The University of Manchester

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

3rd Year Sensors Course Assignment 2010

Intelligent Irrigation Sensor System

For Gardening And Lawns Caring

Sensors & Instrumentation

EEEN 30037

Dr. Bruce Grieve

Student Name: Yuan Gao

Student ID: 7390955

 3rd Year Sensors Course Assignment 2010

CONTENTS

1. Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………….1

2. Idea……………………………………………………………………………………………….1
2.1 Important Specifications…………………………………………………………………………..1

2.2 Customers and Market…………………………………………………………………………..….1

3. Review………………………………………………………………………………………….2
3.1 Overview of An Existing Patent…………………………………………………………………2

3.2 State-of-the-art: Humidity Sensors in Intelligent Irrigation System………..2

3.3 Proposed Sensor System……………………………………………………………………………3

4. Design and Implementation…………………………………………………………..3

4.1 Preferred Design……………………………………………………………………………………….3

4.2 Implementation………………………………………………………………………………………..4

5. Prototype Delivery…………………………………………………………………………5

6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………..5

7. References………………………………………………………………………………..6

8. Appendices…………………………………………………………………………………7
 3rd Year Sensors Course Assignment 2010

1. Executive Summary
Current automatic irrigation system keeps lawns and garden plants away from drought via
regular watering, which meanwhile brings side effects of water wasting and the risk of over-
watering. The intelligent lawn irrigation system is designed to properly water the lawns or
plants without wasting water. In this system, the irrigator is controled by a microcontroller,
which recieves signals from soil moisture sensors monitoring the humidity of the soil to
identify the appropriate watering time. There is a huge potential market for this system as
anyone who has a need to take care of lawns or garden or landscape plants can benefit from it.
At present, the existing intelligent irrigation systems are mostly applied in the large scale
agriculture, therefore they are too complicated, extremely expensive, and inappropriate for
personal or small scale gardening and lawns caring. This idea can be developed for mass
production after the prototype successfully tested.

2. Idea
This idea intends to make triditinal automatic irrigator intelligent, i.e. turing on when the
lawns and plants need water and turing off when they do not. To realise this, soil moisture
sensors are utilised to measure the humidity of the soil, which can reflect the water demond of
the lawns and plants. Then data collected by the sensors will be transmitted to a
microcontroller to analyse and decide when to turn on the irrigator. The DAC is needed to
connect the irrigator and the microcontroller.
2.1 Important Specifications
Given the physical working surroundings of the sensor system, some important
specifications have to be clarified before the system is finally designed.
 The whole sensor system is buried in the soil, although not deep, the corrosive and
humid surround soil may damage the circuits and the microcontroller. To protect
them, the corrosion-resisting and water proof casing will be needed. There will only
be the probe of the sensor directly contacting the soil.
 Orders from the microcontroller based on the average humidity of the soil around the
irrigator but not merely the moisture at a certain point, thus more than one sensor will
be utilised. Normally, a set of three sensors are distributed evenly around the irrigator
for reasonable data collection.
 Digital output of the microcontroller cannot drive the electrical irrigation directly. In
this case, a DAC will be applied for the microcontroller to turn on/off the irrigator.
2.2 Customers and Market
This system is mainly designed for personal gardening and lawns caring. So the target
customers are ranging from individuals who possess a lawn or a small garden even a balcony
garden to the caretakers of the public lawns.

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There is a huge market produced by the demand of gardening irrigation and domestic
irrigation from a wide range of customers. The irrigation service in this market is actually
competitive. However, few of the suppliers provide an intelligent solution in their service.
The estimated cost to manufacture is given in the chart below.
Humidity Microcontroller Circuits Protective Labour
Sensors Components Casings
and Wires
Cost (£) 13.5 Less than 1 2 2 5
(4.5 each) (0.72) (Approximately)
Total Cost £23.5
Average price for the domestic irrigation system is about £150, due to the importance of
the intelligent sensor system, a sale price between £40 and £50 will be reasonably accepted by
customers, which will give a considerable return on the initial investment.

