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Smart Irrigation System

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DOI: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2022.10.125

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IFAC PapersOnLine 55-10 (2022) 3298–3303
Smart Irrigation System
Smart
Smart Irrigation System
Irrigation System
Asmae El Mezouari*. Aziz El Fazziki** Mohammed Sadgal1***
Asmae El Mezouari*. Aziz El Fazziki** Mohammed Sadgal11***
*Computer
AsmaeSystems Department,
El Mezouari*. AzizCadi Ayyad University,
El Fazziki** Mohammed Marrakech,
Sadgal ***Morocco
*Computer Systems Department,
(E-mail Cadi Ayyad University,
: asmae.elmezouari@ced.uca.ma). Marrakech, Morocco
*Computer Systems Department, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco
** Computer Systems (E-mail : asmae.elmezouari@ced.uca.ma).
Department, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco
(E-mail : asmae.elmezouari@ced.uca.ma).
** Computer Systems Department, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco
(E-mail : elfazziki@uca.ac.ma).
** Computer Systems Department, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco
*** Computer Systems Department, (E-mail : elfazziki@uca.ac.ma).
Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco
(E-mail : elfazziki@uca.ac.ma).
*** Computer Systems Department, (E-mail :Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco
sadgal@uca.ma).
*** Computer Systems Department, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco
(E-mail : sadgal@uca.ma).
(E-mail : sadgal@uca.ma).
Abstract: Nowadays, evolving technologies have contributed significantly to enriching the field of
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amicrocontroller,
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connected to the valve of the water pumping motor. These sensors are integrated with an Arduino UNO
connected
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microcontroller,
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to beinincluded moisture and the temperature level and automatically
switching motor ON or OFF relation into the
the CSV dataset from
soil moisture statewhich graphs are
at a controlled generated
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for analysis the pumping motor to ON or OFF in relation to the soil moistureirrigation
state at a controlled timing. The
sensed data during one day
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for analysis during one daynurseries, or greenhouses.
of recording. Generally, thisRecently,
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could be easily
for analysis
for reducing during
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and or Generally,
optimizing this of
the use kind of automated irrigation system could be easily
resources.
applied to small gardens, nurseries, greenhouses. Recently, innovative solutions have been incorporated
applied
for to small
reducing gardens,
costs, savingnurseries,
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optimizing Recently,
the use innovative solutions have been incorporated
of resources.
for reducing©costs,
Copyright 2022 saving
IFAC time, and optimizing
The authors. This is the use ofaccess
an open resources.
article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Copyright © 2022 The Authors. This is an
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) open access
Copyright © 2022 IFAC The authors. This is an open access article article under the CC under the CClicense
BY-NC-ND BY-NC-ND license
Copyright © 2022 IFAC The/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
(https://creativecommons.org authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Keywords: IoT, Microcontroller, Smart Irrigation, Soil Sensing.
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Keywords: IoT, Microcontroller, Smart Irrigation, Soil Sensing.
Keywords: IoT, Microcontroller, Smart Irrigation, Soil Sensing.
1. INTRODUCTION primordial role, particularly in the precision farming
1. INTRODUCTION landscape. As such,particularly
irrigation requires
in the knowing
precisionhow much
Forever, Water sources are a vital need in human daily life. primordial role,
1. INTRODUCTION
primordial
role,andparticularly in the precision
farming
farming
water to apply
landscape. As such, when and requires
irrigation under what circumstances
knowing how much to
Approximately,
Forever, Water sources up to are 85 a%vital
of need
the water
in human worldwide
daily life. is landscape. As such, irrigation requires knowing how much
Forever, Water sources are a vital need in human daily life. apply it.
water to Knowledge
apply and of
when a soil's
and water-holding
under what capacity and the
circumstances to
employed
Approximately,in farming.
up toRegarding
85 % ofthe theexponential
water worldwidepopulation is water to apply and when can and provide
under what circumstances to
Approximately, upgrowth
to 85rates, % of the consumption
water worldwide crop's it.
is apply water requirements
Knowledge of a soil's water-holding the answers.
capacityBesides,
and the
and globalization
employed in farming. Regarding water
the exponential population is also apply it. Knowledge of a soil's water-holding capacity andsoil
the
employed ininfarming. this paper presents a smart irrigation system
crop's water requirements can provide the answers. Besides, that involves
increasing
and globalization veryRegarding
a growth fast
rates,
the Thus,
way.
water
exponential
reducing
consumption
population
iswater
also moisture,
crop's water requirements
and globalization growth rates, water consumption is also this paper temperature,
presents a smart and can
water provide
irrigation
