2010 8th IEEE International Conference on Control and Automation Xiamen, China, June 9-11, 2010

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Automatic Irrigation System Based on Wireless Network

Genghuang Yang, Yuliang Liu, Li Zhao, Shigang Cui, Qingguo Meng and Hongda Chen

AbstractConsidering the characteristic of irrigation in the rural area of China, this paper brings forward new devices based on wireless network, that are GSM (Global System Mobile) network and radio communication. Three levels are included in the system: the PC control platform or common cell phone for surveillance, the controller and the action unit. Simple GSM modules are available in the PC control platform and the controller. Orders can be sent from the PC control platform or cell phone to the controller and the information such as temperature, soil moisture and air humidity sampled by the controller can also be sent to the PC platform or cell phone by GSM message. Emitter and receiver of short-wave radio are embedded in the controller and the action unit respectively. Radio communication works between the controller and the action units. Database of spot information sampled can be analyzed and browsed by friendly interface in PC. The devices have been installed in some farms of Mentougou district in Beijing, capital of China, and Xinjiang, northwest of China.

I. INTRODUCTION ITH the development of technology in water saving irrigation and automation, automatic irrigation is more popular in farms in China. Most of the technology and device comes from other countries such as Israel or America. They are too expensive to come into common farmers. Always it is difficult for the farmers to operate. The foreign technology and devices are only used in farms for experiment or demonstration by fund of government. Less cost and simple operation are principles to develop new devices for common farmers in China. There are some characteristics in automatic irrigation. Firstly, the area to irrigate maybe covers several hundreds of
Manuscript received October 29, 2009. This work is supported by National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program), 2007AA04Z254, 2006AA03Z0418, Tianjin Binhai New Areas Construction Science and Technology Action Planning Project Supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences, TJZX2-YW-06, the key project of Tianjin Science and Technology Planning, 08ZCKFSF03400 and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, 20090460501. Genghuang Yang is with the Tianjin Key Laboratory of Information Sensing & Intelligent Control in Tianjin University of Technology and Education, Tianjin, 300222 P.R.C (phone and fax: +862288181115; e-mail: ygenghuang@yahoo.com.cn). Yuliang Liu is with Tianjin University of Technology and Education, Tianjin, 300222 P.R.C (tjtute@126.com) ,Li Zhao is with Tianjin University of Technology and Education, Tianjin, 300222 P.R.C(jinshihui@163.com) Shigang Cui is with Tianjin University of Technology and Education, Tianjin, 300222 P.R.C(cuisg@163.com) Qingguo Meng is with Tianjin University of Technology and Education, Tianjin, 300222 P.R.C(ygenghuang@126.com) Hongda Chen is with the Semiconductor Institute of CAS, Beijing, 100083, P.R.C(hdchen@semi.ac.cn)

hectares [1][2]. Secondly, the points to irrigate and sample by sensors spread around [3]. The parameters to sample include temperature, soil moisture and air humidity. Thirdly, farming keeps close to soil and wire is difficult to lay out [4]. Fourthly, the bad conditions such as high temperature by sunlight and high moisture by drench form the difficulties for devices to run for a long time. The last factor is that a majority of the farmers in China are illiterate and have only little ability for operation and maintenance. From above description, credible communication is the most important. Wireless communication avoids laying wires in the soil and is obviously the best way for data transmission. There are three levels in the devices: the PC control platform [5] or cell phone for surveillance, the controller and the action unit [6][7]. GSM network is the 2nd generation mobile communication platform. It is credible to transmit data by GSM network [8]. Once GSM module is embedded in device or connected to PC peripheral interface, communication between the PC control platform or cell phone and the controller can be easily achieved. Short-wave radio can reach 1-4 kilometers with low power supply. The controller with an emitter sends signal to the action units with receivers by radio. II. PROCEDURE FOR PAPER SUBMISSION As the area to irrigate is different from each other, the devices should be extensible. Even part of the devices can also work. For a medium scale of several hundreds of hectares, three levels are included as figure 1 shows.

