ISSN(Online) : 2320-9801

ISSN (Print) : 2320-9798

International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Vol.5, Special Issue 4, June 2017
nd
2 National Conference on Recent Advances in Engineering and Technology (NCRAET_2017)
Organized by
Dept. of ECE, Basavakalyan Engineering College, Basavakalyan-585327, Dist. Bidar, Karnataka, India

Smart Drip Irrigation System Using

Raspberry Pi and Arduino
Prof : Khandoba .R, Jyoti.S.Gunjatte
Assistant Professor, BKEC, Basavakalyan, Dist. Bidar, Karnataka, India1
8thsem student, BKEC, Basavakalyan, Dist. Bidar, Karnataka, India2

ABSTRACT: This paper proposes a design for home automation system using ready-to-use, cost effective and
energy efficient devices including raspberry pi, arduino microcontrollers , xbee modules and relay boards. Use of
these components results in overall cost effective, scalable and robust implementation of system. The commands from
the user are processed at raspberry pi using python programming language. Arduino microcontrollers are used to
receive the on/off command from the raspberry pi using zigbee protocol. Star zigbee topology serves as backbone for
the communication between raspberry pi and end devices. Raspberry pi acts a central coordinator and end devices act
as various routers. Low-cost and energy efficient drip irrigation system serves as a proof of concept. The design can be
used in big agriculture fields as well as in small gardens via just sending an email to the system to water plants. The use
of ultrasound sensors and solenoid valves make a smart drip irrigation system. The paper explains the complete
installation of the system including hardware and software aspects. Experimental set-up is also tested and explained for
an automatic drip irrigation system to water 50 pots[5].

I. INTRODUCTION

The requirement of building an automation system for an office or home is increasing day-by-day. Industrialist
and researchers are working to build efficient and economic automatic systems to control different machines like lights,
fans, air conditioners based on the requirement. Automation makes an efficient use of the electricity and water and
reduces much of the wastage.
Drip irrigation system makes the efficient use of water and fertilizer. Water is slowly dripped to the roots of the plants
through narrow tubes and valves. Water is fed directly to the base of the plants which is a perfect way to water plants.
There should be proper drainage in the fields or pot plants to avoid any water logging which in case may affect the
productivity[1].
There already exist automatic drip irrigation systems which water plants based on soil humidity, pH value of
soil, temperature and light. These parameters are required in big agricultural fields where productivity of the crop
matters. In small areas like office premises, buildings, house gardens etc. where watering plants at regular interval
matters, our proposed irrigation system will be very efficient .This paper presents an smart drip irrigation system to
water plants with the use of devices like raspberry pi, Arduino microcontrollers .Xbee is used to control the system
wirelessly while Python programming language is used for automation purpose. This paper contributes an efficient and
fairly cheap automation irrigation system. System once installed has no maintenance cost and is easy to use.

II. CONTROL BLOCK- RASPBERRY PI

Raspberry pi is a pocket personal computer with Linux operating system installed on it. This is super cheap to
encourage young people for learning, programming, experimenting and innovation. Resembling like motherboard,
raspberry pi has all the components to connect inputs, outputs and storage.

Copyright @ IJIRCCE www.ijircce.com 28

 ISSN(Online) : 2320-9801
ISSN (Print) : 2320-9798

International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Vol.5, Special Issue 4, June 2017
nd
2 National Conference on Recent Advances in Engineering and Technology (NCRAET_2017)
Organized by
Dept. of ECE, Basavakalyan Engineering College, Basavakalyan-585327, Dist. Bidar, Karnataka, India

C G i
G P
S
HDMI P I

Power
ARM
JTAG RCAO/P

3.5mm
Full size SD LAN
9512 Audio Out
card on
bottom

Ethernet

USB

Fig.1. Control block diagram of raspberry pi

This system to water plants with the use of devices like raspberry pi, Arduino microcontrollers .Xbee is used to control
the system wirelessly while Python programming language is used for automation purpose. This paper contributes an
efficient and fairly cheap automation irrigation system. System once installed has no maintenance cost and is easy to
use.