the answers.
flowsystem
sensorsthat
Besides,
integrated
involveswithsoil
consumption
increasing inin aagriculture
very fast while providing
way. Thus, fresh and healthy
reducing water an thisArduino
paper presents a smart irrigation system that involves soil
increasing in a very fast way. Thus, reducing water moisture, microcontroller
temperature, and to monitor
water flow the soil state
sensors of the mint
integrated with
food is a challenging
consumption matter.
in agriculture Hence,
while the critical
providing fresh necessity
and healthy to moisture, temperature, and water flow sensors integrated with
consumption
build in strategies
agriculturefounded
while providing fresh and healthy vase. The proposed
an Arduino systemtoprovides
microcontroller monitor theoptimum irrigation
soil state of the mintby
food isreliable
a challenging matter. Hence,onthethe advancement
critical necessity of to switching
an Arduinothe microcontroller
pumping motor to monitor the soilthrough
automatically state ofthe
the relay
mint
food is a challenging
sciencereliable
and technology matter.
raises Hence,
more and the critical necessity to vase. The proposed system provides optimum irrigation by
build strategies founded on more the need to make
the advancement of module,
vase. Thedepending
proposedonsystem amotor provides
threshold optimum
value of soil irrigationand
moisture by
build reliable strategies
the useandoftechnology
water resources founded on the advancement of switching the pumping automatically through the relay
science raises more sustainable,
and more the need taking into switching the pumping motor automatically through the relay
to make temperature. The system
science and technology
consideration agronomic, raises more and more the
managerial, need to make
technical, and module, depending on a is quite functional,
threshold value of and
soil the perceived
moisture and
the use of water resources sustainable, taking into module,are
results depending
very on a threshold value of soil moisture and
encouraging.
the use of water
institutional progress. resources
In the same sustainable,
context, referring taking into
to (Jhaand temperature. The system is quite functional, and
et temperature. The system is quite functional, and the perceived the perceived
consideration agronomic, managerial, technical,
consideration
al., 2019) the agronomic,
Internet managerial, technical, and results are very encouraging.
institutional progress. InoftheThings is an evolved
same context, referringtechnology
to (Jha et results are very encouraging.2. RELATED WORKS
institutional
participating progress. In the sameofcontext, referring toonly
(Jhaby et
al., 2019) thein Internet
the development
of Things isseveral fields not
an evolved technology
al., 2019) the
improving Internetproductivity,
efficiency, of Things isand an the
evolved
global technology Up to date, there 2. RELATED
2.areRELATED
a multitude WORKS
of systems dedicated to
WORKS
participating in the development of several fields noteconomy
only by
participating
but also by in thetime
saving development
and of several
reducing human fields not onlyand
intervention by saving
Up to irrigation
date, there water
are a in variousof crops'
multitude systems farming,
dedicated fromto
improving efficiency, productivity, and the global economy Up to date,tothere are a multitude of ones. systems dedicated to
improving
cost efficiency,
(Srinivasan et al., productivity,
2019). IoT isand
thethe globalofeconomy
network devices preliminary
saving deepwater
irrigation technical-advanced
in various crops' For instance,
farming, froman
but also by saving time and reducing human intervention and saving irrigation water in various crops' farming, from
but also by saving time and reducing human intervention and automated irrigation system that uses a wireless sensor
that operate andet communicate
cost (Srinivasan al., 2019). IoTindependently devices preliminary
is the network toof transfer preliminary
to deep technical-advanced ones. For instance, an
toGPRS
deep module
technical-advanced ones. For instance, an
cost (Srinivasan
information
that operatewithout
et al.,
human
and communicate
2019). IoT is theThus,
interruption. network
independently
of devices
to improve
to transfer the network
automated
automated
andirrigation
irrigation
system
system
wasthat
created
that
usesto aoptimize
uses a
wireless
wireless
water use
sensor
sensor
that operate and communicate independently transfer for
tocultivated agricultural crops. It putswas in place,
createdintothe root zone of use
the
yield productivity,
information withoutthe humansynergic action
interruption. ofThus,
IoT with
to improve the network
networkaand
and GPRS module
GPRS module wasnetwork
created of
optimize
to optimize
water
water and
use
information
fields without
leads to automated human interruption.
smart farming. Thus, to improve the plants,
for distributed
agricultural crops. wireless
It puts in place, in soil
the rootmoisture
zone of the
yield productivity, the synergic action ofTherefore, it plays a
IoT with cultivated
yield productivity, the synergic action of IoT with cultivated for agricultural crops. It puts in place, in the root zone of the
plants, a distributed wireless network of soil moisture and
fields leads to automated smart farming. Therefore, it plays a plants, a distributed wireless network of soil moisture and
fields leads to automated smart farming. Therefore, it plays a
2405-8963 Copyright © 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.
Peer review under responsibility of International Federation of Automatic Control.
10.1016/j.ifacol.2022.10.125
 Asmae El Mezouari et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 55-10 (2022) 3298–3303 3299