Cell phone

PC control platform

Controller

Controller

Action unit Action unit

Action unit

Fig.1 Frame of devices in scheme

The first level includes the PC control platform and cell phone. The controllers are in the second level. The microprocessor runs in the controller as a core [9]. The bottom level is made up of the action units. The controller

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decodes the orders from cell phone or the PC control platform by GSM message and encodes again to send to the action units by radio communication. One cell phone or PC can communicate with hundreds of controllers and one controller can control 1 to 255 action units. A. Orders for cell phone or PC control platform Cell phone and the PC control platform are two ways to edit order before sending to the controllers. Cell phone is popular in China and almost everybody can edit and send GSM message. For PC, the order is stored as a database file. Some simple clicks of mouse can complete the operation. A fixed format is applied to make the controller decode the order easily.
1 2 3 Password 4 5 6 7 8 Type of order 9 n-1 Content of order n End

Fig.2 Format of order

Inactivate feedback: disables the controller to run in feedback, Set prefix: sets the prefix of address, see latter chapter, Renew password: changes the password, Set time: sets time in the format of year, month, date, weekday, hour, minute and second, Check valve: when this order is received by the controller, the status of valves, open or close, will be transmitted to cell phone or PC, Check sensor: when this order is received by the controller, the values of parameters sampled by sensors will be transmitted to cell phone or PC. As the GSM message has length limit, 70 unicodes in China, one order always exceeds the length. One order is divided into several messages. It is necessary to add the current section of an order to the last section. An order to combine GSM messages is available. B. Information management on PC control platform Although cell phone can browse the data sampled by controllers, the information is rough and dispersed. If the area to irrigate is more than one hundred hectares, too much data results in difficulty to manage the information. Data processing by PC helps to resolve this problem. Information management is made up of classification of data and analysis of data. Data sampled by different sensors at different time and different points needs to be classified and stored as history data. Tab I describes the detail. Statistics is adopted to analyze the history data. When crop data are added together with sensor data, function between environmental parameters and crop, especially soil moisture and crop, will be gained. New layout of sensors and irrigation plan can also be redesigned. With simple and friendly interface, farmers can browse the information in CRT after data classification and analysis.
TABLE I STATISTICS OF DATA SAMPLED BY CONTROLLER Point X Aug.1, 2005 Temperature Soil moisture Air humidity 8:00 31 48 55 10:00 33 49 50 12:00 34 48 50

As fig.2 shows, checking password avoids disturb from cell phones without authorization. Type of order labels the order and content of order means the detail operation. At the end of every order, a symbol denotes the end of this order. Only Chinese characters, number and punctuations are used in the order. The orders can be divided into two types: one is preset irrigation plan and the other is instant order. The preset plan is stored in the controller. Once activated, the controller makes decision of when and where to irrigate by preset plan. For the different habits of farmers, there are two ways to denote time: date and weekday. The following shows the detail of the orders. Two preset plan include: Preset plan I: preset the interval days to irrigate, Preset plan II: preset the weekday to irrigate. The preset plan include: Valve ID: which valve to open, Time (hour : minute): when to open, Minutes: how long to keep valve open. The instant orders include: Halt preset plan: closes all the valves opened by preset plan and inactivates the plan, Activate preset order: activates or reactivates the preset plan and the controller runs by the plan, Run preset plan instantly: opens the valves involved in the preset plan instantly, always for testing, Delete preset order: closes all the valves involved in the preset plan, and then sets the plan as blank, Open valve: opens the valve set in the content of order, Close valve: closes the valve set in the content of order, Close all valves: closes all the valves, Set sensor: sets the thresholds of parameter such as soil moisture and valve IDs to open or close, so as to form the feedback to keep the parameter between the thresholds, Activate feedback: enables the controller to run in feedback,