Its various components include[7] :

A. ARM CPU/GPU : This is one of a family of CPUs based on the RISC (reduced instruction set number)
architecture developed by Advanced RISC machines. ARM makes 32-bit and 64-bit RISC multi-core
processors. This is a Broadcom BCM2835 System on a Chip (SoC) that's made up of an ARM central
processing unit (CPU) and Videocore 4 graphics processing unit (GPU).
B. GPIO: These are general purpose input/output connection points. And this is “A generic pin on an integrated
circuit or computer board whose behavior including whether it is an input or output pin -is controllable by
the user at run time . GPIO pins have no predefined purpose, and go used by default”.
C. RCA: “Root cause analysis (RCA) is a method of problem solving,used for identifying the root causes of
faults or problems”. This allows connection with analog TV or other similar points.
D. Audio Out: This point provides connection with audio out devices like speakers or headphones.
E. LED: “Light Emitting Diode is a semiconductor device that emits visible light when an electric current
passes through it. In most of LEDs it is monochromatic , occurring at a single wavelength. This is used for
indicator lights.
F. USB: “Universal Serial Bus “is a standard cable connection interface for personal computers and consumer
electronics devices”. It is an industry standard for short –distance digital data communications, and these are
used peripheral devices like mouse, keyboard etc.
G. HDMI : ”High Definition Multimedia Interface “, is a proprietary audio/video interface for transferring
uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI compliant

Copyright @ IJIRCCE www.ijircce.com 29

 ISSN(Online) : 2320-9801
ISSN (Print) : 2320-9798

International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Vol.5, Special Issue 4, June 2017
nd
2 National Conference on Recent Advances in Engineering and Technology (NCRAET_2017)
Organized by
Dept. of ECE, Basavakalyan Engineering College, Basavakalyan-585327, Dist. Bidar, Karnataka, India

device sources such as a display controller. This allows connection with compatible devices like HD
television with the use of HDMI cable like computer monitor ,video projector, digital television etc…..
H. Power: In this 5V USB micro connector is used for power supply.
I. SD card slot :”Secure Digital, this is commonly used for store and transfer the data”. This Full-sized SD card
is used to hold the LINUX operating system which is required for booting. “Booting is a process of
operations starting from the point when the user switches on the power supply.
J. Ethernet: “Ethernet is a system for connecting a number of computers to form a LAN,used to control
passing of information and to avoid
simultaneous transmission by two or more network . This is used for wired network.
SD card slot :”Secure Digital, this is commonly used for store and Ethernet: “Ethernet is a system for
connecting a number of computers to form a LAN ,used to control passing of information and to avoid
simultaneous transmission by t

III. PROPOSED DESIGN WITH IMPLEMENTATION

Fig.2. Proposed system

IV. WORKING

The block diagram of the proposed automatic irrigation system is shown in Fig. 2.
A. Send Email: To start the drip irrigation system an email is sent to a defined account having subject line : “run irrigation
system for X minutes”. For example in Fig. 2, to run irrigation system for two minutes, an email with the subject line is
sent “run irrigation system for two minutes”.
B. Email Account: Raspberry pi will poll for emails in this email account. Google email account is used in this paper.
C. Raspberry Pi:” The raspberry pi is a credit card sized computer that plugs into your television and a keyboard. it is a
capable little computer which can be used in electronic projects ,and many of the things that your desktop PC does like
spreadsheets, word processing , browsing the internet, and playing the games.
Software libraries used in Python programming are:
1) SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) ,is an standard email ,used library to send status email
2) IMAP (Internet message access protocol) ,used to store the messages that is for email polling.
3) BCM(Broadcom ), for GPIO control in raspberry pi
The methods used in the code (pseudo) is as follows.
Defgpiosetup()

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 ISSN(Online) : 2320-9801
ISSN (Print) : 2320-9798

International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Vol.5, Special Issue 4, June 2017
nd
2 National Conference on Recent Advances in Engineering and Technology (NCRAET_2017)
Organized by
Dept. of ECE, Basavakalyan Engineering College, Basavakalyan-585327, Dist. Bidar, Karnataka, India

