Flowchart

The user interfaces are displayed on a smartphone, such as a Figure 3 display the
temperature, humidity, soil pH, and light information. Also, there are statistical charts
for temperature every day. The home page also shows a button to activate the water
sprinkler. Users can set when the water sprinkler is activated automatically with spe-
cific humidity. Users can also adjust the watering time.

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Fig. 3. Design User Interface

The proposed design application’s contribution is to add smartphones as an inter-

face application to control and monitor the plants watering systems. The proposed
design aims to water the plants in homes on the garden on a small scale at a low cost.
The component is connected via a smartphone as the interface, as shown in Figure 3.
The sensor is buried in the ground and will send information about the moisture level
of the soil. After the soil reaches the desired moisture level, it will turn off. The sprin-
kler turned on when the land’s moisture level is below average — the monitored and
controlled information transmitted into the smartphone through the wifi module.

4 Conclusion

Based on the explanation that elaborated, this paper’s results are designing auto-
matic plant watering systems for small gardens. There have been many studies on the
agricultural industry. On this opportunity, the authors proposed a model of a watering
system on a small scale. The design of this system utilizes Arduino Uno as a control

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board and monitor. With advances in technology and IoT, this design can help care
for plants and assist in climate change.

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6 Authors

Maria Beata Inka Astutiningtyas is a Master of Informatics Engineering Student

of Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Monika Margi Nugraheni is a Master of Informatics Engineering Student of Uni-
versitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Suyoto is a Professor in the Department of Informatics Engineering at Universitas
Atma Jaya Yogyakarta in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He has more than nineteen years of
teaching experience and received his Ph.D. in 2000 from the National University of
Malaysia, Malaysia. His research interests are multimedia, computer graphics, visual-
ization, mobile application, and artificial intelligence.

Article submitted 2019-12-17. Resubmitted 2020-02-15. Final acceptance 2020-02-20. Final version
published as submitted by the authors.

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