DEVELOPMENT OF MONITORING SYSTEM OF AUTOMATIC PLANT IRRIGATOR
Patricia Anak Pati
“ I hereby declare that I have read through this report entitle “Development of monitoring system of Automatic palnt irrigator” and found that it has comply the partial fulfillment for awarding the degree of Bachelor of Electrical Engineering( Control, Instrumentation & Automation”
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DEVELOPEMT OF MONITORING SYSTEM OF AUTOMATIC PLANT IRRIGATOR
PATRICIA ANAK PATI
A report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Control, Instrumentation & Automation)
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA
I declare that this report entitle “Development of monitoring system of automatic plant irrigator” is the result of my own research except as cited in the references. The report has not been accepted for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in candidature of any other degree.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The special thanks to my helpful supervisor, Mr ,ohd Riduwan B Md Nawawi for his cooperation and patients in guiding me to accomplish the Final Year Project (FYP). Without his continued support and interest, this project would not have been same as presented here.
To my parents and my friend, your moral supports are highly appreciated. Thank you for all of your supports and prayers that helped me a lot to go through this project. Thanks for their encouragement, love and emotional supports that they had given to me.
ABSTRACT
Irrigation is of the method to watering the plant and to improve the quality of crops. Automatic irrigation is a modern method that used for watering vegetables, fruits and farm crops. This project paper will describe “automatic plant irrigator” designed by using microcontroller. The main purpose of this project is to design an automatic watering device by sensing the soil conditions. In addition, the project also aims to design a soil moisture sensor that can be easily integrated with a microcontroller. To achieve this objective, some research and studies has been done in some previous similar project. Based on the review, the methodology that used in this project are divide into two, which is hardware and software parts. Both development are involving design, experimentation, simulation and construction to get an expected result which meets the project objective. Data analysis for this project will proceed after the completion of the hardware and the software procedure. This is for the purpose to ensure the project can achieve the objective and also to ensure the reliability of the system.
ABSTRAK
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
3 METHODOLOGY 10
3.1 Introduction 10
3.2 Project flow 13
3.3 hardware development 14
3.3.1 Sensing unit 15
3.3.2 Controller unit 20
3.3.3 Action unit 22
3.4 Software development 25
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
4 RESULT AND ANALYSIS 38
4.0 Introduction 38
4.1 The sensor circuit and scaling 39 4.1.1 The Testing and Construction of the Sensing Circuit
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE TITLE PAGE
3.1 LCD Display Pin Description 32
3.2 Table for experimental results of soil water content 35
4.1 Comparison of Voltage Measured between sensor by cytron,
copper probe and stainless steel probe (Voltage divider circuit) 41
4.2 Comparison of Voltage Measured between sensor by cytron,
copper probe and stainless steel probe (Operational Amplifier) 41 4.3 Comparison of Voltage Measured between sensor by cytron,
copper probe and stainless steel probe (Bridge circuit) 42 4.4 Result from soil water percentage experiment (sensor by cytron) 43 4.5 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
voltage divider (Copper probe) 43
4.6 Result from soil water percentage experiment using voltage
divider (stainless steel probe) 44 4.7 Result from soil water percentage experiment (sensor by cytron) 45 4.8 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
operational amplifier (Copper probe) 45 4.9 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
operational amplfier (stainless steel probe) 46 4.10 Result from soil water percentage experiment (sensor by Cytron) 47 4.11 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
bridge circuit ( Copper probe) 47
4.12 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
4.14 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
operational amplifier circuits ( Copper probe) 52 4.15 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
operational amplifier circuit ( Stainless steel probe) 52 4.16 Result from soil water percentage experiment ( sensor by Cytron) 53 4.17 Result from soil water percentage experiment using voltage
divider circuit ( Copper probe) 54
4.18 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
voltage divider circuit ( Stainless steel probe) 54 4.19 Result from soil water percentage experiment ( sensor by Cytron) 55 4.20 Result from soil water percentage experiment
bridge circuit ( Copper probe) 56
4.21 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
bridge circuit ( Stainless steel probe) 56 4.22 Result from soil water percentage experiment ( sensor by Cytron) 57 4.23 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
operational amplifier circuit( Copper probe) 58 4.24 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
operational amplifier circuit ( Stainless steel probe) 58 4.25 Result from soil water percentage experiment ( sensor by Cytron) 59 4.26 Result from soil water percentage experiment using voltage
divider circuit ( Copper probe) 60
4.27 Result from soil water percentage experiment using voltage
