Leachate and Irrigation Sensor Development and Performance in Container Nursery Production

HighlightsUsing leaching fraction to schedule irrigation is recommended yet no automated measurement system exists.Sensors were developed to automatically measure leachate and irrigation within a sensor network.There was no difference between sensor measured and manually captured volume for sensors deployed in a nursery.After deployment in commercial nurseries, sensors accurately measured leachate and irrigation within 10% margin.Abstract. Nursery crops are often over-irrigated, resulting in wasted water and agrochemical inputs. Irrigating based on leaching fraction is recommended, yet an automated system for measuring and recording nursery container effluent (leachate) does not exist. The objective of this research was to develop and test a sensor-based system for real-time leachate and irrigation measurement in outdoor commercial nurseries. Sensors were developed to automatically measure irrigation and leachate volume in container nurseries that use overhead irrigation with the goal of facilitating the development of an automated leaching fraction-based irrigation system. Sensors were built using readily available components, including tipping bucket mechanisms calibrated to either 4.7 or 8.2 mL per tip, and were designed and constructed to function with commonly used 3.8-, 11.4-, and 14.5-L nursery containers. Sensor networks were developed in order to collect data from the sensors. Sensors were deployed at three commercial nurseries and tested using closed- and open-loop tests. Initially, a closed-loop test was performed on a subset of the sensors to test the integrity of the sensor-container system when subjected to an overhead irrigation delivery system. Following closed-loop tests, sensors were subjected to tests utilizing directed applications of water to compare sensor measurements with the volume of water applied and to compare sensor measurements over time (pre- and post-season). There was no difference between leachate measured by sensors and leachate captured and measured manually in closed-loop tests (p = 0.0570). In directed applications, sensors measured water flow with less than 3% margin at the beginning of the season (p = 0.0485) and less than 10% margin at the end of the season (p = 0.0390) regardless of container size. Pre- and post-season comparisons showed equivalence at the 10% margin for the 4.7-mL tipping bucket size (p = 0.0043) and at 5% for those calibrated to 8.2 mL per tip (p = 0.0198). Sensors deployed in commercial nurseries accurately measured leachate and irrigation within a 10% margin in real-time, on an individual plant scale, making them a viable option for a leaching fraction-based irrigation schedule. Keywords: Container effluent, Container-grown plants, Leaching fraction, Irrigation schedule, Sensor network.

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Periodic Versus Real-time Adjustment of a Leaching Fraction-based Microirrigation Schedule for Container-grown Plants

HortScience ◽

10.21273/hortsci14402-19 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 55 (1) ◽

pp. 83-88 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jeff B. Million ◽

Thomas H. Yeager

Keyword(s):

Plant Growth ◽

Real Time ◽

Water Use ◽

Water Conservation ◽

Irrigation System ◽

Irrigation Schedule ◽

Irrigation Scheduling ◽

Leaching Fraction ◽

Reduced Water ◽

Irrigation Practices

Two experiments were conducted to determine if a leaching fraction (LF)-guided irrigation practice with fixed irrigation run times between LF tests (LF_FX) could be improved by making additional adjustments to irrigation run times based on real-time weather information, including rain, using an evapotranspiration-based irrigation scheduling program for container production (LF_ET). The effect of the two irrigation practices on plant growth and water use was tested at three target LF values (10%, 20%, and 40%). For both Viburnum odoratissimum (Expt. 1) and Podocarpus macrophyllus (Expt. 2) grown in 36-cm-diameter containers with spray-stake microirrigation, the change in plant size was unaffected by irrigation treatments. LF_ET reduced water use by 10% compared with LF_FX in Expt. 2 but had no effect (P < 0.05) on water use in Expt. 1. Decreasing the target LF from 40% to 20% reduced water use 28% in both experiments and this effect was similar for both irrigation practices. For the irrigation system and irrigation schedule used in these experiments, we concluded that an LF-guided irrigation schedule with a target LF of 10% resulted in plant growth similar to one with a target LF of 40% and that the addition of a real-time weather adjustment to irrigation run times provided little or no improvement in water conservation compared with a periodic adjustment based solely on LF testing.

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Track-Control, an automatic video-based real-time closed-loop behavioral control toolbox

10.1101/2019.12.11.873372 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Guang-Wei Zhang ◽

Li Shen ◽

Zhong Li ◽

Huizhong W. Tao ◽

Li I. Zhang

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Neuronal Activity ◽

Closed Loop ◽

Behavioral Control ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Automated System ◽

Processing Unit ◽

Plus Maze ◽

Functional Extension ◽

Tight Correlation

AbstractApproaches of optogenetic manipulation of neuronal activity have boosted our understanding of the functional architecture of brain circuits underlying various behaviors. In the meantime, rapid development in computer vision greatly accelerates the automation of behavioral analysis. Real-time and event-triggered interference is often necessary for establishing a tight correlation between neuronal activity and behavioral outcome. However, it is time consuming and easily causes variations when performed manually by experimenters. Here, we describe our Track-Control toolbox, a fully automated system with real-time object detection and low latency closed-loop hardware feedback. We demonstrate that the toolbox can be applied in a broad spectrum of behavioral assays commonly used in the neuroscience field, including open field, plus maze, Morris water maze, real-time place preference, social interaction, and sensory-induced defensive behavior tests. The Track-Control toolbox has proved an efficient and easy-to-use method with excellent flexibility for functional extension. Moreover, the toolbox is free, open source, graphic processing unit (GPU)-independent, and compatible across operating system (OS) platforms. Each lab can easily integrate Track-Control into their existing systems to achieve automation.

