Design and Implementation of a Microprocessor-Based Interrupt-Driven Control for an Irrigation System

Abstract

This paper presents the design and implementation of an interrupt-driven microprocessor-based irrigation system. It is targeted towards users of automated irrigation systems, in order to improve the irrigation water management and frost protection of crops. To achieve this goal, we developed a procedure integrating the agrohydrological aspect of irrigation with the microprocessing aspects. The system uses soil water potential measurements to control the amount of water to apply to the field. The firmware enables the system to continuously measure in situ via the input interface, soil moisture content and climatic parameters. Also, it performs math and other user-defined functions and outputs commands to drive appropriate actuators (solenoid valves, pump motors). A Delphi-based friendly graphical user interface (GUI) was developed to interact with the controller and display the overall irrigation system status. Full circuit and program codes are implemented to verify system operation