University of Gondar

Institute of Technology

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Focus area: computer engineering

Research project proposal

Project Title: Automated irrigation system

Name ID

1. Amanuel Girma 00899/10

2. Estifanos Alem 00851/10
3. Sitotaw Nigussie 00817/10
4. Yeabkal Ashagre 00270/10
5. Hailemelekot Amsalu 01166/10

Submitted to:Lidia Bitew

Submission date:3/12/2022

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 Abstract
Irrigation is the artificial use of water to enable the growing crops in areas where there is
rainfall shortage and scarcity of water. The ancient Irrigation practice has passed through many
different stages over the years with a lot of improvements. These days the available irrigation
system has limitations like leaching off soil nutrients, erosion due to flooding, loss of water from
plant surfaces through evaporation and water wastage which can result to water scarcity and
production of unhealthy crops. Ethiopia is among one of the countries that are challenged by these
prelisted problems and limitations of available irrigation system. But with the new and a low-cost
microcontroller-based automated Irrigation system, all these limitations are avoided. Preserving
soil moisture conditions is a crucial for optimal yield production. Water is the vital elements for
suitable cropping at optimum level; however, its excessiveness must be controlled, so that the field
is neither over-irrigated nor under-irrigated. This project identified an inefficient irrigation system
was under operation due to unaffordability of water monitoring technologies and labor-intensive
affecting productivity in Ethiopia. The intention of this project is occupying elimination of such
factors by designing and deploying automatic embedded system via integrating sensor with
microcontroller. The project presents the use of correct soil moisture sensors which helps to ease
out the pain to monitor and keep records about the changes in soil moisture. The system operates
using the Arduino uno micro controller with Light-Depended Resistor sensor, moisture sensor,
temperature, humidity and water level sensor. The soil for a certain duration, provides information
related to the moisture status of the soil. The Arduino uno will collect and process the data received
from the Sensors. When a threshold moisture level of the soil is reached, the water will supply
accordingly. This is essential because water must be provided to the plant at a particular time for
a good yield. This project is highly use for farmers, Nursery professionals by eradicating traditional
or manual method of irrigation system.

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Contents
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ v
LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... vi
LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................. vii
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background of the Project ............................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Statement of the problem ................................................................................................................. 2
1.3 Motivation.......................................................................................................................................... 3
1.4 Objectives........................................................................................................................................... 3
1.4.1 The general objective ................................................................................................................. 3
1.4.2 The specific objectives ............................................................................................................... 3
1.5 Scope of project ................................................................................................................................. 4
1.6 Limitations ......................................................................................................................................... 4
1.7 Significance of the study ................................................................................................................... 5
Chapter 2: Review of Related Literatures .................................................................................. 6
2.1 Automated irrigation system using solar power in Bangladesh ................................................... 6
2.2 Design and implementation of an Automatic irrigation system in Nigeria ................................. 6
2.3 Sensor-based Automatic Irrigation System .................................................................................... 7
2.4 Automatic Irrigation System for Sensing Soil Moisture Content ................................................. 7
2.5 Sensor Based Automatic Irrigation Management System ............................................................ 7
2.6 Automatic Farm Irrigation System Debre Markos University..................................................... 8
2.7 Plant Monitoring System .................................................................................................................. 8
Chapter 3: Methodology and System Design ........................................................................... 10
3.1 Methodology .................................................................................................................................... 10
3.2 Materials .......................................................................................................................................... 11
3.2.1 Hardware .................................................................................................................................. 11
3.2.1.1 Sensors ............................................................................................................................... 11
3.2.1.1.1 Soil moisture sensor ................................................................................................... 11
3.2.1.1.2 Ultrasonic water level sensor .................................................................................... 12
3.2.1.1.3 Light-dependent resistor (LDR) ............................................................................... 12
3.2.1.1.4 Temperature sensor ................................................................................................... 13
3.2.1.1.5 Humidity sensors ........................................................................................................ 13

