This study presents and assesses the novelty of a cutting‐edge solar‐powered automated irrigation system that incorporates a single‐axis solar tracker. The research entails the meticulous development ...of a prototype, followed by comprehensive experimental scrutiny spanning 3 days, from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM. In a unique approach, we benchmark the findings against previous research endeavours, highlighting the transformative potential of our innovative design.
Our innovative system harnesses a singular‐axis solar tracking mechanism alongside moisture sensors and a water pump relay module, resulting in the creation of an autonomous irrigation system perpetually powered by solar energy. The results are noteworthy, showcasing the capability of a solar panel equipped with single‐axis tracking to significantly boost photovoltaic output power. This configuration attains a remarkable 65% increase in total output power and a substantial improvement over the modest 52%–53% performance of fixed solar panels. This substantial divergence translates to a noteworthy 12%–13% difference in efficacy, underscoring the pioneering nature of our research.
The zenith of power output, ranging between 3.16 and 3.68 W, transpires from noon to 2:00 PM, further illustrating the system's viability. The integrated water pump exhibits commendable efficiency, attaining levels as high as 75%. This revelation underscores the transformative potential of automated irrigation systems endowed with single‐axis solar tracking technology, auguring amplified system performance and heralding a new era of sustainable agricultural practices.
Résumé
Cette étude présente et évalue la nouveauté d'un système d'irrigation automatisé à énergie solaire de pointe qui intègre un système de suivi solaire à un seul axe. La recherche implique le développement méticuleux d'un prototype, suivi d'un examen expérimental complet pendant trois jours, de 8 h à 18 h. Dans une approche unique, nous comparons les résultats à des projets de recherche antérieurs, soulignant le potentiel de transformation de notre conception innovante. Notre système innovant exploite un mécanisme de suivi solaire à un seul axe, des capteurs d'humidité et un module relais de pompe à eau, ce qui permet de créer un système d'irrigation autonome alimenté en permanence par l'énergie solaire. Les résultats sont remarquables, mettant en évidence la capacité d'un panneau solaire équipé d'un suivi à un seul axe à augmenter significativement la puissance de sortie photovoltaïque. Cette configuration atteint une augmentation remarquable de 65% de la puissance de sortie totale et une amélioration substantielle par rapport aux performances modestes de 52–53% des panneaux solaires fixes. Cette divergence substantielle se traduit par une différence notable d'efficacité de 12 à 13%, ce qui souligne le caractère pionnier de notre recherche.
Memristor, a passive circuit element got tremendous research attention for its in-memory computation. In this study, it was identified that controllable resistive state transitions exist within a ...single memristor. On the basis of this realisation, a simple but unconventional implementation of memristive up and down counters was presented. Furthermore, a dual up–down counter was developed, which can mimic any real-time process variations. To demonstrate its practical application, a counter-based memristive automatic irrigation system was explicated, which provided optimised utilisation of electrical and water resources. The proposed study opens up a new purview in the area of future non-Von Neumann computer architectures and its potential electronic applications.
This work develops a novel automatic irrigation system to implement the customized and accurate watering for an individual seedling. The system integrates the modules of visual recognition of the ...stem-leaf junction, identification of the stem-root junction as the watering point, and control of the spraying nozzle. The model of YOLOv3 is employed to screen the stem-leave junction of an orchid seedling, whose depth map then acquired by the method of Semi-Global Block Matching (SGBM) extracts the three-dimensional (3D) coordinates of the junction center. Next, the concept of leaf vector is introduced to identify the stem-root junction of the orchid seedling as the accurate watering point, which the spraying nozzle is controlled to reach for supplement of the specific amount of water. A number of experiments were conducted to verify the proposed irrigation system for orchid seedlings at different locations with various heights. The experimental results show that the rates of successful watering are 82% and 83.3% for the uni-pot and multi-pot orchid seedlings, respectively.
