Automatic Irrigation System Using ESP 32

Bhanu Sharma*, Astha Singh

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,

IIMT College of Engineering, Greater Noida, U.P. India

*Corresponding Author E-Mail Id: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Water is an important resource in human life. About 80 to 90% of water is used in agriculture.
Considering that due to the daily growth of globalization, the consumption of water is also
increasing. Today, automation is one of the important roles in the field of agriculture.
Agriculture is the main occupation in our country. India's main source of income is agriculture,
so development of agriculture is important. Also, most irrigation systems are manually operated
these days. The traditional techniques available are drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation
etc. Using drip irrigation we can save water and fertilizers given to the crops. Whenever there
is a change in temperature, humidity and current rain status in the surroundings, these sensors
will detect the change in temperature and humidity and give the raspberry pi an interrupt signal.
This paper mainly focuses on reducing water wastage and minimizing manual labour in the
field during irrigation to save the farmer's time, money and energy. In this paper, we have
designed and tested an IoT-enabled smart drip irrigation system using ESP32 to automate the
irrigation process. The ESP32 communicates with the Arduino IOT cloud app, which is used
to collect irrigation data, manually water plants, turn off automatic watering, and draw graphs
based on sensor data. We connected the ESP32 to a soil moisture sensor, a temperature sensor,
an air humidity sensor. The ESP32 regularly checks whether the soil is dry. If the soil is dry
and the soil temperature is suitable for watering, the ESP32 will open the solenoid valve and
water the plants. The operating time of the drip irrigation system is determined based on the
flow rate measured by the water flow sensor. The ESP32 reads the humidity sensor readings
and alerts the user when the humidity is too high or too low. The user can turn off the automatic
watering system according to the humidity value

KEYWORDS: Raspberry Pi, Sensors, Irrigation, automation

INTRODUCTION

India is a country of villages and agriculture plays an important role for the development of the
country. In our country, agriculture is dependent on monsoons which have enough water. So
irrigation is used in agriculture. In an irrigation system, water is supplied to plants depending
on the type of soil. Two things are very important in agriculture, first to get information about
soil fertility and second to measure soil moisture content. Currently, there are various
techniques available for irrigation that are used to reduce the dependence on rain. And mostly
this technique is powered by
electricity and on/off scheduling. In this technique, water level indicators located in the water
tank and soil moisture sensors are located in the root zone of the plant, and near the module
unit processes the information from the sensor and transmits the data to the controller, which

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in turn controls the flow of water through the valves. In this paper, we have designed a smart
IoT enabled drip irrigation system using ESP32 microcontroller. The system consists of an
ESP32, a solenoid valve, a soil moisture sensor, a temperature sensor, an air humidity sensor.
We used the Arduino IOT cloud application and web dashboard to collect irrigation data, turn
the automatic watering feature on or off, manually open the valve when needed, and plot
temperature, soil moisture, and air humidity graphs. By opening the valve, the water reaches
the roots of the plants. The soil moisture sensor constantly checks whether the soil is dry. If the
soil is dry and the temperature is ideal, the ESP32 can automatically open the valve and irrigate
the field. Based on the data from the humidity sensor, the user can turn off the automatic
watering function or turn it on again.

HARDWARE DESIGN: - First, we used an ESP32 microcontroller. ESP32 is cheap, has

built-in Wi-Fi, and Blynk IoT officially supports ESP32. Second, we offer improved automatic
watering. The ESP32 takes into account the current time of day, soil moisture content and soil
temperature before opening the valve and watering the plants. Temperature data is not available
for monitoring only. We used the temperature data to ensure we were watering the plants at the
best temperature for maximum water absorption. Third, we have improved the monitoring and
control functions. Along with soil moisture and temperature, the ESP32 also monitors humidity
and alerts the user when the humidity is too low or too high. The user can then decide to turn
off the automatic watering function or manually open/close the valve based on the monitored
values. Finally, the ESP32 collected real-time data. We used this data to track the date and time
of watering and to ensure that we did not accidentally water the plants multiple times in a single
day using the flow sensor.

