”AN IOT-BASED SMART PLANT WATERING

SYSTEM”
A Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree of
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
CIVIL ENGINEERING
A.KALYANI (16091A0138)
M.HARSHA VARDHAN REDDY (16091A0127)
C.NARENDRA (17095A0122)
K.BHUVAN CHANDRA (16091A0110)
B.PRATHYUSHA (15091A0184)
Under the Esteemed Guidance of
Dr.G.SREENIVASULU Ph.D IISc
Professor of Civil Engineering

Department of Civil Engineering

R. G. M College of Engineering and Technology
(Autonomous),
Nandyal 518 501, A. P., INDIA
(Affiliated to J. N. T. University Ananthapur, A. P., INDIA)
(Approved by AICTE, Accredited by N.B.A, NewDelhi, NAAC-A+ Grade)

2016 - 2020
Dedicated to my beloved parents, and teachers who have worked hard throughout my education.

ii
 Acknowledgements

We express deep gratitude to our guides Dr.G.SREENIVASULU,department of civil RGM-

CET for their guidance, scholarly advice, imparting illuminating ideas, benevolent attitude, a peren-
nial source of inspiration. He also taught us the time sense, discipline and punctuality, which indeed
made us to accomplish this piece of work effectively, efficiently and on time. For all these, we owe
them profusely forever.
We also express our deep gratitude to the faculty of EEE Department Dr.Suresh S Rao,and,
Dr.Gopi krishna ,faculty of ECE Department for helping to make our project succesful. We take
privilege to express our thanks to the Head of the Department Dr.G.SREENIVASULU (Ph.D
IISC Bengaluru),for his continuous help and encouragement.
We are highly grateful toDr.T.JAYACHANDRAPRASAD,Principal, R.G.M. College of Engi-
neering and Technology, for his encouragement and inspiration at various points of time in the suc-
cessful accomplishment of the project.
We shall remain grateful toDr.M.SHANTHIRAMUDU,Chairman,R.G.M. College of Engineer-
ing and technology who has been a constant source of inspiration throughout the project work and
we also seek his blessings for a bright future.
We shall remain grateful to Sri M.SHIVARAM, M.D,R.G.M. College of Engineering and technol-
ogy who has been a constant source of inspiration.
We express our special thanks to the all the teaching and non-teaching staff members of Civil
Engineering Department and college who constantly cooperated in the completion of the project
work. We thank all those who helped in the completion of this work.

A.KALYANI
M.HARSHA VARDHAN REDDY
C.NARENDRA
K.BHUVAN CHANDRA
B.PRATHYUSHA

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 Abstract
Automation of farm activities can transform agricultural domain from being manual and static to
intelligent and dynamic leading to higher production with lesser human supervision.Internet Of Things
(IOT) is a shared network of objects or things which can interact with each other and provide the
internet connectivity. IOT plays an important role in agriculture industry. Smart agriculture helps to
reduce wastage, effective usage of fertilizer and thereby increase the crop yield. In this work, a system
is developed to monitor crop-field using sensors (soil moisture) and automate the irrigation system.
These sensors are connected to AurdinoUNO which can receive the sensor data and transmit it . The
micro controller will analyse the sensor data and determine the amount of water needed for irrigation.
The amount of water required for the field is based on the type of crop, duty and delta. It also sends
control signal to the Relays. The micro controller can also transmit the data to web server. By using
web application the data can be read from the web server and analysed and then control commands
can be sent to the micro controller through internet.
Key words:Automation, Microcontroller, Arduino Uno, IOT, Wireless Sensor Net-
work, Duty, Delta, Soil Moisture.

iv
Contents

Abstract iv
0.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

1 Introduction 1
1.1 GENERAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 INTRODUCTION TO IOT (INTERNET OF THINGS) . . . . . . . 2
1.2.1 Concept of IOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.2 Architecture of IOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2.3 IOT Applications In Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2 Irrigation In India 7
2.1 Soil moisture constants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Crop Seasons in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3 Major Types of Crops in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3 Literature Review and Study Objectives 12