The monitoring of water requirement in irrigation areas is mostly performed by on-farm methods like utilization of soil probes, tensiometers, or neutron probes. The probes are placed into the soil ...collected from different depths of the root zone of the crop. But such procedures are found to be time-consuming. As a result, non-portable capacitance-based probes were nowadays utilized for monitoring of soil moisture. However, the sensor-based non-portable system is expensive and out of reach of ordinary farmers. But an absence of on-time monitoring of soil moisture in the root zone of the soil often results in crop failure and incurs a substantial loss on the cultivators. In the present investigation, a real-time inexpensive water monitoring system was proposed to monitor soil moisture in the root zone of a crop such that both time and expenditure can be reduced. The present study is an attempt to develop a real-time monitoring process for crop water requirement (CWR) in protected farm irrigation systems as a function of the significant parameters such as soil porosity (SP), water availability, crop biomass equivalent (CBE), frequency of nutrient application, frequency of irrigation, and CWR. A systematic literature review was performed to identify parameters for CWR, which were then selected by a relevant group of experts on the field. A two-step methodology was followed to develop a function that can automatically estimate water requirement in the root zone of the crop. In the first step, a new probability optimization technique (POT) was proposed for the identification of the priority value of the selected parameters to generate an ideal scenario. In the second step, the index, developed from the parameters and respective priorities selected in the first step, was predicted recurring to polynomial neural network models. The implementation of the nonlinear transfer function in the development of the neural network framework ensures generation of a platform-independent model, which can be embedded to monitor watering requirement for crops cultivated in a protected farm concept. The data of SP and CBE were retrieved from two separate indices (index of soil porosity and biomass index) calculated from images captured from the root and surface areas of the crops. Here, the POT method was used followed by the
z
score of priority function of the selected parameters estimated by polynomial networks and was fed for the calculation of the water requirement index (WRI). The normalized relative difference of the WRI of two consecutive days provides the information about the necessity of watering and accordingly, the crops in the system are irrigated. The results from the decision-making method indicated that the most significant parameter among the compared factors is CWR. The peak pixel value of each column of the image, for retrieving information from captured images and to identify soil porosity and biomass, was found to be the most contributing factor. The polynomial neural network (PNN) model trained with the information from POT method was found to be the best predictive variant among all the considered configuration of the model having a mean absolute accuracy of 99.08% during the testing phase of the PNN model. This real-time system, when implemented in a real-life scenario, can conserve both water and energy expended in running the watering networks of protected farms.
A small inexpensive (less than $1000) container yard, measuring 10 x 10 ft square, with an automatic irrigation system was designed for schools participating in the Louisiana State University Coastal ...Roots Program: A School Seedling Nursery Program for Habitat Restoration. Students helped install the container yard on their school site and oversee native plant production through the course of the school year. Teachers and other school staff checked the nursery during summer months to ensure that the irrigation system was working properly and the plants were healthy. Students grew 1000 restoration seedlings per year in their container yard. Each year they transplanted their seedlings and grass plugs on trips to habitat restoration sites across Louisiana's coastal zone. Since the inception of the program in 2000, the students using this container yard design have produced nearly 24,500 trees and shrubs and over 8000 grass plugs.
As reported by many agronomists, the direct seeding cultivation of rice is thought to be an effective way to reduce the cost of rice production in Japan. However, the rice yield of direct seeding ...cultivation is generally lower and unstable compared with that from transplanting cultivation. This is mainly due to the unstable establishment of rice seedlings and slow growth during the early growing stage. The two reasons mentioned above are correlated with an appropriate control of water depth under changing weather conditions. This report describes an automatic irrigation system based on the rice microclimate prediction model (Inoue, 1985). This irrigation system can appropriately control water depth and accordingly the microclimate of direct seeding rice fields using weather data and rice plant data. The feasibility tests of this system were done at two direct seeding rice fields at Yuza-machi, Yamagata Prefecture in 1995 and at Yawara-mura, Ibaraki Prefecture in 1997, respectively. The results obtained from the above two experiments can be summarized as follows: The newly developed automatic irrigation system showed good performance in controlling the water depth of direct seeding rice fields during the whole rice growing season. The brown rice yield from the field controlled by this system was 562kg/10a, while neighboring direct seeding rice fields, in which the water depth was controlled manuall, had yields of 492kg/10a and 505kg/10a in 1997. The plant height of the test field with the automatic irrigation system was about 75cm, compared to about 70cm in neighboring direct seeding cultures. These results show that the newly developed automatic irrigation system was effective in stabilizing the establishment and emergence of rice seedlings, and in promoting subsequent growth in direct seeding cultures.
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