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C. Controller and sensors

DS1302 GSM module

TABLE II CONVERTING DATA TABLE FOR MP-406 VSW% -5.00 0.00 Voltage (mV) 0.0 120 210 310 415 510 610 720 825 895 955 1005 Current (mA) 4.00 5.71 6.99 8.43 9.93 11.285 12.71 14.285 15.785 16.785 17.64 18.35 VSW% 55.00 60.00 65.00 70.00 75.00 80.00 85.00 90.00 95.00 100.00 105.00 Voltage (mV) 1015 1025 1035 1045 1055 1065 1070 1080 1095 1120 2090 Current (mA) 18.50 18.64 14.785 18.93 19.07 19.21 19.28 19.43 19.64 20.00

MSP430F149

24LC26

5.00 10.00

Ra dio e mitter Sensor inte rfaces module

15.00 20.00 25.00

Fig.3 Structure of the controller

30.00 35.00

Texas Instruments (TI) MSP430F149 is adopted to be the microprocessor [10]. The characteristic of this chip is listed as following: 3.3V power supply and 5 power saving modes, 60Kbyte flash EEPROM, 2Kbyte SRAM, 8 channel 12 bits AD converters, 2 programmable USARTs and two 16-bit timers. The structure is as Fig.3 shows. DALLAS DS1302 [11] is the real-time clock. It communicates with MSP430F149 with a three-wire serial interface and supplied from board or by backup battery. Q24plus GSM module is used in this application which is produced by Wavecom Co. ltd.. MP-406 produced by ZhongTian sensor Co. ltd is adopted to be the soil moisture sensor. Temperature sensor and air humidity sensor are produced in China Agricultural University. GSM module is connected to MSP430F149 by RS-232 interface in TTL. The soil moisture sensors output signal is voltage between 0 to 1.12V or current between 0 to 20mA. The temperature sensors output signal is voltage between 0 to 5V and the air humidity sensors output is voltage between 0 to 1V. Connected to the 8 channel 10 bits AD converters, 8 analog input modules with different scope for different signals are formed to be the interfaces for sensors. MICROCHIP 24LC64 acts as the accessional EEPROM to store data. MSP430f149 reads or writes 24LC64 by I2C interface. Radio emitter module is connected to MSP430F149 by only 2 I/O wires, one for chip selection and the other for pulse control. Solar battery supplies the power for the controller. When MSP430F149 is free, it will get into sleep mode to save power. As only the typical data is available in the converting data table for sensors. Tab II shows the typical data of mineral soil moisture sensor MP-406 in this application.

40.00 45.00 50.00

When the wire connected to sensor is longer than 50m, voltage to current converter should be added and current column is used to compute the VSW%, otherwise the converter is unnecessary and voltage column is used directly. The result of AD conversion can be computed to VSW%. As the types of soil are different from each other, adding of +2, -2, +3, -3 can amend the difference. The voltage or current are frequently not exactly the typical data, linear interpolation is used to compute the VSW%. Example: if the voltage measured is 782mV, then the VSW% is: 30.00+(782-720)*(35.00-30.00)/(825-720)=32.95. The computing for temperature sensor, air humidity sensor is the same as the above. D. Action unit The action unit is used to open or close valve of nozzle and switch of pump. Corresponding to the radio emitter in the controller, radio receiver is embedded in the action unit to form the communication between the controller and the action unit. There are two kinds of action unit in use. One is without microprocessor and the other has a simple microprocessor. Fig. 4 (a) shows the structure of the action unit without microprocessor. Fig. 4 (b) shows the structure of the action unit with microprocessor.

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Radio receiver module

Relay I

Relay II Power saving module Relay III

message, it will send the data stream to RS-232 interface and then desert the message. As the module doesnt have backup of the received message, the controller should receive data immediately by interrupt handling. The GSM module can remember the latest phone number of cell phone or module. In the next communication, the module will automatically send the message to the very cell phone or module. B. Radio communication and operation of action unit The controller communicates with the action units by radio. A radio emitter is embedded in the controller and a receiver is embedded in the action unit. The radio emitter and receiver work at 433MHz. With the 6V power supply, the receivers at a distance of 2Km from the emitter can touch the radio without barrier between them. When the emitter works, the maximal peak value of current is 1A. The emitter can work 7 seconds continuously because of high-power and high-heat. Some device guards against theft also run by radio communication. Special coding prevents the action unit from disturb. Fig.5 describes the format of coding.
128 pulses Synchronization 20 bits Addressing 4 bits Operation