temperature sensors and a gateway unit for handling the

sensors’ information, controlling actuators, and transmitting
data to a mobile application. Data inspection and control of
water scheduling are allowed using an application through a
duplex communication link based on a cellular-Internet
interface. Also, the use of solar power in this irrigation system
is done by photovoltaic panels. The system has a significant
prospect of being installed in geographically sheltered
locations characterized by limited available water because of
its capacity to provide better irrigation monitoring with
conservation of water (Shah et al., 2019). Likewise, an
intelligent system dedicated to predicting the irrigation water
needs of a field is designed based on the ground sensing
measurements such as soil moisture and soil temperature,
along with the climatic forecast data available on the Internet
Figure 1. The smart irrigation monitoring system
like precipitation, air temperature, humidity, and UV for the architecture.
near future, including open-source technologies. The data is
wirelessly acquired and deployed on the cloud using web Currently, agriculture is encountering many issues due to the
services and analyzed by a web decision support system challenges of sustainable water resource system design. A
providing real-time information (Velmurugan et al., 2020). smart irrigation system has been proposed in order to support
Moreover, a cloud-connected, secure multi-crop smart farmers in overcoming their daily hardships. In this system
irrigation system (SMCSIS) is proposed by (Samawi, 2021)to design (Fig. 1), we intend to automate the irrigation of the mint
optimize water consumption and to handle the over-irrigation by monitoring the soil state of the plant vase. We have
issue resulting from weather changes and causing precipitation integrated soil moisture, temperature, and flow sensors with
after irrigation. The system constructs a real-time irrigation the input pins of the Arduino and the relay module connected
decision based on the predicted soil moisture estimated at the to the water pump to collect hourly measures in the CSV file
current moment of precipitation. The soil moisture prediction via serial communication.
is performed depending on the analysis of the data sensed by
the soil moisture sensor and the evaporation prediction. The 3.2 Circuit diagram
evaporation is predicted using an artificial neural network
In the circuit diagram presented in (Fig. 2), we have integrated
trained on five factors (air temperature, wind speed and
a resistor of (4.7K Ohms) with the color codes of Yellow,
direction, UV, and humidity). Furthermore, according to
Violet, Red, and Golden between the digital data pin and the
(Fatima, Siddiqui and Ahmad, 2021) an IoT-based Smart
VCC (5V Pin) of the one wire waterproof temperature sensor
Greenhouse system is designed with a novel monitoring
(DS18B20) injected in the field. We have also integrated the
combination including warning, automation, disease forecast,
soil moisture sensor injected into the soil of the mint vase, the
and cloud repository, by employing a readily deployable
submersible water pump (3.3-5V), the water flow sensor "YF-
complete package. It continually maintains dynamic
S201" with (water pressure <1.95), and a working range of (1-
conditions such as temperature, humidity, and soil moisture
30L/min), and a WH Battery (5V) connected to the Arduino
state to improve the crop yield and to guarantee an
using the (9V/5V) Battery Adapter present in (Fig. 6). To
instantaneous reaction in the event of abnormal conditions. In
collect the data, we used the serial monitor by connecting the
addition, it includes an automatic irrigation and leaf image
Arduino UNO to the computer via a USB cable.
analysis module based on an efficient deep learning model for
disease identification. The evolving scarcity of freshwater
resources across the world has spawned a crucial need for their
optimum consumption, especially in agriculture. The Internet
of Things (IoT) is in the keen interest of developing smart and
automated systems, benefiting from specific data sensing
devices and smart processing, which have bridged the gaps
between the cyber and physical worlds. IoT-based smart
irrigation systems can assist farmers in their agricultural
activities by optimizing both irrigation water resources and
time.
3. THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
3.1 An overview

