System architecture
The irrigation method presented considers multiple zones of the agricultural field that allows having different plantations or planting the same type but in different stages of growth. Figure below, demonstrates the proposed irrigation method. The system considers the irrigation requirements for each zone and regulates the speed of the electrical motor, related to the rotation of the infrastructure, and the valve motor related to the water pumping, based on the plant’s requirements in each zone.
The system calculates the time remaining until the level of soil moisture goes below a desired limit for the plantations of the different zones considering the evapotranspiration of each zone and the precipitation forecast. Furthermore, the system obtains the local PV production and the electricity market price, in order to propose the most optimized scheduling for the irrigation of each zone. The priority of the system is set to use the local energy generation for the electricity demand of the devices. The optimization algorithm, where the output would be the optimal irrigation scheduling. There are several sensors employed in the system, which enables the scheduling process to have real-time data, such as soil moisture, solar radiation, temperature, humidity etc.
CP irrigation system here