Abstract
This paper demonstrates how an irrigation management system (IMS) can practically be implemented by deploying a wireless sensor network (WSN). Specifically, the paper describes an IMS which was set up in Manja township, city of Blantyre. Deployment of IMS in rural areas of developing countries like Malawi is a challenge as grid power is scarce. For the system to be self-sustained in terms of power, the study used solar photovoltaic and rechargeable batteries to power all electrical devices. The system incorporated a remote monitoring mechanism through a General Packet Radio Service modem to report soil temperature, soil moisture, WSN link performance, and photovoltaic power levels. Irrigation valves were activated to water the field. Preliminary results in this study have revealed a number of engineering weaknesses of deploying such a system. Nevertheless, the paper has highlighted areas of improvement to develop a robust, fully automated, solar-powered, and low-cost IMS to suit the socioeconomic conditions of small scale farmers in developing countries.
Highlights
In precision agriculture (PA), various parameters including soil type and temperature vary dramatically from one region to the other; any irrigation system must be flexible to adapt to such variations
The robustness of the system was further enhanced by increasing the sampling time from 5 minutes to 30 minutes when in idle mode and from 1 minute to 2 minutes when irrigating. This implies that where power supply is limited, or in order to reduce the cost of wireless sensor network (WSN) deployment through the use of low capacity batteries and small-sized solar Photovoltaic panels, one needs to consider increasing the sampling time
This paper has demonstrated how an irrigation management system (IMS) can be implemented based on WSN
Summary
In precision agriculture (PA), various parameters including soil type and temperature vary dramatically from one region to the other; any irrigation system must be flexible to adapt to such variations. The increase in WSN deployment in industrial, agricultural, and environmental monitoring applications is as a result of being a low power and low data rate energy efficient technology It offers mobility and flexibility in connectivity which promote network expansion when needed. Keshtgary and Deljoo [3] discussed the simulation of WSN for agriculture using OPNET simulation tools in which random and grid topologies were compared They evaluated the performance of the networks by monitoring delay, throughput, and load. The main contribution of this paper is the design, implementation, and performance enhancement of a low-cost but efficient IMS that combines sensors and actuators in a wireless sensor/actuator network This approach could guide the successful deployment of WSN for PA.
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