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Design Automatic Control and Remote Monitoring System of Center Pivot Irrigation System Using Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and GPRS Technology

International Journal For Innovative Engineering and Management Research ◽

10.48047/ijiemr/v10/i03/126 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 582-593

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Wireless Sensor Network ◽

Sensor Network ◽

Irrigation System ◽

Sensor Data ◽

Automated System ◽

Wireless Sensor ◽

Communication Link ◽

Remote Monitoring System ◽

Radio Transceiver

The implementation of an automatic irrigation system based on the microcontroller and a wireless system network is presented in this paper. This implementation aims to demonstrate that automatic irrigation can be used to minimize and optimize water use. The automated irrigation system consists of the master control unit (MCU) and a distributed wireless sensor network (WSN). The communication between the WSN and the MCU is via a radio frequency (NRF25L01). The MCU has a radio transceiver that receives the sensor data from the wireless sensor network also has a communication link based cellular-internet interface using general packet radio service and a global system for mobile (GSM/GPRS). The activation of the automated system is done when the threshold value of the sensors in the WSN is reached. Each WSN consists of a soil moisture sensor probe, soil temperature probe, radio transceiver, and a microcontroller. The sensor measurements are transmitted to the MCU to analyze and activate/deactivate the automatic irrigation system. The internet connection using GPRS allows the data inspection in real-time on a server, where the temperature and soil moisture data are graphically displayed on the server using a graphical application and stored these data in a database server.

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Design Portable Device for Irrigation System using ZigBee

ALUSTATH JOURNAL FOR HUMAN AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ◽

10.36473/ujhss.v216i1.578 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 216 (1) ◽

pp. 35-48

Author(s):

Mohammed Abdul Jabar Abdul Wahab

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Wireless Sensor Network ◽

Real Time ◽

Sensor Network ◽

Monitoring System ◽

Irrigation System ◽

Outdoor Environment ◽

Wireless Sensor ◽

Time Data ◽

Soil Moisture Sensors

The smart irrigation systems considered as one of the most new significant technologies in this century to control the watering system and help the plants to grow. This research is focused on the design of an irrigation system based on one of the wireless sensor network (WSN) technologies which is ZigBee technology. The proposed design has an autonomous soil moisture monitoring system with wireless sensor network and ZigBee interfacing for transmitting data from slave to master side. In addition to that, the purpose of monitoring system suggested in this work is to measure and display the ratio of water soil in real-time. Soil moisture sensors have been used in this proposed design for measuring changes in soil volumetric water and changes ration of water found in the soil was evaluated under outdoor environment conditions for two averages of watered soil (40% and 70%). The real-time data of watered soil has been collected for two different value of watering (40 and 70%) and data collected vary based on location of the sensor in soil and how much soil dried in that point. It is found that the water ratio (70%) is better than (40%) from the experimental results.

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Testing an Automated Irrigation System Based on Leaching Fraction Testing and Weather in a Container Nursery

HortTechnology ◽

10.21273/horttech04213-18 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 114-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jeff B. Million ◽

Thomas H. Yeager

Keyword(s):

Irrigation System ◽

Optimal Growth ◽

Irrigation Scheduling ◽

Plant Production ◽

Automated System ◽

Water Savings ◽

Wide Range ◽

Automated Technology ◽

Leaching Fraction ◽

Leachate Water

Irrigation scheduling in container nurseries is challenging due to the wide range of plant production conditions that must be accounted for at any given time. An irrigation scheduling system should also consider weather affecting evapotranspiration to apply proper amounts of water that will ensure optimal growth with minimal runoff (container drainage). We developed an automated system that relies on routine leaching fraction (leachate/water applied) testing and real-time weather recorded on-site to make adjustments to irrigation. A web-based program (CIRRIG) manages irrigation zone inputs [weather and leaching fraction (LF) test results] and outputs irrigation run times that can be implemented automatically with programmable logic controllers. In this study conducted at a nursery in central Florida, we compared the automated technology (CIRRIG) with the nursery’s traditional irrigation practice (TIP) of manually adjusting irrigation based on substrate moisture status of core samples taken twice weekly. Compared with TIP, CIRRIG reduced water use in six of seven unreplicated trials with water savings being greater for microirrigated crops grown in large containers than for sprinkler-irrigated crops in small containers. Reduced pumping cost associated with water savings by CIRRIG was estimated to be $3250 per year, which was insignificant compared with the labor savings of $35,000 to $40,000 anticipated by the nursery using CIRRIG in lieu of TIP. At the end of the project, the necessary hardware was installed to expand CIRRIG nursery-wide and control 156 zones of irrigation.

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Research on IOT-Based Smart Garden Project

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.608-609.321 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 608-609 ◽

pp. 321-325 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Xiao Juan Duan

Keyword(s):

Wireless Sensor Network ◽

Real Time ◽

Sensor Network ◽

Irrigation System ◽

Wireless Sensor ◽

Single Chip ◽

Single Chip Microcomputer ◽

Control Data ◽

Single Chip Computer ◽

Time Acquisition

For artificial irrigation in excess or deficiency, not timely and other shortcomings, the paper expounds the application in agricultural and landscape irrigation system based on the wireless sensor network and single chip computer; at the same time the paper designed system architecture of automatic irrigation system based on wireless sensor network. The hardware of the system adopts CC2430 single chip microcomputer as control core, by the real-time acquisition and processing of data in wireless sensor networks, the control data by wireless way is sent to the irrigation controller. The system can real-time monitor the soil temperature and humidity changes, r realize fine flower required and efficient use of water resources.

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