Solar battery

Relay IV

(a)
Radio re ceiver module Relay II MSP 430F149 Re lay III Relay I

Solar battery

Re lay IV

(b)
Fig.4 Structure of the action unit

Fig.5 Format of coding in radio communication

As the action units are much more than the controllers, solar battery costs the most. Power saving by intermittent power supply can reduce the capability of battery so as to reduce the cost. When the pulse generated by 555 is low, the solar battery supplies power to radio receiver module, otherwise power supply interrupts. In one cycle, the time for low pulse is 1s and the time for high pulse is 5s. The improvement of the action unit includes the microprocessor. As fig. 4 (b) shows, another MSP430F149 is used to control the valves reliably. The microprocessor costs little power which has the same function as power saving module shown in fig. 4 (a). The above two kinds of action unit are both used in irrigation. III. COMMUNICATION MODULES AND OPERATION A. GSM module Cell phone or the PC control platform communicates with the controllers by GSM network. Before the GSM module transmits a message, it encodes the Chinese characters, number and punctuations to unicodes. After the GSM module receives a message, it decodes the unicodes. As number and punctuation have two types of Unicode, Chinese and English, the design in software should include two types. Once the GSM module checks the change of voltage on the RS-232 interface, it will send a message to cell phone or another GSM module. When the GSM module receives a

Each bit is made up of 16 pulses. 12 high pulses plus 4 low pulses denotes bit 1 and 4 high pulses plus 12 low pulses denotes bit 0 as Fig.6 shows.
12 pulses 4 pulses Bit 1

4 pulses

12 pulses

Bit 0

Fig.6 Denotation of bit

The width of a pulse is 90us and a bit is 1.44ms. Coding of synchronization is made up of 128 pulses: 4 high pulses plus 124 low pulses. Coding of address includes: Prefix of address: 12 bits, to avoid disturb, Address of the receiver: 8 bits, to denote the ID. The farmers can set the prefix of address by order, see former chapter. The address of the receiver has 8 bits with 256 IDs. No. 1 to 200 is used to address valves of nozzle and No. 201 to 255 is used to address switches of pump. The receiver has self-study ability. Push the button on the receiver and it goes into the status of self-study for 30s. If the receiver gets pulse synchronization with the emitter in the 30s, it will store the address as the ID. When the self-study is completed, the LED on the receiver will flash. The receiver can store 20 addresses. Pushing the button for 10s, the addresses stored in the receiver will be erased. Coding of operation decides the status of relays and then controls the valves.

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1st bit 1 0 x x

TABLE III RELATION AMONG BITS, RELAYS AND VALVES Status 2nd 3rd 4th Relay of Valve bit bit bit relay I open 0 x x 1 II close I close 1 x x 1 II open III open x 1 0 2 IV close III close x 0 1 2 IV open

{
Status of valve on off on off

OperationSensor( ); /*Open or close the preset valves or pumps*/ } } Goto Start; From the above description, two parts are included: one for irrigating by preset plan and the other for automatic irrigating to form feedback. The background application is interrupt handling: GSM communication and radio communication. The following is the flow chart of the background application. GSMInterrupt( ) { ReceiveOrder( ); FlagPassword=CheckPassword();/*Check password*/ If (FlagPassword)/*Password is right*/ { FlagAnalyzeOrder= AnalyzeOrder( ); /* Check and classify the order*/ If (FlagAnalyzeOrder)/*Format of order is right*/ { ExecuteOrder( );/*Operate by the order*/ } Else/*Format is error*/ { OrderErrorHandle( ); /*Send back message to report the error*/ } } Else { PasswordErrorHandle( ); /*Send back message to report the error*/ } } RadioInterrupt( ) { OrderToBit( ); /*Decode order to bits*/ BitToPulse( );/*Decode bit to Pulses*/ 90usPulseOut( ); /*Establish pulses to radio emitter module*/ } The radio interrupt handling is enabled in the GSM interrupt handling when the order requires the controller to communicate with the action unit, otherwise the radio interrupt handling is disabled. The application of the controller and the action unit with microprocessor are developed by IAR C compiler for MSP430.