Figure 2. The circuit diagram of the proposed automatic

irrigation system.
3300 Asmae El Mezouari et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 55-10 (2022) 3298–3303

soil proportionally to the change in resistance between the two

conducting plates.
4. MATERIALS AND METHODS
4.1 Soil water content measurement
The regulation of terrestrial freshwater supply ensured by the
soil constitutes a primordial ecosystem process. Therefore, the
percolating water through the soil goes through several
operations, including filtration, storage for plant utilization,
and redistribution across flow directions to groundwater and
surface water layers. Just as the soil influences the
sustainability of water resources regarding both quantity and
quality, hydrologic processes in the soil serve as the major
basis for numerous characteristics of terrestrial and freshwater
aquatic life.
Figure 3. Soil moisture sensor.
Soil moisture is a crucial factor in the growth of plants because
of its ability to regulate most soil aspects like temperature, The temperature sensor (DS18B20) present in (Fig. 4) is a
availability of nutrients, salinity, and the existence of toxic digital temperature sensor characterized by a working range of
substances. Moreover, it gives structure to the ground and (-55 to 125 °C), an accuracy of (+- 5%), integrated with a
plays a primordial role in stemming soil erosion. As such, the resistor of (4.7KΩ) with an accuracy of (+-5%), shown in (Fig.
soil wetness level is a critical indicator of the soil state and the 4), and employed to measure the temperature of the mint soil.
overall circumstances of the land system. Hence, it determines
land-use suitability (Tam, Nyvall and Brown, 2005).
In agriculture, irrigation is the main process contributing to the
growth of crops and yield. The soil water storage (SWS)
capacity constitutes a basis for plant watering, which is defined
as the effective amount of water that is infiltrated into the root
depth of the crop and accessed during its stages of
development. The deeper the rooting depth, the larger the
reservoir of water saved in the soil, and thereby, a larger
volume of water is readily available for the plant to consume
between irrigations. Excessive irrigation applied to the soil can
lead not only to a loss of water by deep percolation but also to
the leaching of nutrients outside the root zone. A piece of the Figure 4. Temperature sensor (DS18B20).
stored water in the soil is used by the plant without being under
The Sea YF-S201 water flow sensor illustrated in (Fig. 3) is
stress. Otherwise, the crop should be irrigated once this
characterized by a water pressure inferior to 1.95, and a
amount of moisture has declined due to deep percolation or
working range of (1-30L/min), and is connected to the pipe of
evapotranspiration (Moorberg and Crouse, 2021).
the submersible water pump shown in (Fig. 5) to measure the
4.2 Sensors and electronic devices water flow. The water flow sensor generates an electric pulse
with every revolution through its integrated magnetic hall
Sensors are devices dedicated to detecting environmental effect sensor that is sealed off from the water and allows the
fluctuations and sending the measured information to another sensor to stay safe and dry. The water pump is a direct current
connected device, usually the main control system (micro- (DC) motor, belonging to a class of rotary electrical motors
controller or electronic computer processor). Analog sensors that generate mechanical energy from electrical energy.
are devices that produce a continuous output electric signal or
voltage that is symmetrical to the input quantity being
measured, such as humidity, pressure, or speed, while digital
sensors are devices that produce discrete output electric signals
or voltages that are a digital indication of the quantity being
measured. Digital sensors deliver a binary output signal ('0' or
