A wireless sensors architecture for efficient irrigation water management

• Development of a small, compact and autonomous unit for convenient use in agricultural facilities.
• Testing and installation of several soil and water moisture sensors in conjunction with the developed device to manage the irrigation.
• Sample and sending rates estimation to accomplish optimal agronomic information with a battery powered device.

Water is an essential resource for the development of agriculture. In several locations like the south-east of Spain water is scarce and its cost is high, so optimal management of this important resource is essential. Therefore, the application of irrigation strategies to improve the watering process, affects the profitability of crops quite significantly. It is necessary to carry out the instrumentation of the variables that affect the growing process of the crop (soil, water and plant) and use the techniques associated with this instrumentation to take actions to optimize the production. The system proposed in this paper uses information and communication technologies, allowing the user to consult and analyze the information obtained by different sensors from any device (computer, mobile phone or tablet) in an easy and comfortable way. The proposed architecture is based on different wireless nodes equipped with GPRS connectivity. Each wireless node is completely autonomous and makes use of solar energy, giving it virtually unlimited autonomy. Different commercial sensors for measuring the wide range of parameters of the soil, plant and atmosphere can be connected to the nodes. The data is sent and processed on a remote server, which stores the information of the sensors in a database, allowing further consultation and analysis of data in a simple and versatile way.