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 3.2.1.2 Microcontroller ................................................................................................................. 14
3.2.1.3 DC motor (Water pump) .................................................................................................. 14
3.2.1.4 GSM Module ..................................................................................................................... 14
3.2.1.5 LCD indicator.................................................................................................................... 15
3.2.2 Software .................................................................................................................................... 15
3.2.2.1 Arduino 2.0 IDE ................................................................................................................ 15
3.2.2.2 Proteus professional 8.13 .................................................................................................. 15
3.3 System design .................................................................................................................................. 16
3.4 Method ............................................................................................................................................. 17
Chapter 4: Time Schedule and Budget ..................................................................................... 19
4.1 Work Plan ........................................................................................................................................ 19
4.2 Budget .............................................................................................................................................. 20
References .................................................................................................................................... 21

iv
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2-1Related System Comparison.......................................................................................................... 9
Table 4-1 Work Plan ................................................................................................................................... 19
Table 4-2 Budget and Expenses .................................................................................................................. 20

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.0 Methodology of the project ....................................................................................................... 10
Figure 3.1 Soil moisture sensor .................................................................................................... 11
Figure 3.2 Ultrasonic Sensor......................................................................................................... 12
Figure 3.3 LDR ............................................................................................................................. 12
Figure 3.4 Temprature Sensor....................................................................................................... 13
Figure 3.5 Humidity sensor........................................................................................................... 13
Figure 3.6 Arduino Uno ................................................................................................................ 14
Figure 3.7 GSM Module ............................................................................................................... 15
Figure 3.8 LCD Display ................................................................................................................ 15
Figure 3.9 Diagrammatic Representation of an automated irrigation system ............................. 16
Figure 3.10System Working Flow Chart ...................................................................................... 18

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LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS

GDP: Gross Domestic Product

MoWIE: Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity

GTP-II: Growth and Transformation Plan -II

NGO: Non-Governmental Organization

IDE: Integrated Development Environment

LCD: Liquid Crystal Display

GSM: Global System for Mobile

LDR: Light Dependent Resistor

KM: Kilo Meter

MHA: Million Hector

DC Motor: Direct Current Motor

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 Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Project
Irrigation is the agricultural process of applying controlled amounts of water to land to assist in
the production of crops. It also can be defined as the artificial application of water for the success
of crop production in the field. Irrigation has been a central feature of agriculture for over 5,000
years and has been developed independently by many cultures across the globe. Water applications
to crop fields are of various types. The most commonly used and most ancient type is surface
irrigation methods through using gravity forces. water moves across the surface of an agricultural
lands by following gravity or the slope of the land. This was used especially across river sides and
it doesn’t depend on mechanized equipment. Nowadays, modernized irrigation systems are mostly
used which works automatically based on the pressurized energy system. Agriculture is developing
from mechanized by simple methods in the twentieth century to being automated in the 21st
century. Although the field of agriculture has reached a rapid development of automation and
mechanization with irrigation globally, it mostly depends on rain in Ethiopia. the unavailability of
sustained technological based and inconsequential knowledge leant schemes caused the agriculture
sector to be less productive with respect to irrigation.

Agriculture in Ethiopia is the foundation of the country's economy, accounting for half of gross
domestic product (GDP), 83.9% of exports, and 80% of total employment. The country has a land
area of 1.13 million 〖km〗^2 and is endowed with ample water resources with 12 river basins
with an annual runoff volume of 122 billion m^3 of water and an estimated 2.6 - 2.65 billion m^3
of groundwater potential Due to this Ethiopia is considered to be the water tower of Africa. Even
if the potential and actual irrigated area is not precisely investigated estimates of irrigable land in
Ethiopia vary between 1.5 and 4.3 million hectares (Mha), averaged about 3.5 Mha. However, it
is surprising that the total land under irrigation now is estimated to be in the range between 10%-
12% of the country’s irrigable land.it implies almost all the agriculture activity is assumed to be
conducted depended on rainfall. Although there is a great potential in irrigation, the country still
can’t guarantee food security and as many as 4.6 million people need food assistance annually
according to some researches. so, in order to increase productivity, guarantee food security and in
turn support sustainable development the agriculture must be modernized. Therefore, adequate