3.1 Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2 Study Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4 Components For Smart Irrigation 14

4.1 Soil moisture sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.2 Arduino UNO: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.3 Jumpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.4 Pump: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.5 Relay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

5 METHODOLOGY 20
5.1 System Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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 5.2 Project Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

6 RESULTS 25
6.1 Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
6.2 Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

7 CONCLUSION 26

8 REFERENCES 27

vi
List of Figures

1.1 Agricultural Feild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.2 IOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

4.1 Soil Moisture Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4.2 Arduino UNO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.3 Jumpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.4 Pump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.5 Relay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

5.1 Block Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

5.2 Prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.3 Flow Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.4 Program for Arduino UNO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

vii
List of Tables

viii
Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 GENERAL
Agriculture is the unquestionably the largest livelihood provider in India.
With rising population, there is a need for increased agricultural production. In
order to support greater production in farms, the requirement of the amount of
fresh water used in irrigation also rises. Currently, agriculture accounts 83% of the
total water consumption in India. Unplanned use of water inadvertently results in
wastage of water. This suggests that there is an urgent need to develop systems
that prevent water wastage without imposing pressure on the farmers.
Over the past 15 years, farmers started using computers and software systems to
organize their financial data and keep track of their transactions with third parties
and also monitor their crops more effectively .In the Internet era, where infor-
mation plays a key role in people’s lives, agriculture is rapidly becoming a very
data intensive industry where farmers need to collect and evaluate a huge amount
of information from a diverse number of devices (eg., sensors, faming machinery
etc.) in order to become more efficient in production and communicating appropri-
ate information With the advent of open source Arduino boards along with cheap
moisture sensors, it is viable to create devices that can monitor the soil moisture
content and accordingly irrigating the fields or the landscape as an when needed.

1
 Figure 1.1: Agricultural Feild

1.2 INTRODUCTION TO IOT (INTERNET OF THINGS)

The Internet of things (IOT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, me-
chanical and digital machines that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and
the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or
human-to-computer interaction.
The definition of the Internet of things has evolved due to the convergence of mul-
tiple technologies, real-time analytics, machine learning, commodity sensors, and
embedded systems. Traditional fields of embedded systems, wireless sensor net-
works.
control systems, automation (including home and building automation), and oth-
ers all contribute to enabling the Internet of things. In the consumer market,
IOT technology is most synonymous with products pertaining to the concept of
the ”smart home”, covering devices and appliances (such as lighting fixtures, ther-
mostats, home security systems and cameras, and other home appliances) that
support one or more common ecosystems, and can be controlled via devices asso-
ciated with that ecosystem, such as smartphones and smart speakers.

2
There are a number of serious concerns about dangers in the growth of IOT,
especially in the areas of privacy and security, and consequently industry and gov-
ernmental moves to begin to address these.

Figure 1.2: IOT

• Today, Internet application development demand is very high.

• Basically,IOTis a network in which all physical objects are connected to the

internet through network devices or routers and exchange data.

• IOT allows objects to be controlled remotely across existing network infras-

tructure.

• It refers to the billions of physical devices around the world that are now
connected to the internet,all connecting and sharing data.

• The term IOT is mainly used for devices that wouldnt usuallybe generally
expected to hacve an internet connection.

• The idea of adding sensors and intelligence to basic objects was discussed in
the 1980s and 1990s.

• Processors were cheap and power-frugal enough to be all but disposal where
needed became before cost effective.

3
 • The concept of a network of smart devices was discussed as early as 1982,
with a modified Coke machine at Carnegie Mellon University becoming the
first internet-connected appliance, able to report its inventory and whether
newly loaded drinks were cold. Kevin Ashton (born 1968)is a British tech-
nology pioneer who is known for inventing the term ”the Internet of Things”
to describe a system where the Internet is connected to the physical world
viaubiquitous sensors.