'1') or in a logical form ("ON" or "OFF") (Chakraborty, 2020).
The circuit diagram illustrated in (Fig. 8), integrates the main
components:
The soil moisture sensor presented in (Fig. 3): characterized
by a working range of (0 to 1023 ADC value) used to measure
the moisture content of the mint soil. It consists of two Figure 5. Water flow sensor (Sea YF-S201).
conducting probes that can detect the moisture content in the
 Asmae El Mezouari et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 55-10 (2022) 3298–3303 3301
The Arduino UNO, shown in (Fig. 6), is a microcontroller
board based on the ATMEGA 328P, which includes 32kB of
flash memory for code storage. Its panel has 14 digital pins for
input and output, 6 analog pins for input, a reset button, USB,
a (16 MHz) quartz crystal, and an ICSP circuit. Usually,
Arduino software is used for programming the Arduino UNO
board.
Figure 6. Arduino UNO Board.
Relay module Shown in (Fig. 7) is an electrically operated
switch which is employed in controlling a circuit through a
distinct low-power signal. They are even used to protect
electrical circuits from overload by integrating calibrated
operating aspects, and sometimes multiple operating coils are
used to protect electrical circuits from overload. As portrayed
in (Fig. 8) the Arduino Uno is connected to the water pump
motor via the relay. Here, the relay plays the role of switching
the water pump ON or OFF related to the signal received from
the Arduino board.
Figure 7. Rely module.
Using the power supply illustrated in (Fig. 8), we have tested
connecting the Arduino board to the HW battery (9V) through
the (9V/5V) Battery Adapter to supply the circuit with the
electrical voltage instead of serial communication to make the
system independent.
Figure 8. Power supply battery.
4.3 Arduino IDE software
The Arduino IDE is an open-source Integrated Development
Environment (IDE) written in the Java programming language
and is compatible with Windows, MacOS, and Linux,
supporting the "C" and "C++" programming languages based
on special code structuring rules and providing an enriched
library of wiring schemes, integrating many input and output
techniques. The Arduino software allows smoothly writing
and uploading controlling code to any kind of Arduino
board (Fezari and Dahoud, 2018).
5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
5.1 Work flow of the system
At first, the water pump is configured to be disabled, then if
the sensed values go beyond the threshold values set in the
program (soil moisture< field capacity = 360 = 64.80% or
temperature > 30°C), it turns ON and irrigates the soil of the
mint vase. Whenever the pump is turned ON, the flow sensor
restarts measuring the irrigation flow, the horologe sleeps for
(5 seconds: configurable), then the measures are recorded
again until the soil moisture outperforms the field capacity.
This time control allows an optimized irrigation time which
optimizes the amount of water flowing to the field by
minimizing the water loss that may be related to a long period
of irrigation time before restarting the sensing and the
threshold verification. In the case where the soil moisture
exceeds the configured field capacity level, the pump turns off,
and the horologe sleeps for (1 hour) before repeating the
iteration. This process can be summarized as follows:
 Step 1: Start.
 Step 2: The system can be initialized on the Arduino
UNO board.
 Step 2: The clock date is initialized on the Arduino
UNO board, and the water pump is set to OFF.
 Step 3: The soil moisture sensor checks the soil
moisture level constantly.
 Step 4: The temperature sensor constantly senses the
temperature level.
 Step 5: The water level sensor constantly checks the
water level of the motor.
3302 Asmae El Mezouari et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 55-10 (2022) 3298–3303