3. Review
As any other kinds of sensor technologies, humidity sensors are widely used in the various
fields such like textile, semiconductor, pharmaceutical and so on. Controlling irrigation
system by feedbacks from humidity sensor monitoring the surrounding moisture is not an
innovative concept, and some patented inventions are actually based on it. However, huge
potential of this concept is waiting to be developed.
3.1 Overview of An Existing Patent.
US patent 07590471 features an intelligent sprinkler irrigation system for watering an
arbitrarily-shaped section of field. This invention is developed for domestic use and generally
contains a water source, a programmable sprinkler and a computer system. Some pre-
determined sprinkler functions are generated in the computer system by the administrator or
the computer itself to decide how the sprinkler works. Variable programs give the flexibility
to both irrigation area and time [1].
For domestic use, this invention is definitely powerful and intelligent. But its
disadvantages are hard to be ignored. The price will be beyond the acceptable level of a
domestic customer, and maintenance work will be extremely hard for an average user.
3.2 State-of-the-art: Humidity Sensors in Intelligent Irrigation System
The most advanced intelligent irrigation techniques are applied in the agriculture industry.
The controller is the most essential part in an intelligent irrigation system, which applies
water in the necessary quantity at right time to enhance the efficiency in water and energy
while sustaining agriculture production. One importance component part of the controller is
humidity sensors. And basically, there are two types of control strategies employed with soil
humidity sensors, bypass and on-demand. The most common configuration for small sites is
bypass, which typically has a soil moisture threshold adjustment from dry to wet. Merely One
humidity sensor monitoring the driest irrigation zone is enough for this strategy. An on-
demand configuration initiates irrigation from a pre-determined low soil moisture level and

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terminates it at a relatively high threshold. This strategy is often used in commercial sites or
other type of sites with different irrigation zones [2].
3.3 Proposed Sensor System
Unlike its competitors, the proposed system is not a mini-version of the industrial
intelligent irrigation system, but a combination of the technologies applied in the industry and
the actual demands of the target customers.
Following features make the proposed system emerge from its competitors:
 Incomparably low price due to the simple and concise design.
 Unimaginable convenience for maintenance, for example, any part of the system can
be easily renewed by an average user.
 Reliable irrigation performance obtained by setting not only one sensor to monitor the
soil moisture.

4. Design and Implementation

4.1 Preferred Design
To realise the concept of intelligent irrigation, three basic parts are needed, an electrical
irrigator, a microcontroller and humidity sensors. Considering the output of the
microcontroller is digital that unable to drive the irrigator, a DAC must be utilised. Interface
circuit between the sensors and the microcontroller can be omitted if choosing a certain model
of microcontroller that capable of ADC sampling. To summarise, the block diagram is
achieved as following:

Soil Humidity Electrical

Microcontroller DAC
Sensors Irrigator

Specifications of every part of the sensor system are precisely introduced below.
 Humidity Sensors
The choice of humidity sensors is a trade-off between quality and cost. As this system will
be mainly used in a premise manner, the cost and long-term stability are considered as
primary two factors. As to other features as accuracy, sensitivity, precision, average level will
be enough.
Humidity sensor HIH-4030-001, as the photo given in Fig. 1 in appendices, is the final
choice. Some quantitative specifications are given in the following chart.
Accuracy Stability Operating Voltage Voltage
(at 50%RH Temperature Supply Output
In a year)
HIH- ±𝟑. 𝟓%𝐑𝐇 ±𝟏. 𝟐%𝐑𝐇 −𝟒𝟎 𝐭𝐨 𝟖𝟎 𝟒 𝐭𝐨 𝟓. 𝟖 Linear output
4030-001 ℃ V(DC) (0 to 4 V)
Source: [3]

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The accuracy is good enough as ±𝟑. 𝟓% relative humidity is totally acceptable.