• IoT is able to interact without human intervention. Some preliminary IoT

applications have been already developed in healthcare, transportation, and
automotive industries. IoT technologies are at their infant stages; however,
many new developments have occurred in the integration of objects with sen-
sors in the Internet.

• The development of IoT involves many issues such as infrastructure, commu-

nications, interfaces, protocols, and standards. The objective of this paper is
to give general concept of IoT, the architecture and layers in IoT, some basic
terms associated with it and the services provided.

1.2.1 Concept of IOT

Kevin Ashton firstly proposed the concept of IoT in 1999, and he referred the
IoT as uniquely identifiable connected objects withradio-frequency identification
(RFID) technology. However, the exact definition of IoT is still in the forming
process that is subject to the perspectives taken. IoT was generally defined as
”dynamic global network infrastructure with self-configuring capabilities based on
standards and communication protocols”.

• Physical and virtual things in an IoT have their own identities and attributes
and are capable of using intelligent interfaces and being integrated as an in-
formation network. In easy terms IoT can be treated as a set of connected
devices that are uniquely identifiable.

• The words ”Internet” and ”Things” mean an inter-connected world-wide net-

work based on sensors, communication, networking, and information process-
ing technologies, which might be the new version of information and commu-

4
 nications technology (ICT). To date, a number of technologies are involved in
IoT, such as wireless sensor networks (WSNs), barcodes, intelligent sensing,
RFID, NFCs, low energy wireless communications, cloud computing and so
on.

• The IoT describes the next generation of Internet, where the physical things
could be accessed and identified through the Internet. Depending on various
technologies for the implementation, the definition of the IoT varies. How-
ever, the fundamental of IoT implies that objects in an IoT can be identified
uniquely in the virtual representations. Within an IoT, all things are able to
exchange data and if needed, process data according to predefined schemes.

1.2.2 Architecture of IOT

A critical requirement of an IoT is that the things in the network must be con-
nected to each other. IoT system architecture must guarantee the operations of
IoT, which connects the physical and the virtual worlds. Design of IoT archi-
tecture involves many factors such as networking, communication, processes etc.
In designing the architecture of IoT, the extensibility, scalability, and operability
among devices should be taken into consideration. Due to the fact that things
may move and need to interact with others in real-time mode, IoT architecture
should be adaptive to make devices interact with other dynamically and support
communication amongst them. In addition, IoT should possess the decentralized
and heterogeneous nature.
Service oriented architecture A critical requirement of an IoT is that the things in the net-
work must be inter-connected. IoT system architecture must guarantee the operations of IoT,
which bridges the gap between the physical and the virtual worlds. Design of IoT architecture
involves many factors such as networking, communication, business models and processes, and
security. In designing the architecture of IoT, the extensibility, scalability, and interoperability
among heterogeneous devices and their models should be taken into consideration. Due to the
fact that things may move physically and need to interact with each other in real-time mode,
IoT architecture should be adaptive to make devices interact with other things dynamically
and support unambiguous communication of events.

5
1.2.3 IOT Applications In Agriculture

There are numerous IOT applications in farming such as collecting data on temperature, rain-
fall, humidity, wind speed, pest infestation, and soil content. This data can be used to automate
farming techniques, take informed decisions to improve quality and quantity, minimize risk and
waste, and reduce effort required to manage crops. For example, farmers can now monitor soil
temperature and moisture from afar, and even apply IoT-acquired data to precision fertilization
programs.
The proposed system makes use of microcontroller ATMEGA328P on Arduino Uno platform
and IOT which enable farmers to remotely monitor the status of moisture content installed on
the farm by knowing the sensor values thereby, making the farmers’ work much easier as they
can concentrate on other farm activities.

6
Chapter 2

Irrigation In India

2.1 Soil moisture constants

1. Saturation Capacity
This can also be called as maximum moisture holding capacity or total capacity and is
the amount of water required of water required to fill all the pore spaces between soil
particles by replacing all air held in pore spaces. It is the upper limit of possible moisture
content. When the porosity of a soil is known, the saturation capacity can be expressed
as equivalent cm of water per meter of soil depth. So, if the porosity is 50% by volume,
the moisture in each meter of saturated soil is equivalent to depth of 50cm the field surface.