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planning for irrigation is required. Realizing an embedded system entirely automating irrigation
processes help in reduction of water wastages, costs and excess labor-intervention. (Tilahun, 2011)

In this project, we planned to rectify these problems via deploying automated irrigation scheme
using sensors integrated with a microcontroller entirely energized with some energy source to
facilitate and simplify the irrigation system. The irrigation system is an automated soil and
environmental conditions monitoring system, using automatic irrigation program. It takes some
information from the sensors and depending on the information the system decides when to irrigate
the land and fill the water reservoir (tank). A predefined range of soil moisture and Water tank
level is set. In case the moisture of the soil deviates from the specified range, the watering system
is turned on/off. Whereas it simultaneously eliminates the main problems of over and/or under
irrigation difficulties.

1.2 Statement of the problem

As per the second Ethiopian 5-year growth and transformational plan (GTP-II) concord, (MoFED,
2015),( (Haile, 2015),which covers the time interval (2015-2020), the government has decided as
agriculture should be remain as the chief driver of this national inclusive economic growth. In our
agriculture, besides leveraging food security and productivity promotion, there are also high value
crops, export commodities and industrial inputs expected from this strategic national plan.
Inclusively, in order to attain this agricultural based strategic transformation plan, uttermost
emphasis and priority is given to modern technological oriented irrigational agriculture.

However, according to MoWIE (Awulachew, July 2010)many challenges both technical and
knowledge gaps have been tackling Ethiopian Irrigation sector, which still are in operation. These
are; water wastages, manual and labor-intensive, over and under irrigation difficulties,
unavailability of water saving irrigation technologies, which deposited under and over irrigation
difficulties in irrigation. Due to these challenges, conventional irrigation has been subjectively
deploying with poor productivity in Ethiopia, which its effort and cost is much bigger than its
beneficence.

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1.3 Motivation
The motivation for this project came from the country where economy is based on agriculture and
the climatic conditions lead to lack of rains & scarcity of water. The main aim of this paper is to
provide automatic irrigation to the plants which helps in saving money and water. The farmers
working in the farm lands are solely dependent on the rains and bore wells for irrigation of the
land. Even if the farm land has a water pump, manual intervention by farmers is required to turn
the pump on/off whenever needed.

1.4 Objectives
1.4.1 The general objective
The general objective of the study is to design and develop an automated farm irrigation system
through electronic circuit with simulation.

1.4.2 The specific objectives

➢ To design an automated farm irrigation system that utilizes electronic, electromechanical
equipment and sensors.
➢ To develop the pre-established design parameters and integrate circuit components
according to its technical purposes.
➢ To solve the problems on manual irrigation system.
➢ To increase agricultural production by providing this technology to stake holders.
➢ To reduce water wastage and human power.
➢ Prevents weeds and diseases: - irrigation systems do not just sprinkle water like
rainstorm, surrounding weeds cannot and will not germinate.
➢ To enhance the transfer of irrigation technologies and management alternatives
emphasizing economic and environmental benefits.
➢ To eliminate the present ineffective traditional irrigation schemes

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1.5 Scope of project
My research will be concerned about designing and simulating automatic and self-controlled
irrigation system. Specifically, the paper is scoped with designing and simulating automatic system
for small-scale irrigation schemes. In this project, moisture sensor is the main input,
Microcontroller is the entire system executor and water-pumping motor is the expected output.
Soil moisture sensor will be used to monitor the moisture level and the irrigated soil respectively.
They will be set also to report results frequently to the microcontroller for execution.
Implementation of a physical control design in simulation.

➢ Implementation of the project to real farming application.

➢ Determination of sunlight availability index in the region.
➢ Determination of temperature value.
➢ Determination of Humidity value.
➢ Determining the moisture level of the soil in relation with resistance value.

1.6 Limitations
As we have seen throughout the development of this study, the system must be suffered from the
following limitations/challenges.

➢ After the farm is irrigated, there may be a rainfall on the farm.

