Smart irrigation using low-cost moisture sensors and XBee-based communication

Deficiency in fresh water resources globally has raised serious alarms in the last decade. Efficient management of water resources play an important role in the agriculture sector. Unfortunately, this is not given prime importance in the third world countries because of adhering to traditional practices. This paper presents a smart system that uses a bespoke, low cost soil moisture sensor to control water supply in water deficient areas. The sensor, which works on the principle of moisture dependent resistance change between two points in the soil, is fabricated using affordable materials and methods. Moisture data acquired from a sensor node is sent through XBEE wireless communication modules to a centralized server that controls water supply. A user-friendly interface is developed to visualize the daily moisture data. The low-cost and wireless nature of the sensing hardware presents the possibility to monitor the moisture levels of large agricultural fields. Moreover, the proposed moisture sensing method has the ability to be incorporated into an automated drip-irrigation scheme and perform automated, precision agriculture in conjunction with de-centralized water control.