2. Field Capacity:
The field capacity is the moisture content of the soil after free drainage has removed most
of the gravity water. The concept of field capacity is extremely useful in arriving at the
amount of water available in the soil for plant use. Most of the gravitational water drains
through the soil before it can be used consumptively by plants.

3. Permanent Wilting Point :

Permanent Wilting Point is defined as the minimum amount of water in the soil that the
plant requires not to wilt. If the soil water content decreases to this or any lower point a
plant wilts and can no longer recover its turgidity when placed in saturated atmosphere
for 12 hours.

7
4. Temporary Wilting:
Temporary wilting may sometimes take place during hot windy-day, but the plant will
recover in the cooler portion, of the day. No addition of water is required. Thus tempo-
rary wilting may take place during the hot summer day, even when soil moisture is higher
than the wilting coefficient, because of increased transpiration rates.

5. Ultimate Wilting:
Ultimate wilting is slightly different from permanent wilting. When ultimate wilting oc-
curs, the plant will not regain its turgidity even after the addition of sufficient water to
the soil and the plant will die. The soil moisture tension at ultimate wilting point is
as high as 60 atm. The ultimate wilting point occurs at the hygroscopic water content.
Hence the ultimate wilting point is also known as hygroscopic coefficient. The ultimate
wilting point or the hygroscopic coefficient is about 2/3 of the permanent wilting point.

6. Available Moisture :
The difference in water content of the soil between field capacity and permanent wilting
point is known as available moisture.

7. Readily Available Moisture :

It is the portion of the available moisture that is most easily extracted by plants, and is
approximately 75% of the available moisture.

8. Moisture Equivalent:
This is an artificial moisture property of the soil and is used as an index of the natural
properties. It is the percentage of moisture retained in a small sample of wet soil 1cm
deep when subjected to a centrifugal force 1000 times as great as gravity, usually for a
period of 30 minutes. Moisture equivalent is used as single factor to which equivalent
roughly equals field capacity for a moisture textured soil.
The relation between these are as follows :
Moisture equivalent = Field capacity
= 1.5 to 2 Permanent wilting point

8
 = 2.7 Hygroscopic coefficient.

9. Soil Moisture Deficiency:

Soil moisture deficiency or field moisture deficiency is the water required to bring the soil
moisture content of the soil to its field capacity.

2.2 Crop Seasons in India

1. Kharif Crops:
The word Kharif is Arabic for autumn since the season coincides with the beginning of
autumn or winter. Kharif crops also are known as monsoon crops. These are the crops
that are cultivated in the monsoon season. The Kharif season differs in every state of the
country but is generally from June to September. These crops are usually sown at the
beginning of the monsoon season around June and harvested by September or October.
Rice, maize, bajra, ragi, soybean, groundnut, cotton are all Kharif types crops.

2. Rabi Crops:
The Arabic translation of the wordRabi is spring. These crops harvesting happens in the
springtime hence the name came. The Rabi season usually starts in November and lasts
up to March or April. Rabi crops are mainly cultivated using irrigation since monsoons
are already over by November. In fact, unseasonal showers in November or December
can ruin the crops. The seeds are sown at the beginning of autumn, which results in a
spring harvest. Wheat, barley, mustard and green peas are some of the major rabi types
of crops that grow in India.

3. Zaid Crop:
There is a short season between Kharif and Rabi season in the months of March to July.
The crops that grow in this season are Zaid crops. These crops are grown on irrigated
lands and do not have to wait for monsoons. Some examples of Zaid types of crops are
pumpkin, cucumber, bitter groud.