Send Email: To start the drip irri

SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) ,is an
standard email ,used library to send status e IMAP (Internet message access protocol) ,
used to store the mes BCM(Broadcom ), for Gingpisetup(
//setup the GPIO pins of raspberry pi
}
Def check for pump start (){
//this function uses the IMAP library to check the mail
From email account with the particular subject line
}
Def send email (to, subject,body){
//uses SMTP server of email account to send an email for
the successful run of the pump
}
Main method {
//calls GPIO setup
Gpiosetup(){
While(true)
//check for the email
Check for pump start()
If(there is desired email)
//check for the number of minutes pump will
be run
//make GPIO pin of pi as high
//wait for X minutes
//send status mail for successful run
//make GPIO pin of pi low
Pi also sends and receives commands from and to the arduino microcontrollers using the zigbee modules.
Programming is done for both pi and arduino using python and arduino core functions and libraries respectively for
proper communication via zigbee.
Figure 3 explains the communication circuitry between the raspberry pi and zigbee module.
Fig.3.communicatio between raspberry pi and zigbee[6].
D. Arduino : It is an open source microcontroller which is used to control relay and ultrasound distance sensor.
Freeduino flavor of arduino is used in this design. Arduino libraries and functions are used in the program.

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 ISSN(Online) : 2320-9801
ISSN (Print) : 2320-9798

International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Vol.5, Special Issue 4, June 2017
nd
2 National Conference on Recent Advances in Engineering and Technology (NCRAET_2017)
Organized by
Dept. of ECE, Basavakalyan Engineering College, Basavakalyan-585327, Dist. Bidar, Karnataka, India

In case a low water level is detected by the sensor then a signal will be sent from the microcontroller to pi. Pi will
replay the same signal to arduino and solenoid valve will be turned on via relay.
Figure4 explain the communication circuitry between arduino and zigbee module. Figure 4 also explains the
connection between the arduino and sensor as well as arduino and relay.
E. Relay Board: “Relay is an electromagnetic switch operated by a relatively small electric current that can turn on or
off a much larger electric current”. One-channel relay board which operates on 5-6V is used here. The circuit is used to
control one 240V power appliance directly from microcontrollers or low voltage circuits. The connections to one-
channel relay board is shown in Fig. 5. There are three pins on the relay board namely

Fig.4.Connection of one channel relay board

normally open (NO), normally closed (NC) and common (C). The common pin is connected to NC pin when the
relay is off and to the NO pin when the relay is on. The input pin “INP” receives logic high from raspberry pi and in
turn switches on the relay, thus common is connected to NO which turns the device on till the relay is on.
The “VCC” and “GND” pins of the relay are connected to 5V supply and ground respectively.
F. Power Supply: The device to be switched, Its one end is connected to the 240 V AC supply and the other end is
connected to NO pin of the relay board as shown in Fig. 5. Relay is on/off according to the signal received from pi thus
opening or closing the solenoid valve.

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 ISSN(Online) : 2320-9801
ISSN (Print) : 2320-9798

International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Vol.5, Special Issue 4, June 2017
nd
2 National Conference on Recent Advances in Engineering and Technology (NCRAET_2017)
Organized by
Dept. of ECE, Basavakalyan Engineering College, Basavakalyan-585327, Dist. Bidar, Karnataka, India

Fig 5.Communication between arduino, zigbee , sensor and relay.

