Review on Closed Loop Automated Irrigation System

Abstract

India is mainly an agricultural country. Irrigation is a vital component of agricultural production. Irrigation is a process of applying controlled amount of water to plants at regular interval. There are various technological improvements in irrigation including automated irrigation. Compared to manual irrigation, automated irrigation system can save water and maximize productivity. Automated irrigation system can be either closed/feedback control system or open/non-feedback control system. Feedback control systems monitor’s environmental parameters to control irrigation. Closed loop control system can be either plant/crop based system or soil based system. This paper reviews the various closed loop automatic irrigation system and proposes an automated irrigation system using thermography. The proposed system uses an IR thermal camera to capture IR image of plant canopy. Captured IR image is superimposed with digital image to identify water deficit area and corresponding valve is opened to start irrigation. The amount of water to be applied is controlled by soil moisture sensor deployed on agriculture field. When sensor value reaches the predefined threshold value corresponding valve is closed to stop irrigation. Efficient water management system is proposed by using plant or leaf canopy temperature to start irrigation.