SYSTEM OVERVIEW: - An overview of an IoT-enabled smart drip irrigation system in

shown below . The ESP32 is the brain of the system. We connected the ESP32 to various
sensors and relays. A temperature sensor probe and a soil moisture sensor probe were inserted
into the soil and monitored the soil temperature and moisture level. A water flow sensor
provides data on water flow and a humidity sensor measures air humidity. The system will
open the solenoid valve to water the plants using a relay. The ESP32 uses Wi-Fi to
communicate with the mobile app or web dashboard via the Arduino IOT cloud. We used the
Arduino IOT cloud app to collect irrigation data, manually operate the valve, and plot soil
temperature fluctuations. When we turn on the system, the ESP32 initializes its non-volatile
memory (NVS) flash, Wi-Fi, real-time operating system (RTOS), soil moisture sensor,
temperature sensor, air humidity sensor, and flow sensor. The ESP32 then connects to the
Blynk servers and checks the soil moisture content, temperature and humidity. If the irrigation
system is currently set to automatic watering and the soil is dry, it will get the current time of
day and compare it to the morning and evening watering time window. If the time is within the
irrigation time window, the ESP32 will check if the soil temperature is within the ideal range.
If the temperature is in the ideal range for maximum water absorption, the ESP32 will open the
valve for an hour and water the plants. The ESP32 will then wait ten minutes before checking
the soil moisture level. If the soil is dry but the current time is not within the irrigation time
window, the ESP32 will not open the valve. Similarly, if the temperature is not in the ideal

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range, the ESP32 will not open the valve. If the soil is wet during the moisture check, the ESP32
will keep the valve closed.

Used materials

HARDWARE
The main hardware components of the system are microcontroller, moisture sensor,
temperature sensor, air humidity sensor, solenoid valve and relay.

Microcontroller — ESP32:- ESP32 is a low-cost 32-bit microcontroller. It has built-in

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, making it useful for IoT applications. It can accommodate multiple
sensors and 48-pin General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) devices. We used ESP32's built-in
Wi-Fi to communicate with the Arduino IOT cloud mobile app or web panel. The ESP32 sends
irrigation information to the Arduino IOT cloud. Using the mobile application, we can control
the valve or set the irrigation time.

SENSORS:-
Soil Moisture Sensor: Measures soil moisture content and provides key information for
irrigation decisions.
Temperature sensor: Monitors field temperature and affects crop growth and health.
Humidity sensor: Measures atmospheric humidity and contributes to a comprehensive
understanding of environmental conditions.

Laptop Dashboard: Displays real-time sensor data and offers a user-friendly interface for
farmers to monitor soil moisture, temperature and humidity.

Water Pump Control System: Uses a 5V relay to control the water pump based on data received
from sensors and user-defined thresholds.

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Results and Discussion:-

Water requirement of different crops :-

Water holding capacity of each crop: -

We have managed to build a smart irrigation system with IoT support. It provides an enhanced
automation feature where if the soil is dry, the temperature is in the ideal range for maximum
water absorption, the time falls within the designated morning or evening watering windows,
and the ESP32 will open the solenoid valve and water the plants. We have added safety features
to prevent scenarios such as over watering, missing watering times or leaving plants thirsty.
We can also monitor soil moisture, temperature and air humidity using the Arduino IoT Cloud
dashboard. If the

soil moisture is too low or too high, the administrator will receive a notification in the Arduino
IOT cloud app. We can use the Arduino IOT cloud control panel to stop the automation
function or manually open the valve based on the monitored data. While the system worked
well, some areas of improvement still need to be explored, such as:
 Exploring the companion application where we can select the planted crop; the
irrigationtiming would change accordingly to meet the needs of the crop.
 Expansion of the system to control more sensors and valves.
 Investigating the effect of watering plants at the ideal temperature for maximum water
absorption.
 Using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi mesh to control several intelligent drip irrigation systems.
 Exploring some options for portability and solar energy systems.
 Integration of pH sensors, wind speed sensors, rain sensors and more.

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