G. Water Storage Tank and water pump: Two 30 liters water storage tanks are used for testing purpose. Each tank
has submersible water pumps with the rating of 220V/50Hz. It draws the current of 0.23A and power of 18W.
H.Ultrasound Distance Sensor: This sensor is used to measure the water level in the tank. The on/off signal is
continuously sent to the solenoid valve and thus the water level in tank does not drop below or above a threshold to
avoid any damage in the water pump and also to avoid overflow of water from the water tank.
Arduino (D) communicate the signal to p

ADVANTAGES
Pi again send the signal to arduino (I) viazigbeeADVANTAGE
 High Efficiency In The Use of Water :
Here you can easily avoid over watering and this drip irrigation is highly effective at supplying one to four
gallons of water per hour directly to soil[3].
 Low Cost and Energy Efficient:
This contributes an efficient and fairly cheap automation irrigation system
 No soil erosion and needs low Labour: There is no loss off or run off fertilizers into ground water.
 Water Conservation: with drip irrigation ,water is directly delivered to the grounds surface rather than being
sprayed up and out over an area .
 Water Bill Savings:More efficient watering in the landscape saves money, to reduce monthly expanses and
drip irrigation can decrease that water bill.

DISADVANTAGES
High Efficiency In The Use of Water :
 Sensitive to clogging : Here it is sensitive to preventing the movement that is it is not a portable device.
 Moisture distribution problem : loss of water due to evaporation from the area during irrigation.
 Salinity hazards: A salt concentration present in the water and soil will negatively effect the crop yields,
degrade the land and pollute the groundwater.
 Initial cost is high: its initial cost is high[8].
 High maintenance: There are some maintenance considerations you should know about before having system
installed.

Copyright @ IJIRCCE www.ijircce.com 33

 ISSN(Online) : 2320-9801
ISSN (Print) : 2320-9798

International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Vol.5, Special Issue 4, June 2017
nd
2 National Conference on Recent Advances in Engineering and Technology (NCRAET_2017)
Organized by
Dept. of ECE, Basavakalyan Engineering College, Basavakalyan-585327, Dist. Bidar, Karnataka, India

 No soil erosion and needs low La

DISADVANTAGES
 Sensitive to clogging : Here it is sensitive to preventing the movement that is it is not a prtable de
 Initial cost is high: its initial cost is high.
 High maintenance: There are some maintenance considerations you should know about before having a system
installed. Primarily these systems require more regular maintenance than conventional irrigation systems.

V. RESULT AND CONCLUSION

This smart drip irrigation system proves to be a useful system as it automates and regulates the watering without
any manual intervention. Sending the emails to the system can be automated but manual sending of the emails has
control over the system regarding whether or not to run the reliability of the system. It is found that the system works
properly and the water is passed to the plants as and when required. An email is sent to run the system for two minutes.
After two minutes, an email is received for acknowledging the successful run of the system[4].

Fig.6. Irrigation System Showing Installation of Pipes Water Conserv

REFERENCES

1. Bainbridge, Devid A (june2001).”Buried clay pot irrigation : a little known but very efficient traditional method of irrigation.
Agricultural Water Management retrieved 23 October 2013.
2. R.Goyal,Megh(2012).Management of drip/trickle micro irrigation.
3. “Drip irrigation - History and Benefits”.
4. “The history of the Drip irrigation system and what is the available now”.
5. “History of drip irrigation”.
6. R.Hussain, J.Sehgal, A.Gangwar, M.Riyag“ Control of irrigation automatically by using wireless sensor network” International
journal of soft computing and engineering , issue 1, march 2013.
7. B. Johnson,”how the raspberry pi works”.
8. Chandankumarsahu,pramiteebehera,” a low cst smart irrigation control system “,
9. IEEE sponsored 2nd international conference on electronics and communication System (ICECS2015).

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 ISSN(Online) : 2320-9801
ISSN (Print) : 2320-9798

International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Vol.5, Special Issue 4, June 2017
nd
2 National Conference on Recent Advances in Engineering and Technology (NCRAET_2017)
Organized by
Dept. of ECE, Basavakalyan Engineering College, Basavakalyan-585327, Dist. Bidar, Karnataka, India

BIOGRAPHY

R.Hussain, J.Sehgal, A.Gangwar, M.Riyag “ Control of irrigation automatically by using wireless sensor network”
International journal of soft computing and engineering , issue Chandankumarsahu,pramiteebehera,” a low cstsmart
irrigation control system “,

Nikhil agrawal engineering manager,smart drip irrigation using raspberry pi and Arduino, international conference on
computing ,communication and automation(ICC

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