 Step 6: The microcontroller updates the current date

and checks for the threshold condition. If the water
content level is inferior to the field capacity level
(360) of the mint vase, which means that the soil
becomes dry or the temperature surpasses (30°C),
then the relay that is connected to the Arduino UNO
will turn ON the motor to irrigate the field. The delay
is set to (5 seconds) to repeat step 3. Otherwise, if the
threshold condition isn't satisfied, the motor will be
turned OFF, and the delay will be set to (1 hour)
before repeating step 3.
5.2 system design
The farmer will be intimated about the current field state based Figure 10. Soil moisture changes and water flow fluctuations
on the data stored in the CSV file throughout the serial over time.
communication. (Fig. 9) portrays the results of the physical
design of our proposed smart irrigation system experimented
during (1 day) of recording from (1/18/2022 at 18:18:55) to
(1/19/2022 at 18:24:36); on the basis of the Arduino and smart
sensors technology. When the program was loaded onto the
Arduino board, all of the soil moisture, temperature, and water
flow sensors started to display the values in the serial monitor.
According to the state of the mint bowl, the pump is turned ON
by the Arduino through the relay module and the water flows
throughout the pipe to the ground of the vase.

Figure 11. Temperature fluctuations over time.

Figure 9. The designed Automatic Irrigation System.
5.3 Results of the data sensing
As shown in (Fig. 11), the temperature didn’t reach the
threshold of (30°C), thus when the soil moisture surpassed the
field capacity (360) as illustrated in (Fig. 10), the pump was
turned ON, the water flow reached (144 L/Hour) in (5 seconds)
of irrigation and the water flow measure has been sensed again
(144 L/Hour) after a sleep time equal to (5 seconds). The
measures are sensed repeatedly after each sleep time of (5
seconds) until the soil moisture exceeds the field capacity
threshold (363 > field capacity), then the pump is turned OFF
and the measures are recorded again after a sleep time equal to
(1 hour). (Fig. 11) shows the temperature fluctuations.
6. CONCLUSIONS
Ultimately, a reliable smart irrigation system based on the
Arduino UNO board was designed. The microcontroller circuit
has been deployed using smart sensors to monitor the soil state
of the mint plant. This circuit included an Arduino UNO, a
relay, temperature, soil moisture, and water flow sensors, a
motor (5v), and a battery. The circuit is fully operating, and we
validated the effectiveness of this system on a mint vase for
one day of recording. After studying the sensed data
consolidated in a CSV file on the computer via serial
communication, we concluded that the irrigation time that is
controlled using the configurated repeated sleeping time equal
to (5 seconds) and the delay of (1 hour) after turning the pump
OFF is quite efficient to optimize water consumption while
keeping the mint safe. Therefore, this system employs soil
sensing technology to control the irrigation of the soil of the
plant, which prevents and overcomes intense or poor
irrigation, and it could be a potential tool for farmers to save
time and reduce their intervention and cost. Nevertheless,
serial communication, limited power battery support, and
limited graphic design using consolidated files are still not
good choices for long-term monitoring. Hence, investing in
remote sensing using Bluetooth or WIFI technology using
GPRS modules or other networking or power supply devices,
integrating other smart sensors for precipitation or salinity, and
integrating an IoT open-source web platform could be the
future perspective of this work.
 Asmae El Mezouari et al. / IFAC PapersOnLine 55-10 (2022) 3298–3303 3303

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