Design and Fabrication of IoT based Agricultural Automation system

Abstract

The paper illustrates the use of smart devices and digitization to achieve agricultural process automation and increased yield of crops. Crops need fertilizers in the form of NP-K and water in a specific quantity and time. Current process of watering and adding fertilizers to specific plants is closely studied and correlated data on growth rates and fertilizer requirement is collected. This data is integrated into the smart Fertigation system which uses multiple sensors and smart devices. This system is then used to carry out controlled drip irrigation-based fertilization and irrigation of crops. An experimental setup for the same is deployed in a lab like environment using sensors to monitor parameters such as pH level of the soil, TDS values, temperature, humidity at a given time of the day, Arduino based actuator circuit is deployed for remote operations and control systems and additionally the remote data collection/control is enabled using Python and Google APIs. This fully functional IoT fertigation system collected data as illustrated in the paper. A correlation is drawn between the sensor actual data and control parameters of fertilizer and water supplied to the soil. This paper evaluates the viability of such a system in a controlled environment and further scaling of this system for farmers benefit to autonomously manage large land parcels based on weather data and soil characteristics.