CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW OF IOT BASED PLANT WATERING SYSTEM

2.1 Literature Review of Smart Plant Watering System

Since nowadays, in the age of advanced technology and electronics, the life style
of the human should me smart, simpler, easier and much more convenient. So,
therefore; there is a need for many automated systems in human’s daily life routine to
reduce their daily activities and jobs. Here an idea of one such system named as
automatic plant watering system is very useful. As many people are facing a lot of
problem watering the plants in the garden, especially when they away from home.
This model uses IoT technology with microcontroller in order to make a smart
switching device to help millions of people. There are different types of plant
watering systems; each type of system suited to different needs and requirements.

2.1.1 Smart Plant Watering System Using Arduino Uno

This system water to the plant only at daytime whenever the soil is dry. In this
system, soil moisture sensor is used to sense the moisture level of the soil, a light
dependent resistor to identify daylight, water pump, relay module and Arduino Uno.
Usually, the ideal time to water the plants depends on the climate condition and the
regions where plants are available. The best time to water the plant is early in the
morning after sunrise. We should avoid watering the plants at night because at this
time weather is usually moist and leaves will stay wet for a long time due to the lack
of sunlight. As a result, to avoid these harmful situations, light dependent resistor is
used to identify sunlight with the help of this system water the plant only at daytime
whenever the soil will get dry.
The main aim of this system is, as if the soil is dry then soil moisture sensor
senses low moisture level in the soil, then according to the stored code in Arduino
Uno, the water pump will get started automatically to provide water to the plant. As
the soil is
wet then soil moisture sensor senses enough moisture level in the soil, then the water
pump will happen again and again only in daylight. If the soil is dry at night then the
water pump will not get started.

Soil moisture
sensor

Arduino Relay Water pump

Light
dependent
resistor

Figure 2.1 Block diagram of Plant Watering System using Arduino

2.1.2 Solar Panel Based Smart Plant Watering System Using GSM Module

Solar panel

Battery

5V power
supply

16*2
Moisture Liquid Crystal
sensor Display

Power Detector
Temperature
sensor RF trans
PIC18F8452 receiver

Ambient GSM Modem

light sensor

Auto/Remote
DC Motor
Driver
OSC
Relay

DC motor 12MHZ Crystal Pump

Figure 2.2 Solar Based Smart Plant Watering System using GSM module
 Solar powered smart watering systems are very useful. Solar energy has emerged as
variable source of renewable energy over the past few decades and is now used for
various applications such as emergency lighting, water heaters, and industrial
application. The system consists of water pump which is solar powered with a
moisture sensor used for automatic water control, light ambient sensor, temperature
sensor and GSM technology. It has mainly working in two modes i.e. manual modes
and automatic mode. This system provides a switch which controls that mode in this
RF transmitter and RF receiver will be used to operate the overall systems. A polar
single axis solar panel tracker is implemented and it has an adjustable horizontal
motor controlled axis and fixed vertical axis. If 2 or 3 degree of misalignment
happens then the tracker will correct its position and prevents wastage of power by
continuously running motor. The light intensity of the two LDR is compared and
according to the higher intensity of LDR the rotation of solar panel is decided and it is
adjusted to prevent the panel from rotating 360 degree the stepper motor will have the
overturn trigger.
The solar based watering system can be done in following manner. The moisture
level in soil is sensed by moisture sensor. The water level sensor is used to sense the
water level in storage tank and to check whether the water is sufficient or not for
watering the fields. A threshold value is decided and if the water level sensed by the
sensor is below the actual value then a message is sent to the user’s cell phone as
“water is not sufficient, watering cannot be completed”, otherwise the text sent is
“watering completed”. Sensors give an analog voltage to ADC. Analog to digital
conversion is done and then digital signal is sensed as input to PIC controller for
further processing like generating and sending text message to the user by GSM
modules, and to determine whether the plants need to be watered or not. The GSM
and the PIC controller are connected by means of IC MAX 232. The control of
pumping valve is used for pumping water to storage tank, watering valve for irrigation
fields and shed control whenever needed can regulated by the system as user sends
controlling signals to the controller through GSM. The RF trans receiver is used for
switching process and its range is 10-12 meters. To charge a battery solar panels are
used for harnessing photovoltaic energy which is to be used as a power supply for PIC
controller-based watering system operating at garden. The digital values then
provided as an input to PIC controller. PIC controller is interfaced with GSM module,
LCD, DC Pump. When the moisture content in the soil is low, automatically pump
will turn ON and the user will be notified with the information on mobile through
GSM module. Components for the system are solar panel, battery, PIC controller, the
stepper motor, DC motor, soil moisture sensor, light ambient sensor, temperature
sensor, RF interface receiver.

2.1.3 Smart Watering System Using Raspberry Pi

This project consists of four major components; Raspberry Pi, DHT11 sensor, Soil
moisture sensor and Relay. The sensors are connected to raspberry pi and power
supply. The raspberry reads the values from sensors and post the information in cloud
server. If the values are less than the already set threshold values, then the relay gets
ON, and the relay switches on the motor. The motor stays in ON condition till the
factor that is less the threshold value reaches the threshold value. When the threshold
value is reached, the relay automatically switches off the motor. The block diagram is
shown in below.

Figure 2.3 Watering System using Raspberry pi

2.1.4 Automated watering system using HC-05 Bluetooth module

This automatic watering is based on microcontroller ATMEGA328. Temperature,
light and soil moisture sensors are placed in the field. Sensors sense the respective
parameters of the soil and give the information to user through HC-05 Bluetooth
Module. User gets to knows the status of parameters via Bluetooth Module on the
Smartphone without going into the field directly.
When the moisture content reaches below the desired level according to the user
it can switch on the water supply or if the temperature rises above a certain threshold
then the user can switch similarly for light intensity.

2.1.5 Automated watering system using ARM controller and GPRS module
This project probes into the design of the automated watering system based on
ARM controller. This Embedded project is to design and develop a low-cost feature
which is based on embedded platform for water irrigation system. This project uses
temperature and soil moisture sensors to detect the water quantity present in
agriculture. The project uses ARM micro controller which is controller to process the
information. The aim of our embedded project is to monitor status of the sensors on
remote PC through a web page.
The system has a Distributed wireless network of temperature and soil moisture
sensors can be monitored on web page through Arm controller. In addition, a gateway
unit handles sensor information, triggers actuators, and transmits data to a web
application. The web-servers connected to Internet. The system was powered by
photovoltaic panels and had a duplex communication link based on a Cellular-Internet
interface that allowed for data inspection and Irrigation scheduling to be programmed
through a web page. The owner on the PC is also connected to same Internet. By
typing the IP-address on the web browser, the owner gets a web page on screen. This
page contains all the information about the status of the sensors or else the owner can
also monitor the results through mobile if the mobile has internet facility. Because of
its energy autonomy and low cost, the system has the potential to be useful in water
limited geographically isolated areas.

2.2 System Analysis

IoT based plant watering system is to detect the water content in advance way
.
soil moisture sensor senses enough moisture level in the soil, then the water pump
will get automatically stopped. This process will happen again and again only in
daylight. If the soil is dry at night then the water pump will not get started.