9
2.3 Major Types of Crops in India
1. Rice:
Rice is tropical crop that can be grown almost throughout the year.
India is the second largest producer of rice in the world.
It is a kharif,rabi type of crop.
Rainfall required is 150 cm.
Temperature required for this crop is 24℃.
Major producers are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh,Punjab,Bihar,Orissa,Assam,Tamil
Nadu,Haryana.

2. Wheat:
It is the 2nd most important food crop in India.
Type of crop is Rabi.
Temperature required is 17-20 ℃.
Rainfall required for this crop is 20 - 100 cm.
Soil type is Clay loam, Sandy loam.
Major producers are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Ra-
jasthan, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttarakhand.

3. Cotton:
Cotton is a tropical and subtropical kharif crop.
India ranks 3rd in the production of cotton worldwide.
It is a dry crop but roots need timely supply of water at maturity.
Temperature required for this crop is 21-30 ℃.
Rainfall required for this crop is 50-100 cm.
Soil type is Black soil(Highly water retentive soil).
Major producer are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh,
Punjab, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Orissa .

4. Jute:
Jute is a tropical plant that requires hot and humid climate.
Almost 85% of the world’s jute is cultivated in the Ganges Delta.

10
 Type of soil is Zaid.
Temperature required for this crop is 24 - 35 ℃.
Rainfall required for this crop is 125 - 200 cm.
Soil type is Sandy and Clay loam.
Major Producers are West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Meghalaya,
Nagaland, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh .

5. Tea:
Tea is an evergreen plant that mainly grows in tropical and subtropical climates.
India is the 2nd largest procedure and the largest consumer of tea in the world.
Tea plants require high rainfall but its roots cannot tolerate water logging.
Temperature required for this crop is 20 - 30 ℃.
Rainfall required for this crop is 150 - 300 cm.
Soil type is Loamy soil which is acidic in nature and rich in organic matter.
Major Producers are Assam, Darjeeling(West Bengal), Meghalaya, Kerala, Himachal
Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka.

11
Chapter 3

Literature Review and Study

Objectives

3.1 Literature Review

• IOT BASED SMART IRRIGATION SYSTEM Srishti Rawal(2017)
A system to monitor moisture levels in the soil was designed and the project provided
an opportunity to study the existing systems, along with their features and drawbacks.
The proposed system can be used to switch on/off the water sprinkler according to soil
moisture levels thereby automating the process of irrigation.Information from the sensors
is regularly updated on a webpage using GSM-GPRS SIM900A modem through which a
farmer can check whether the water sprinklers are ON/OFF at any given time. Also, the
sensor readings are transmitted to a Thing speak channel to generate graphs for analysis.

• ARDUINO BASED SMART IRRIGATION SYSTEM USING IOT R.Nandhini1,

S.Poovizhi2, Priyanka Jose3, R.Ranjitha4, Dr.S.Anila(2017)
The main objective of this smart irrigation system is to make it more innovative, user
friendly, time saving and more efficient than the existing system. Measuring four param-
eters such as soil moisture, temperature, humidity and pH values and the system also
includes intruder detecting system. Due to server updates farmer can know about crop
field nature at anytime, anywhere.

• SMART IRRIGATION SYSTEM R.Suresh (2014).

This paper mentioned about using automatic microcontroller based rain gun irrigation
system in which the irrigation will take place only when there will be intense requirement
of water that save a large quantity of water. These systems bring a change to management

12
 of field resource where they developed a software stack called Android is used for devices
that include an operating system, middleware and key applications. The Android SDK
provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android
platform using the Java programming language. Mobile phones have almost become an
integral part of us serving multiple needs of humans. This application makes use of the
GPRS feature of mobile phone as a solution for irrigation control system. These system
covered lower range of agriculture land and not economically affordable.

• A STUDY ON SMART IRRIGATION SYSTEM USING IOT Bobby Singla,Satish

Mishra,Abhishek Singh,Shashank Yadav(2019).
The most highlighted feature of this paper is how smartly and automatically control the
water supply to the agriculture fields according to the need. For this, sensors used are
soil moisture sensor and DHT-11 temperature sensor. All the information is sent on the
farmer mobile application using Wi-Fi Relay Module and Arduino UNO R3.