divider circuit ( Stainless steel probe) 60 4.28 Result from soil water percentage experiment ( sensor by Cytron) 61 4.29 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
bridge circuit ( Copper probe) 62
4.30 Result from soil water percentage experiment using
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE TITLE PAGE
3.1 Project chart 12
3.2 Hardware Block diagram 14
3.3 Voltage Divider circuit (Mike McRoberts ,
Arduino Starter Kit Manuals, Earth Shine Design, 2009) 15 3.4 Operational Amplifier circuit
(The Emitter follower or The Common Collector Amplifier) 16
3.5 Bridge circuit 17
3.6 Sensor Circuit Simulation using Multisim Software 18 3.7 Sensor Bridge Circuit Simulation using Multisim Software 18
3.8 Sensor probe made from copper 19
3.9 Sensor probe made from stainless steel 20 3.10 Arduino Uno (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoradUno) 21
3.11 LCD display (www.cytron.com.my) 21
3.12 Automatic Plant Irrigator Display 22
3.13 Water pump control circuit 23
3.14 240V Water Pump 24
3.15 Dripping system (www.hydroponics-simplified.com) 25
3.16 Software Flowchart 26
4.3 Graph of measured voltage versus water percentage for
4.4 Graph of measured voltage versus water percentage
for operational amplifier circuit 46
FIGURE TITLE PAGE
4.5 Graph of measured voltage versus water percentage for bridge circuit 48 4.6 Linear trend line for voltage divider circuit 50 4.7 Linear trend line for operational amplifier circuit 50 4.8 linear trend line for bridge circuit 51 4.9 Graph of measured voltage versus water percentage
for operational amplifier circuit 53
4.10 Graph of measured voltage versus water percentage for
voltage divider circuit 55
4.11 Graph of measured voltage versus water percentage for bridge circuit 57 4.12 Graph of measured voltage versus water percentage
for operational amplifier circuit 59
4.13 Graph of measured voltage versus water percentage for
voltage divider circuit 61
4.14 Graph of measured voltage versus water percentage for bridge circuit 63
4.15 Control unit 66
4.16 Overall view of the circuit 66
4.17 Soil moisture sensor 67
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Introduction
1.1Background
Irrigation is a very important process when it involves agricultural activities. Irrigation system is an essential important element for plant growth. It is also one of the major impacts in the cultivation of crops because it will affect the growth of crops. Irrigation in agriculture term is defined as an artificial application of watering of the arable land or soil.
Water is most important to our life and we cannot survive without it. Water also is essential ingredient of plant. Most of gardener usually uses manual technique to watering their plant. This technique system is inefficient. Sometime, the possibility to over watering is high when use this technique.
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1.2Problem statement
Gardening is an activity which is very suitable for all age. A good irrigation system is very important element and most labor intensive task in the daily operation. The two
important aspect of irrigation is knowing when and how much to water. Even so, a proper or scheduled watering may not always be performed due to one’s tight working hours or fitness. Furthermore, the plant water consumption is not fixed. It depends on some factors which may affect the plant growth.
Nowadays, automatic plant irrigator system is commonly applied in agriculture such as domestic gardening. In this industry, automatic plant irrigator system usually used to supply water to maintain soil moisture so plants can grow well.
Unfortunately, there are still gardeners or farmers who maintained use manually watering technique because not all of them afford to buy the system. Over-watering possibility would occur if this manual process is still practiced. It will caused the plants drown if supply too much water for them. Sometime this manual technique also make the process water late reaches or does not reach the roots of plants and this will cause the plant get dried. Lack of water can be harmful to the plant or even can render it withered. The effect of this lack of water can also slow down the process of plant growth and will also affect the light weight of the plants. In the conventional system, farmers also need monitor the irrigation timetable, as each plant has a different time in terms of watering time.
Furthermore, not all gardeners are familiar with the system specifications. Not all farmers or gardeners have the skill or knowledge in the operation of the system. This will make it difficult for them to operate the system properly. Most of the farmers also don’t have any experience to deal with those in the irrigation system to get better ways to manage their crops easily.
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should be simpler. Therefore, to make life easier and more convenient, we have to make “automaticplant”.
An automatic plant irrigation monitoring system is the good solution to overcome this problem. This irrigation system is not only provides a good hydration system for plant but also provides the controller that allows the user to set their irrigation system operation. Users also can set the level of moisture that is allowed according to the specification in the soil so their crops will always have a maintained moisture level.
With an availability of a simple user-friendly monitoring display, this system provides a display that can be easily understood by anyone who uses it. In additional, this type of technology is very helpful in terms of better productivity and reducing the burden on farmers and gardeners.