Additionally, ±1.2% relative humidity change a year ensures its long-term stability. And the
linear output feature greatly simplifies the software program.
Humidity sensor HIH-4030-001 is £4.5 each if bought in bulk, the cheapest among like
products.
 Microcontroller
A 14-pin 8-bit flash microcontroller PIC16F526 is used in this design. It’s programmable,
capable of ADC sampling and able to process signals from three inputs synchronously [4].
ADC sampling capability replaces the interface between the analogue output from sensors
and the digital input of microcontroller. And as a set of three sensors are used in the proposed
system, multiple inputs process ability of the microcontroller is necessary.
The chosen microcontroller costs only £0.72.
 DAC
The digital output from the microcontroller cannot drive the electrical irrigator directly.
DAC is a solution as it converts digital signals from the microcontroller into analogue voltage
to drive the irrigator.
8-bit digital to analogue converter DAC0800 is used in the proposed design, which cost
£0.60 each if bought in bulk.
4.2 Implementation
The thorough implementation of the proposed system consists of two stages, the hardware
implementation and the software program.
 Hardware Implementation
Each part of the system is integrated in a protective casing and buried in the soil. Wires
connecting each part of the system should be corrosion-resisting and water proof as well. The
Humidity sensors are buried in the depth of 10cm. Three sensors are distributed evenly
around the irrigator to monitor the average moisture of the whole area. The distance between
each sensor and the irrigator should be the same and equal to half of the watering radius. The
microcontroller and the DAC are integrated together in one protective casing to process
signals from three humidity sensors.
The diagram given in Fig. 2 in the appendices shows the installation of the proposed
system.
 Program
The microcontroller is pre-programmed before it is integrated in the circuit. The objective
of the program is to find the right irrigating time without water waste based on signals from
sensors. The solution is to compare data from each sensor with a pre-established threshold
value and make a response once any of the collected data drops below the reference. The
flow chart of the program is provided as following.

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No

Yes

The outputs of three humidity sensors reflect the moisture of the soil, when any of them is
lower than the threshold value set in the program, it means that some certain part of the soil
need water, and consequently the irrigator will be turned on.

5. Prototype Delivery
Approximately three weeks will be taken to deliver the prototype with a budge of around
£100.
First week
Purchase items including humidity sensors, microcontroller, DAC, and a set of electrical
irrigator. Test items separately and finish the program and test it on the microcontroller.
About £23.5 will be spent on sensors, microcontroller and DAC, while the rest money will be
used to buy a whole set of electrical irrigator.
Second week
Install the whole system according to the installation diagram. A real lawn is not
necessary, but humidity sensors have to be buried in the soil. Do the initial test, and
make sure the whole system works as expected.
Third week
Test the system in different kinds of soil and under any possible situations that could occur
in realistic use. The test period may be extended for long-term performance of the whole
system.

6. Conclusion
The proposed intelligent irrigation sensor system proposed is developed for domestic
irrigation to apply water at right time to enhance the efficiency. The estimated cost of the
whole system is £23.5, which is an incomparably low price among like products.

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7. References
[1]. US Patent 07590741. Intelligent Sprinkler Irrigation System. [Online] Available at:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/patog/week37/OG/html/1346-3/US07590471-
20090915.html [Accessed: 22 April 2010].

[2]. Michael D. Dukes. Smart Irrigation Controllers. [Online] University of Florida IFAS
Extension Available at: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/TOPIC_SERIES_Smart_Irrigation_Controllers
[Accessed: 22 April 2010].

[3]. Honeywell. HIH-4030/31 Series, Humidity Sensors Datasheet. [Online] Available at:
http://sensing.honeywell.com/index.cfm/ci_id/142958/la_id/1/document/1/re_id/0
[Accessed: 23 April 2010].

[4]. Microchip. PIC16F526 Datasheet, 16-Pin, 8-Bit Flash Microcontroller. [Online]

Available at: http://www1.futureelectronics.com/doc/MICROCHIP/PIC16F526-
I__P.pdf [Accessed: 23 April 2010]

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8. Appendices

Figure 1: Photo of humidity sensor HIH-4030-001

Source: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=480-
3166-2-ND

Figure 2: Installation of the proposed system

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