Calibration of soil humidity sensors of automatic irrigation controller

Abstract

The article discusses the issues of increasing the efficiency of irrigation of crops cultivated in agriculture. Precise irrigation is an effective solution to irrigation problems. The methods and means of intellectual irrigation, based on sensors that monitor soil moisture and provide signals to the irrigation control solenoid valve, are described. A block diagram of an automatic drip irrigation system is described. For the experiment, five different types of droppers (A, B, C, D, and E) were used Rivulis Eurodrip brand, three of which are droppers with pressure compensation and two are the droppers without pressure compensation. Three parameters were used to study the characteristics of droppers: flow uniformity; volumetric water flow depending on the inlet pressure; determination of the dropper constant and the volume flow exponent. Droppers were tested at three pressures in the system: 0.05, 0.2 and 0.35 MPa. At each pressure value, the experiment was performed in triplicate. The process of calibrating humidity sensors is described. An analysis is made of the effect of soil moisture on the electrical resistance of the sensor for various types of soils. It is recommended that moisture sensors be calibrated to local soil and water conditions.