Smart soil sensor to measure agro-economic properties

Project Title

Smart soil sensor to measure agro-economic properties

Project Area of Specialization Mechatronics EngineeringProject Summary

This project of greenhouse monitoring system has been developed based on the arduino Uno. The microcontroller circuit has been developed with less number of components and is highly reliable. After verifying the data that was shown in got in monitor, assured about the success of the project. Presence of each module has been systematic out and placed carefully, thus contributing to the best working of the every unit. Thus, the Arduino Based Automatic soil moisture monitoring system has been designed and tested successfully. 

Project Objectives

In non-conventional energy era, solar energy is one of the most effective energy sources , so solar cells are used to power our circuit .The main objective of this project was to design a greenhouse monitoring system that is be highly reliable and is useful for harvesting crops. Our project mainly focuses on the control of parameters such as-temperature, methane quantity, soil moisture .

Project Implementation Method

Plants gather water and most of their nutrients from the soil. These soil nutrients are absorbed by plants’ roots and transferred through a vascular tissue called “Xylem” to the leaves where photosynthesis occurs. Soil thus supports the entire food cycle by acting as an initial platform for food generation for not only plants but also for other living creatures.

Agriculturists and farmers know the importance of maintaining optimum nutrition and moisture level of the soil to facilitate the growth of crops. Use of fertilizers and manures improves soil’s quality and a robust irrigation system facilitates controlling the water content in it.

Advancements in Internet of Things and sensor technology has given rise to various soil moisture detection systems. By using these devices a farmer can monitor and manage the quality of his soil and choose a crop that is suitable to grow on his fields. There are different mechanisms that these sensors used to determine soil water content. It is therefore important to be familiar with different terminologies related to soil moisture.

Benefits of the Project

First and most is it easily available at a very cheap price, so there is not a problem of availability of soil moisture sensor.

Secondly, it gives both type of outputs with on-board status led and potentiometer for adjusting the values. Also the quality of main PCB is good as compared to probes.

Third, you can mount this sensor to any surface as the PCB ensures a mid-hole for screwing the main PCB to any surface.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The working of Soil Moisture sensor is very similar to a sensor built out of LM393 IC. The only difference can be in the type of outputs sensor offers or gives.

Probes which are half buried into the ground does the main job of sensing the moisture from the soil. Actually, those probes don’t check moisture, it checks the voltage levels which is also the analog value of the sensor which is given out to the microcontroller.

The one side of the probe is connected to ground and the other to the non-inverting input of the 1st comparator. With a pull-up resistor and a 0.1µF capacitor in parallel with the probes. The rest of the job is done by the comparator in deciding the output.

The values of the sensor can be altered due to presence of the fertilizers, insecticides or pesticides. So find a way to make values correct, either using PID or some algorithm.

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry AgricultureOther Industries Manufacturing Core Technology OthersOther Technologies Internet of Things (IoT)Sustainable Development Goals Life on LandRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	69600
Conductivity, temperature, humidity,moisture pH sensor, Arduino	Equipment	6	11600	69600