Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System

Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System

Nowadays, farmers in the agriculture field facing a lot of problems in pouring the water into their field to keep their crops green especially in summer season. It’s because they don’t have a proper idea about the power availability. Even it is available, they have to wait until the field is properly watered. Thus, this procedure checks them to stop doing other acts. But, there is a solution, namely “solar powered auto irrigation system”.In the trial of solar power based irrigation system, PV cells are used to produce electricity, that energy is stored in rechargeable batteries.The energy which is produced from the batteries is used for the system operation. A water pump is used to pump the water from a boor well to a water storage tank. This article discusses solar powered irrigation system using solar energy.

What is an Irrigation System?

The term “Irrigation system” is mainly a way to give water to the crops. In the field of agriculture, it is very important to deliver water to crops in case of lack of rain and water under the earth. It is very significant to give proper water to crops to make their progress effective. Therefore, this system is used to offer proper water to crops and lands.

Irrigation System

What is an Auto Irrigation System?

The auto irrigation system is very significant in the agriculture field. In the field of agriculture, it is very important to maintain the water level or wetness in the soil. Excess or lack of water may damage the progress of plants which results in loss of farmers. To overcome this problem, the proposed system is designed. This system keeps information about the level of moisture in the soil and keeps moisture to acceptable limits. The level of moisture can be measured using a sensor namely moisture sensor.According to the level of measured moisture, the water pump switches ON or OFF.

What is Solar Power Auto Irrigation System?

As we know that it is very difficult in agriculture field to control the water pump manually. One has to visit in fields to switch ON and OFF. In worldwide, where electricity is the main problem, villagers frequently don’t have the electricity. In that situation, solar energy is used to give the power to water pumps. In this type of irrigation system, the solar charge controller is employed to store DC power of solar panels in batteries. This battery is used to give the power supply to water pumps automatically.

Solar powered auto irrigation system work in the sunlight. When the sun shines the water,  pumping process is a sensible way of solar energy use throughout the summer, as the water need is the highest. The water pump which is used will provide a reliable water source for plantation. For any solar based water pumping system, the ability to drive water is a function of three variables like pressure, power, and pressure. These three essential components are used in this solar powered auto irrigation system. An example project of the above information is solar powered auto irrigation system, and a description of this project is described below.

Block Diagram of Solar Power Auto Irrigation System

The main objective of this solar powered auto irrigation system is to develop an irrigation system in the agriculture field with the help of  Solar Energy. The required electrical and electronic components of this proposed system are Solar Panel, 8051 series Microcontroller, water pump, an operational amplifier, LCD, Relay, MOSFET(Metal oxide Semiconductor FET), Motor, Diodes, Voltage Regulator, Resistors, Capacitors, LED, Crystal and also Transistors.

Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System Block Diagram

Solar Panel

Solar panels are designed with solar cells collected of semiconductor materials. The main function of solar panel is to convert solar energy into DC electrical energy (generally of 12V). The required number of cells and also their size depends on the rating of the load. The group of solar cells can generate maximum electricity. But, the solar panel must place closely at accurate angles to the sun rays.

The Source

Water sources are available in different forms like drilled wells, springs, ponds, rivers, etc.

The PV Panels

The PV (photo voltaic) cells basically depend on the size of the water pump. A panel values in watts of power it can generate. This system should be worked with a PV array of capacity, and measured under some typical test conditions. A sufficient of modules in series and parallel could be used to acquire the necessary photo voltaic power array power o/p. The PV modules o/p power which is used in the PV array under typical test conditions must be a min of 74 watts peak.

Charge Controller

In any solar-power system, a charge controller is an essential device, used to maintain correct charging voltages of the batteries. The charge controller function is to control the voltage and current from the solar panel. It charges the battery and also stops the battery charging from over voltage and under voltage situations.

Battery

The Battery is an electric device, used to store solar energy and supplied to the equivalent loads. The usage of batteries depends on the load requirement.

Inverter

The main function of the inverter is to convert the voltage of the battery to AC voltage in order to start the loads. So, it helps us to run several electronic devices, home appliances, computers, etc. There are various types of inverters existing in the market today. The characteristics of usual inverters include high conversion frequency, less harmonic content, and high switching frequency, so on.

Power Supply

The power supply of this project comprises of a step-down transformer, voltage regulator, bridge rectifier. Where the step-down transformer steps down the 230 volts to 12 volts AC, and a bridge rectifier changes alternating current to direct current, then a voltage regulator adjusts the voltage to 5V which is used for the operation of the microcontroller. In this proposed system, solar energy is used to trigger the irrigation pump. This project is built with sensor parts, which are collected using operational amplifier IC. These are designed here as a comparator. Two copper wires are injected into the soil to sense the soil condition, whether it is dry or wet.

Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System Project Kit

In this proposed system, solar energy is used to trigger the irrigation pump. This project is built with sensor parts, which are collected using operational amplifier IC. These are designed here as a comparator. Two copper wires are injected into the soil to sense the soil condition, whether it is dry or wet.A microcontroller in this project is used to control the entire system by detecting the sensors. When the sensors sense the soil condition as thirsty, then the comparator directs the command to the microcontroller, and it also sends commands to the relay-driver IC then, it repeats the motor to drive water to the crops. Here the comparator functions as an interface between the microcontroller and sensing arrangement.

A microcontroller in this project is used to control the entire system by detecting the sensors. When the sensors sense the soil condition as thirsty, then the comparator directs the command to the microcontroller, and it also sends commands to the relay-driver IC then, it repeats the motor to drive water to the crops. Here the comparator functions as an interface between the microcontroller and sensing arrangement. The soil & the water pump status are shown on the LCD which is interfaced to the microcontroller. Similarly, when the moisture sensor senses the condition of the soil as wet, then the microcontroller sends the instructions to the relay to switch off the motor. Furthermore, this project can be developed by interfacing it with a GSM modem to gain control over the motor switching operation.

The soil & the water pump status are shown on the LCD which is interfaced to the microcontroller. Similarly, when the moisture sensor senses the condition of the soil as wet, then the microcontroller sends the instructions to the relay to switch off the motor. Furthermore, this project can be developed by interfacing it with a GSM modem to gain control over the motor switching operation.

Thus, this is all about the solar powered auto irrigation system. By using this project, it optimizes the usage of water by reducing the human intervention of farmers. The excess energy which is generated from the solar panel can also be given to the grids with a simple modification in the circuit.This project is very helpful for engineering students.We hope that You might have got a better concept of this project.Furthermore, any doubts regarding this concept or to implement irrigation system projects, please give your feedback by commenting in the comment section below. Here is a question for you, what are the applications of irrigation system?