3.2 Study Objectives

• To save water and reduce human intervention in the agriculture field.

• Continuously Monitoring the status of sensors and provide signal for taking necessary
action.

• To get the output of soil moisture sensor and provide required water to crop.

• To observe other parameters for better yield .

13
Chapter 4

Components For Smart Irrigation

The proposed system consists of different components, the brief introduction about components
was given below.

• Soil moisture sensor.

• Arduino UNO.

• Jumpers.

• Pump.

• Relays.

14
4.1 Soil moisture sensor
• In this proposed system the soil moisture sensor is one part of the wireless sensor unit.

• Use: To measure the moisture content of the soil.

• Copper electrodes are used to sense the moisture content of soil.

• Soil Moisture Sensor. The Soil Moisture Sensor is used to measure the volumetric water
content of soil. This makes it ideal for performing experiments in courses such as soil
science, agricultural science, environmental science, horticulture, botany, and biology.

Working Principle of Moisture Sensor

The Soil Moisture Sensor uses capacitance to measure dielectric permittivity of the sur-
rounding medium In soil, dielectric permittivity is a function of the water content. The sensor
averages the water content over the entire length of the sensor.

Figure 4.1: Soil Moisture Sensor

15
4.2 Arduino UNO:
• The Arduino Uno board is a micro controller based on the AT mega 328.

• It has 14 digital input and output pins (of which 6 can provide PWM output), 6 analog
inputs, a USB connector, a power jack an reset bottom.

• The operating voltage is 5 volts.

Figure 4.2: Arduino UNO

16
4.3 Jumpers
Jumper wirestypically come in three versions: male-to-male, male-to-female andfemale-to-
female. The difference between each is in the end point of thewire. Jumper wires are simply
wires that have connector pins at each end, allowing them to be used to connect two points
to each other without soldering. Jumper wires are typically used withbread boardsand other
prototyping tools in order to make it easy to change a circuit as needed.

Figure 4.3: Jumpers

17
4.4 Pump:
Pump is used for lifting water from the source and pumping those water to the field by using
pipes.
The supplied voltage is 5 volts.
By using the pump or motor the water generation is to be done by conneting through pipes to
the farm feild.

Figure 4.4: Pump

18
4.5 Relay
2-Channel 5V Relay Module is a relay interface board, it can be controlled directly by a wide
range of microcontrollers such as Arduino, AVR, PIC, ARM and so on. It uses a low level
triggered control signal (3.3-5VDC) to control the relay. Triggering the relay operates the
normally open or normally closed contacts.
The relay has two outputs-normally open and normally closed (NO and NC). When the IN1
or IN2 pin is connected to ground, NO will be open and NC will be closed, and when IN1 or
IN2 is not connected to ground the opposite occurs. ... A microcontroller can also be used to
control IN1 and or IN2 and cause the relay to trip.
Since the relay has 5V trigger voltage we have used a +5V DC supply to one end of the coil
and the other end to ground through a switch. ... The purpose of the diode is to protect the
switch from high voltage spike that can produced by the relay coil.

Figure 4.5: Relay

19
Chapter 5

METHODOLOGY

5.1 System Overview

In order to solve the water management to the irrigation system we proposed this ” IOT-Based
Smart Plant Watering System ”.
This prototype monitors the amount of soil moisture . A predefined range of soil moisture is
set, and can be varied with soil type or crop type.In case the moisture of the soil deviates from
the specified range, the watering system is turned on/off.
The proposed system used to control the water irrigation system using Wireless Sensor Unit
(WSU) and Wireless Control Unit (WCU) based on microcontroller.
The block diagram of smart plant watering system is represented below. It consists of a mi-
crocontroller which is the brain of the system.Both soil moisture sensors are connected to the
input pins of the controller. The relay is connected to output pins. Relay and two motors are
coupled with eachother. If the sensors depart from the predefined range, the controller turns
on the pump. The relay is used to control the motor.