➢ The sprinkler irrigation cannot irrigate the farm uniformly due to the difficulty of sprinkler
spacing and there will be wrong information to be fetched by watermark moisture sensor.
➢ During cultivation, harvesting and weeding time the system may irrigate the farm and this
leads to human intervention to the system.
➢ The irrigated farm will not be irrigated uniformly due to the structure of the irrigated area.
➢ Since there is no a rainfall sensor the system might irrigate the farm until the soil moisture
deviates and off the system.

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1.7 Significance of the study
Ethiopia is leading as the second Populated African Country, and Agriculture is its national main
actor in the economy. Climate pattern change generally hit developing countries much harder than
developed countries due to monitoring performance (Belay Zerga, 2016). Developing countries
were less proficient in mitigating these fluctuations due to economical poverty and environment-
dependent for their subsistence. Consequently, this climate changes hitting Ethiopia affects her
annual season rainfall, which frequently distressing rain-fed agriculture. Although agriculture is
the main role player of national economy in Ethiopia, we do not reinforce mechanized technologies
yet henceforth our agricultural stakeholders’ productivity is unexpected low. Among this
agricultural disintegrated operational system, our irrigation system and its water misuse led by its
manual process and unavailability of technical expertise are exemplary. However, since all its
variables are monitored automatically, controlled Irrigation scheme is more climate change
independent and productive than rain-fed agriculture. Hence, we initiate to reduce these challenges
by automating Ethiopian Irrigation system by designing and simulating automatic microcontroller
integrated system. Therefore, this study is highly significant in transforming the sector from
manual to automatic operation, which can reduce resources wastages like unplanned water misuse
and labor intensification.

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 Chapter 2: Review of Related Literatures
The importance of the foregoing is crucial to the content of the research project. The related
literatures and similar studies mentioned in this study substantiate the arguments that support the
theories and assumptions therein. The information gathered in this chapter helps provide
compelling motivation to pursue the conduct of the study due to the benchmark information and
baseline research that reflect meritorious works and scholarly studies conducted by experts that
are relevant to farm irrigation.

2.1 Automated irrigation system using solar power in Bangladesh

The gadget specializes in rice fields in nations depending on agriculture within the
economy, such as Bangladesh. The primary concept in this gadget is to cognizance on the level of
water in agricultural fields because those fields lose lots of their merchandise due to floods. The
sensor sends a message from the field to the person approximately the extent of water within the
area if it will increase or decreases then the operator controls the pump to regulate or flip off the
telephone. The blessings of this machine are that it depends on the sun energy to get hold of
electricity. The dangers of this system are that it centered on one sort of sensor, the water stage
sensor, no matter whether the plant desires water or not. There may be no opportunity source of
energy in case there is no solar electricity to run the device. It doesn’t consider the possibility of
water loss via evaporation. (Anon, 2017)

2.2 Design and implementation of an Automatic irrigation system in Nigeria

In this machine the basic idea is to rely on the type of soil and the amount of water needed
by each type of soil. This process is done by measuring the level of moisture in each type and using
the pump to supply water. The result indicates that sandy soil requires less water than clay soils.
The blessings of this device are to focus on soil moisture and water conservation. But making the
machine much less powerful is to measure the moisture of soil from one location in the agricultural
land. It’s far viable that the vegetation at the other end of the rural land does no longer need
watering. Also, the water source isn't constant (Jee.ro., 2017)

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2.3 Sensor-based Automatic Irrigation System
This system also depends on the measurement of soil humidity and temperature. The
system works by sending a signal from farm controller to user phone and its phone must be in
automatic reply in case that soil needs water. a signal from phone send to farm controller again to
switch on or off the system.

Step 1: Start the process.

Step 2: Initialize power is supplied to GSM.
Step 3: Check the moisture level (less than or more than).
Step 4: If the level will be more than fixed criteria, no Need for irrigation.
Step 5: If the Moisture level is less than fixed criteria, start irrigation.
Step 6: Initialization of pump and rain gun.

Step 7: After the process completed, it moves to the original state.

Step 8: Stop the process [8].
We think the only disadvantage of this study is that it works with Wi-Fi. Often agricultural
land is far from the city so the network is not good in these areas. Also, this system needs to
enter the farmer via his phone.

