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Wireless Smart Sensor Schedules Irrigation

Efficient fuel and water use is critical for the development of both rural and urban communities. In many rural regions, agricultural water use is estimated at 50 percent of total water consumed. Improved agricultural water-use efficiency can be achieved by developing drought tolerant and water efficient crops and by developing new water management tools.

UGA biological and agricultural engineers developed a wireless real-time smart sensor array for scheduling irrigation to alert a grower when a crop needs irrigation so that the proper amount of water is provided at the proper time. To make it cheap and reliable, the sensor array mostly uses off-the-shelf components The best method for scheduling irrigation is to measure soil moisture in many locations within a field and respond to those measurements. Because the smart sensor array is wireless, inexpensive and fully automated, it can be installed at high densities. Because it is wireless, it can be installed anywhere in a field without interrupting field operations. Projected costs for a commercialized system are $1,400 for a field with 10 sensor locations and $1,800 for a field with 20 sensor locations. The smart sensor array was field-tested and used to schedule irrigation in peanuts and cotton during 2005. Irrigation protocols for using the sensor array were developed. The sensor array performed well, matching or surpassing other scheduling techniques. It is now ready for commercialization. (2006)

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