As Tab III shows, the 1st and the 2nd bit decide to open or close the relays. The status of the two relays decides to turn on or off the valve 1. The 3rd bit works in the same way as the 4th bit. One action unit can only control two valves. The action unit can also be used to start up or shut the pump with only 1st and 2nd bit or 3rd bit and 4th bit. IV. SOFTWARE DESIGN There are two parts in software design, one for the PC control platform and the other for the controller. For the application on the PC control platform, database is established by Microsoft Access 2000. Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 is used to operate the database and form the browser of information. GSM module is connected to PC by RS-232 serial interface. Microsoft Comm. Control 6.0 (MSComm) simplifies the communication between application on the PC platform and the GSM module. Clicks on popup menu by mouse establish an order with a backup stored in the database. Another click on button activates the order and sent it to the controller by GSM message. For the controller, foreground application and background application are included. The following is the flow chart of the foreground application. InitialSystem( ); Start: If (EnablePresetPlan) { ReadTime( );/*Get time from DS1302*/ FlagCheckPlan=CheckPlan ( ); /*Check if meet the condition to operate by plan*/ If (FlagCheckPlan) { OperationPlan( ); /*Open or close the preset valves or pumps*/ } } If (EnableFeedback) { ADConversion( );/*Start up AD conversion*/ FlagCheckSensor=CheckSensor( ); /*Check if get across the preset thresholds*/ If (FlagCheckSensor)

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V. CONCLUSION New devices is brought forwards to used in automatic irrigation. The application of the devices in some farms for more than one year proves its feasibility. Also some problems appear such as misact of relay. The probability going wrong is 0.3%. As part of the devices can also function well, it is unnecessary to lay out all the devices especial the PC control platform. The solar batters supply power to the controllers and the action units, so additional power sources and wires are taken off. Any cell phone can send order to the controllers or browse the information from the controllers. GSM network and radio provides credible communication for the devices. REFERENCES
Ji Xiaohua and Tang Fangpin, The study and development of system for automatic irrigation, Irrigation and Drainage, Vol 21, no.4, pp. 25-27, Dec. 2002. [2] Cui Yi, Technology and Application of Water Saving Irrigation, Beijing, China: Chemical Industry Press, 2005, pp. 345-349. [3] Liu Guihong and Sun Jian, The development and application of automatic system for irrigation management, Irrigation and Drainage, Vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 65-68, Mar. 2001. [4] Li Kai, Mao Hanping and Li Baijun, The development of automatic system for irrigation and fertilization, Journal of Jiangsu University of Science and Technology (Natural Science), Vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 12-15, Jan. 2001. [5] Wang Weimin, Ran Gangjun and Guo Qinhai, The computer-controlled management system of water-save irrigation, Water Conservancy & Electric Power Machine, Vol.23, no.1, pp.51-52, Feb. 2001. [6] Yang Genghuang, Guo Kairong and Li Yawei, Development of controller for automatic irrigation based on GSM network, Journal of Shenyang Agricultural University, Vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 753-755, Dec. 2005. [7] Gao Qiang, Wang Hehui and Hang Shuming, Research of greenhouse environment intellectual control system, Water Saving Irrigation, Vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 35-37. Aug. 2005 [8] Zhang Fan, Yang Ming and Ying Hao, The Application of GSM communication in agricultural automation, Journal of technology for agriculture. Vol.1, no.1, pp. 39-41, Jan. 2004. [9] Li Rui, Yang Jun and Gu Haiying, The Application of Microprocessor in Automatic Irrigation and fertilization, Journal for Application of Computer, Vol. 21, no.8, pp. 219-221, Aug. 2001. [10] TI Inc (2005, Mar): Data Sheet of MSP430X14X [Online]. Available: http://www.TI.com [11] Maxim Inc. (2005, Mar): Data Sheet of DS1302, [Online]. Available: http://www.maxim-ic.com/quick_view2.cfm/qv_pk/2685. [1]

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