2.4 Automatic Irrigation System for Sensing Soil Moisture Content

The aim of this study is also to develop a system that turns on and off the engine
automatically through moisture. On this consider, we failed to find out sufficient facts around the
source of water and the approach of controlling the withdrawal of water from the supply
furthermore did not discover enough information nearly the supply of power applied in this study
(Jee.ro., 2017)

2.5 Sensor Based Automatic Irrigation Management System

The aim of this study is to build a system that helps the process of regulating water by
measuring the humidity ratio. The grounded sensors all around the land area will give notice about
the need for water and likewise, it will be provided. At the same time arranged a mechanized
approach for the water tanker to be filled when it is empty. The drawback of this system is that it
doesn’t consider the possibility of water loss via evaporation. (Ijcit.com., 2017)

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2.6 Automatic Farm Irrigation System Debre Markos University
The study outlines the design and development of an automated farm irrigation system that
employs electronic switching through electronic simulation. The project inhibits the conduct of the
following in the entire scope of the study:

➢ Implementation of a physical control design in simulation.

➢ Determination of sunlight availability index in the region.
➢ Determination of rainfall index.
➢ Determination of wind speed index.
➢ Determining the moisture level of the soil in relation with resistance value.
➢ Developing and designing of controlling and regulator circuits.
➢ Interconnecting circuits together for a single task.

The limitations of this system Is:

➢ During cultivation, harvesting and weeding time the system may irrigate the farm and
this leads to human intervention to the system
➢ There may be high evaporation when there is high light intensity/high solar radiation
after the farm is irrigated.
➢ The system uses a soil moisture sensor yet rainfall sensor is also used which is
unneeded. (Ketemaw Adugna, 2014)

2.7 Plant Monitoring System

The main purpose of this project is only just to monitor the moisture, light and temperature of the
plant. Here various sensor like moisture sensor is used to catch the moisture of the soil whereas
temperature sensor is used to take the temperature of the plant as well as the nearer of the plant
and at last the light sensor is used to take the data of the light. in this project only plant is monitored
no any kind of irrigating facilities is available. Here this project checks only the moisture and no
any kind of facilities is not available so this is not much effective. (Siddagangaiah, 2016)

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 Table 2-1Related System Comparison

System Moisture System Temperature LDR GSM Rainfall Ultrasonic Humid

Moisture Sensor module sensor sensor sensor
Automated irrigation Yes No Yes Yes No No No
system using solar
power in Bangladesh
Design and Yes No No No No No No
implementation of an
Automatic irrigation
system in Nigeria
Sensor-based Yes No No Yes No No No
Automatic Irrigation
System
Automatic Irrigation Yes No No No No No No
System for Sensing
Soil Moisture
Content
Sensor Based No No No No No Yes Yes
Automatic Irrigation
Management System
Automatic Farm Yes No No No Yes No No
Irrigation System
Debre Markos
University
Plant Monitoring Yes Yes Yes No No No No
System

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 Chapter 3: Methodology and System Design
3.1 Methodology
The procedure to be followed in completing this project can be discussed as follows: - the primary
and most important work to be conducted is drawing up timeline and identifying objective. After
identifying objective reviewing related works will be performed. After looking into benefits and
downsides of previous studies in the subject of an automatic irrigation system, necessary data will
be collected through secondary data collection techniques. A secondary data source is a data
composed by somebody else for different purpose. In our case, we will be using Published &
unpublished data resources due to time limitations. The following work will be analyzing and
organizing data. then based on the data we will design our system starting from material selection
to designing the embedded system by implementing the layout and developing the software which
impart functionality to the system. finally, we wil: test our system by simulating it on a simulation
software. The steps can be generalized in the following process chart: -

Identifying Reviewing Data collection

objective literature and
h organization

Develop software Design Select Material

hardware layout

h
h
h

System testing

Figure 3.1 Methodology of the project

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3.2 Materials
3.2.1 Hardware
3.2.1.1 Sensors
These are the set of sensors that will be used to determine when the automated irrigation system
needs to be turned on. A variety of factors can be taken into consideration when determining that
the automated irrigation system needs to be switched on/off. to facilitate this aspect, we will use
the following sensors.

