Inspiration
We want to help farmers find their water comsumpution per plantation and help them make a decision for planting season based on water availability.
What it does
We have two parts, the macro and micro.
The micro part is to control the irrigation system, the control center gets the weather forecast from the internet and predicts the rainfall, in the meantime the Arduino humidity sensor is collecting the data from the soil. We transfer the data back to the control center and after processing, we decide whether the irrigation system should be turned on or off.
The macro part is to decide the irrigation water distribution of certain area. We collect data from the amount of water irrigated and the amount of rainfall, and average the amount of water used per plantation. To estimate the water required for next planting season we use the sum of water used per plantation and subtract the predicted amount of rainfall for the next three months. We estimate the water required for next planting season and compare the data with our water reservoir for the area and make a decision of the percentage of farms planting that season.
How we built it
Java is used to collect weather Data from the RSS feed of fallen rain. Arduino is used to control the moisture sensor and collect the data of water irrigated. The information process is all compiled in a Java based control center. To make a prediction of rainfall we collect data from http://www.usclimatedata.com/ to check the average amount of rainfall per area and use http://www.intellicast.com/National/Precipitation/Departure90.aspx to check if the areas where precipitation is expected to be above, below, or near normal for the next 90 days.
Challenges we ran into
We were new to using Raspberry Pi so we had to adopt a more familiar system; arduino. No one in the team had an idea of agriculture so we had to rely on the agriculture engineers to get information and experience.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Working on a team and adopting roles easily. Creating the interface between arduino and the Java control center.
What we learned
We strengthened our communication and critical thinking skills to find a solution.
What's next for Predirrigation
Implementation of devices in a small location and create a more friendly GUI.
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