20
 Figure 5.1: Block Diagram

5.2 Project Description

Hard Ware Design:
In our model,we are demonstrating watering of two feilds, so two soil moisture sensors are
used.Depending on the number of feilds the number of moisture sensors will vary.When the
soil moisture sensor is interfaced with the board the inbuilt ADC in Arduino is used to convert
the data into digital form (0 to 1023),which represents resistance. Dry soil will have maximum
resistance and wet soil will have least resistance.
The relay is connected with the output pins of the Arduino, the motor will turned on using
relay when the value is less than the threshold value. The vice versa is applicable when value
is greater than the threshold value.

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 Figure 5.2: Prototype

Software Design
The software used in this project is Arduino. It provides a number of libraries to make pro-
gramming simple. In our prototype, the controller AtMega328 is programmed in Arduino. The
program is arduino designates a preset range of resistance value in digital format(ranging from
0 to 1023) for both the moisture sensor. Any aberration from the set range switches ON/Off
the pump, to water the plants.

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Figure 5.3: Flow Chart

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Figure 5.4: Program for Arduino UNO
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Chapter 6

RESULTS

6.1 Advantages
• Water Conservation.

• Lowered Operation Costs.

• Efficient and Saves Time.

• Increase in productivity.

• Reduce soil erosion and nutrient leaching.

• very accurate

• Ability to read soil volumetric water content directly.

• Continuous measurements at same location.

6.2 Disadvantages
• Difficult in maintaince

• Difficult in setup/repairs

• In the case of equipment like robots amd computer based intelligents for running the
devices,it is highly unlikely that a normal farmer will be able to possess this knowledge
or even develope them.

• The procces will cost huge amount.

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Chapter 7

CONCLUSION

A system to monitor moisture levels in the soil was designed. The proposed system can be used
to switch on/off the water supply (or) motor according to soil moisture levels thereby automat-
ing the process of irrigation which is one of the most time consuming activities in farming. The
system uses information from soil moisture sensors to irrigate soil which helps to prevent over
irrigation or under irrigation of soil thereby avoiding crop damage. Through this project it
can be concluded that there can be considerable development in farming with the use of IOT
and automation. Thus, the system is a potential solution to the problems faced in the existing
manual process of irrigation by enabling efficient utilization of water resources.
Further Work
To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the system, the following recommendations can
be put into consideration. Option of controlling the water pump can be given to the farmer i.e.
he can switch on/off the pump in order to start/stop the process of irrigation without being
present at the farm. The farmer may choose to stop the growth of crops or the crops may get
damaged due to adverse weather conditions. In such cases farmer may need to stop the system
remotely. The idea of using IOT for irrigation can be extended further to other activities in
farming such as cattle management, fire detection and climate control. This would minimalize
human intervention in farming activities.

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Chapter 8

REFERENCES

• Archana and Priya,”Design and Implementation of Automatic Plant Watering System”

presented at International Journal Of Advanced Enginnering And Global technology,vol-
04,Issue-01,jan-2016.

• Sonali.D.Gainwar and Dinesh.V.Rojatkar,”Soil Monitoring With Automated Irrigation

System” presented at International Journal of Sceince,Engineering and Technology Reaserch
(IJSETR),vol-04,Issue 11,NOV 2015.

• V.R.Balagi and M.Sudha ,”Solar Powered Auto Irrigation System”,presented at Inter-

national Journal of Sceince,Engineering and Technology Reaserch(IJSETR)vol-20,Issue-
2,FEB-2016

• R.Subalaxmi and Anu Amal,”GSM Based Automated Irrigation using Sensors”presented

at special Issue published in International Journal of Trend in Reaserch and Development
(IJTRD),March-2016

• Karan Kanasara and Vishal Zaweri,”Sensor Based Automated Irrigation System with
IOT” presented at International Journal of computer Science and Information Technolo-
gies, vol-06,2015.

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