3.2.1.1.1 Soil moisture sensor: soil moisture is the water that is held in the spaces between soil
particles. Surface soil moisture is the water that is in the upper 10 cm of soil, whereas root zone
soil moisture is the water that is available to plants, which is generally considered to be in the
upper 200 cm of soil. A soil moisture sensor is a device that measures the volumetric water content
(VWC) of soil. This soil moisture sensor reads the moisture content around it. Soil moisture sensor
used to measure the water content of the spores. Soil moisture sensor has two probes, are
responsible for the flow of current in the soil which result help to identify resistance value to
measure the moisture level of the spores. A current is passed across the electrodes through the soil
and the resistance to the current in the soil determines the soil moisture. This sensor has both digital
and analogue outputs.in this project Soil moisture sensor will be used to measure the moisture
level of soil.

Figure 3.1 Soil moisture sensor

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3.2.1.1.2 Ultrasonic water level sensor: a water level sensor will be needed to determine when
the level of water in the water reservoir (tanker) has fallen below a minimum level and switch on
the motor to refill the tanker.

Figure 3.2 Ultrasonic Sensor

3.2.1.1.3 Light-dependent resistor (LDR): Light dependent resistors, LDRs or photo resistors
are often used in circuits where it is necessary to detect the presence or the level of light. They can
be described by a variety of names from light dependent resistor, LDR, photo resistor, or even
photo cell, photocell or photoconductor. LDRs or photo resistors are a particularly convenient
electronics component to use. They provide large change in resistance for changes in light level.
LDR are light sensitive device which are used to identify the presence and absence of the light
intensity. LDR resistance value increases whenever it exposed to less or low intensity of light (dark
light). LDR sensor will be used in this project to control the irrigation time.

Figure3.3 LDR

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3.2.1.1.4 Temperature sensor: -is a device that detects and measures hotness and coolness and
converts it into an electrical signal. They are devices to measure temperature readings through
electrical signals. The sensor is made up of two metals, which generate electrical voltage or
resistance once it notices a change in temperature.

Figure 3. 4 Temprature Sensor

3.2.1.1.5 Humidity sensors: -are electronic devices that measure and report the moisture and air
temperature of the surrounding environment where they are deployed e.g., in air, soil, or confined
spaces. Humidity measurements indicate the concentration of water vapor presented in the air.
Humidity sensors work by detecting changes that alter electrical currents or temperature in the air.
There are three basic types of humidity sensors: capacitive, resistive and thermal. All three types
will monitor minute changes in the atmosphere in order to calculate the humidity in the air.

Figure 3.5 Humidity sensor

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3.2.1.2 Microcontroller: It is heart of system, implies it control all task of framework. A
development board will be used for the automated irrigation system project to be able to
autonomously detect the environmental data necessary and to determine when land irrigation
should commence or cease. The microcontroller will be used in this project is Arduino uno. The
Arduino Uno is an open-source microcontroller board based on the Microchip ATmega328P
microcontroller and developed by Arduino. The board is equipped with sets of digital and analog
input/output (I/O) pins that may be interfaced to various expansion boards (shields) and other
circuits. The board has 14 digital I/O pins (six capable of PWM output), 6 analog I/O pins, and is
programmable with the Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment),

Figure 3. 6 Arduino Uno

3.2.1.3 DC motor (Water pump): A DC motor is an electric motor that runs on direct current (DC)
electricity. DC motors were used to run machinery, often eliminating the need for a local steam engine or
internal combustion engine. DC motors can operate directly from rechargeable batteries, providing the
motive power for the first electric vehicles. It will be used in this project to pump the water needed
for irrigation from the main water tank through pipes to fill the tanker.

3.2.1.4 GSM Module: It will be used to send and store messages. It also alerts the user of any
specific data.it sends the status of the Irrigation System to the farmer or the owner of the system.