1.3Project objective
1. To design reliable soil moisture sensor
2. To compare the sensitivity of two type of sensor probe that was made of stainless steel and copper
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1.4Project Scope
This project focuses to the low cost automatic plant irrigator design. The project involves the evolution of manually watering techniques to automatic watering techniques. The controlling automatic watering system in an agricultural. Some scope and limitation have been set to complete this project in a more systematic and organized.
Sensor used to control the watering system is soil moisture sensor. Soil moisture sensor will be buried in the soil to a depth of about 3cm. The distance between the two rods in the probe is 2cm. The soil will be tested in three condition which is dry condition, optimum condition and
Dry condition
The sensor will be placed in dry soil conditions and embedded at a predetermined depth. In dry soil conditions, the sensor will be in the high resistance value because there is no conduction path between the two stainless steel/copper rods.
Optimum Condition
When water is added to the soil, it will spread across every layer of soil due to capillary force. This can cause increases in soil moisture content. The resistance value of the sensor decrease due to the conductive path is formed between the two rods.
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Chapter 2
Literature review
2.1Introduction
Literature review is a section that being responsible for imparting requires information on the project which entitled “development of automatic plant irrigator system”. There are a lot of researches that have been done involving plant watering system. Each part of the system has its own features. Some part of the system might be available on the market.
Some of the problems that often arise are most cost-watering quite expensive on the market. Financial factors seem is one of problem or obstacle to many gardeners or farmer who have small-scale plants to run the application of this technology in their mechanization. Therefore, this chapter aims to gather all the information in the design of user friendly and low cost in the automatic watering applications.
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2.2.Soil moisture sensor
Sensor is a device which used to measure a physical quantity and convert this information into a signal that can be read by the observer or a tool. [1]
The Sensor converts one form of energy into another form because the sensor is a transducer. For this reason, the sensor is categorized according to the type of energy transfer that they detected. Soil moisture measurement provides very useful information to agriculture, such as agriculture farm, soil stability, soil moisture and construction activities. [2]
The probe selection for sensor is very important. This is because the material that used in the probe. Sensor sensitivity is depending on the material that used to construct the probe. Usually, soil moisture sensor refers to the resistance of the soil. Water is a good electric conductance. Generally, if the soil is wet, the resistance between the probes is low and vice versa [3].
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2.3.PIC Microcontroller
Microcontroller is a computer on- a- chip. It is a type of intelligence processor that can be programmed for collecting data from input. Microcontroller frequently uses in automatically control devices such as remote control system, toys and hardware. [5]
PIC is act as the main brain system in a moisture monitoring system. Technically, PIC is used to convert analog signals to digital signals that can be read by a computer that provides a view of the monitoring system. In the measurement of soil moisture, the soil moisture sensor is use to measure the difference (voltage) across the probe. Then transmit the measure to the PIC. .[6]
PIC can impose for a particular sensor to the 5V output. By doing this, the sensor probe will be able to collect charges to it. Then, perform the sensor will be done with the circuit resistance to ground. The time is taken to implement correlation with the level of moisture in the soil. [6]
In additional, the PIC also is a decision maker. The PIC is the main unit to be used as a monitoring system in the overall system. As decision-makers, the PIC will be set to determine every action of each part inside the system. For example, by control the irrigation unit and determine the time for watering. [11]
2.4 Irrigation System
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field. Second, it can eliminate the time and scheduling system for watering plants. Third, it also managed to contain the pressures caused by over-watering plants. In conclusion, this system is to promote the save and production water. [7]
With the increasing needs for agriculture, human start to realize that agriculture activity are needs water resources such as how they need water to survive. As time passes, the increase in population and the area of settlement grows wider. So, human has created a device that allows them to get water even they are far from the water source. The earliest system is known as aqueducts. [8]
To ensure a consistent supply of water, construction and careful design aqueduct is very important. The Romans have proven able to build and designing this system, which had produced a great impact on the irrigation system nowadays.
Nowadays, the water distribution system has been developed from a simple watering system to the sprinkler system. For agricultural activity, Irrigation system is very important to supply sufficient quantity of water for the plant according to plant needs. In addition, there are also many types of irrigation system for agriculture. [10]
2.5 Soil Moisture Monitoring Software
The software is designed to monitor system operation. This is to record the measurement of soil moisture so that can be used as a reference for plant watering strategies to produce better returns. The recorded data is very important because the difference patterns in the irrigation schedule did not affect the growth of crops. [9]
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by the software. The display helps the operator to determine the level of soil moisture and watering system conditions during operation. [10]
2.6 Soil water percentage experiment
One of the things that should be done before start the experiment, the method of calculation should be determined in advance. For this project, water percentage will be calculated by reference to the mass of dry soil.