14
 Figure 3. 7 GSM Module
3.2.1.5 LCD indicator: LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. LCD screen is an electronic
display module and locate an extensive variety of uses. The status of the pumps, Soil Moisture
level and Tank water level will be displayed on it.

Figure 3.8 LCD Display

3.2.2 Software
3.2.2.1 Arduino 2.0 IDE: Arduino is a software tool which is an open-source IDE (Integrated
Development Environment) platform used for writing Arduino code. It is used to program Arduino
circuit board often called microcontroller that runs on the PC, used to write and upload computer
code to the Arduino board that is used in proteus software for simulation purpose.

3.2.2.2 Proteus professional 8.13: The Proteus software is a proprietary software tool suite used
primarily for electronic design automation. The software is used mainly by electronic design
engineers and technicians to create schematics and electronic prints for manufacturing printed
circuit boards.

15
3.3 System design
It is important to consider the proposed system as an embedded system, an electromechanical
system which is designated to perform a specific function. The system will be designed according
to the following diagram. All input (sensors) and output (LCD display, GSM module and DC
motors) components will be connected to a particular pin of the microcontroller and the firmware
to be developed will be stored in the program memory of the microcontroller. The diagrammatic
representation shown in the figure below will be designed in proteus simulation software with each
diagram symbols replaced by a specific hardware component. The firmware (software) also
program will be also written and tested on Arduino IDE.

LCD display

Sensors Microcontroller GSM module

Motor 1 Motor 2

Farm Water source

Water reservoir

Figure 3.9 Diagrammatic Representation of an automated irrigation system

16
3.4 Method
As we described in chapter one, although the opportunities for agricultural irrigation is too wide,
almost all Ethiopia’s irrigation farming schemes are traditional, which is less productive and labor
intensive. Thus, we proposed sensor-based irrigation system as to inspect the circumstances of
irrigation. the system working can be viewed as two related applications. The first application is
irrigating the land based on the information reported from soil moisture sensor and LDR sensor.
The second application is monitoring the tank water content based on the information reported
from ultrasonic water level sensor.

The moisture sensor and LDR sensor sense the moisture content (water level) in the field and light
intensity respectively. Then, they report the recorded value to the Arduino Uno microcontroller.
After the controller receives the reports, it determines either the values are less/greater than the
values set in the program. Then, based on that identified report’s values, for example if the
recorded value will be less than the predefined values, the controller transfers command to turn
the dc motor on and pump out the required volumetric water amount and vice versa. The sensors
in the field senses the physical conditions then reports consecutively to the microcontroller to
execute the irrigation system. The tank monitoring uses ultrasonic sensor to measure the level of
water inside the tank which is automated and switches on and off the dc motor one comparing to
a threshold level which will be set., if the amount of water stored in the tanker is less than the
predefined water volume then the system will automatically start to fill up the tanker using motor
two. temperature and humidity sensors sense the environmental conditions and report the recorded
values to the microcontroller.

The status of the pumps, Soil Moisture level, Tank water level, light intensity level, temperature
level and humidity level will be displayed on an LCD. The proposed system will also include an
SMS notifier which sends the status of the Irrigation System to the farmer or the owner of the
system via GSM module.

17
Figure 3.10 System Working Flow Chart
18
 Chapter 4: Time Schedule and Budget

4.1 Work Plan

Table 4-1 Work Plan

Activities February March

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7

Problem ✓
Identification
Literature Review ✓

Data Collection ✓

Preparing ✓
Proposal
Proposal ✓
Submission
Preparing ✓
Document
Design and ✓
Simulation
Document ✓
Submission
Presentation ✓

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4.2 Budget

Table 4-2 Budget and Expenses

No Expenses Cost in birr
1 Arduino Uno 450
2 Proteus Open source
3 Arduino IDE Open source
4 Ultrasonic water level sensor 300
5 LDR 150
6 GSM Modul 600
7 Travelling Cost 5000
8 Overhead Cost None
9 Other Expenses None
10 Communication cost 2000
11 Consultant Free
12 Soil moisture sensor 200
13 Humidity sensor 200
14 DC Motor (For prototype design) 500
TOTAL 9400

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