Sprinklex

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  Image of the prototype that we have built

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  sprinklex veriso 2.0 with pvc pipe

Inspiration

Agriculture consumes a major share of freshwater resources, yet farmers still rely heavily on manual irrigation. Irregular watering, labor shortage, and the need for frequent field visits make farming difficult — especially for people who own land but cannot manage daily maintenance or those who work other jobs. We wanted to build a system that waters crops automatically based on real soil needs, minimizing effort while maximizing yield. That thought sparked SprinkleX — a smart irrigation companion for modern farming.

What it does

SprinkleX is an IoT-based intelligent smart sprinkler system that automates irrigation using real-time soil moisture sensing and cloud monitoring. It:

1. Monitors soil moisture continuously using sensors placed in the field
2. Automatically controls water flow through servo-based valves
3. Adjusts irrigation based on crop-specific moisture thresholds
4. Displays live insights on a web/cloud dashboard
5. Helps users irrigate remotely — even when not in the field
6. In short, it makes farming smarter, easier, economical, and water-efficient.

How we built it

1. Used ESP32 as the microcontroller for data acquisition and Wi-Fi connectivity
2. Interfaced soil moisture sensors (multiple nodes per field) to measure moisture percentage(SMP)
3. Controlled water distribution with servo-driven smart valves
4. Powered the setup using a solar panel + battery backup for field suitability
5. Built a cloud dashboard for real-time monitoring and analytics
6. Implemented crop-specific threshold values to automate watering logic

Challenges we ran into

1. Calibrating soil moisture sensors for different soil types
2. Ensuring accurate moisture readings under varying weather conditions
3. Establishing low-latency communication from multiple field nodes to the cloud
4. Designing a power-efficient system suited for remote areas
5. Converting irrigation patterns into a practical automation logic that works for multiple crops
6. Time constraints in integrating hardware + ML + dashboard seamlessly

Accomplishments that we're proud of

1. Built a working prototype capable of automated irrigation control
2. Successfully established real-time cloud communication and dashboard visualisation
3. Achieved stable sensor readings and automated valve switching
4. Developed a crop-specific irrigation strategy using threshold mapping
5. Created a scalable solution, farmer-friendly, and field-ready

What we learned

1. IoT hardware integration for agriculture applications
2. Calibrating moisture sensors and managing noisy environmental data
3. Designing cloud-based data pipelines for real-time dashboards
4. How irrigation patterns differ between crops and soil types
5. Importance of user-centric design for rural deployment
6. Teamwork under time pressure and rapid prototyping techniques

What's next for Sprinklex

1. Build a mobile app for remote control and notifications
2. Expand to multi-node field networks using LoRa/Wi-Fi mesh
3. Integrating reinforcement learning for the sprinklex to adapt to the specific crop
4. Include fertiliser-drip automation and disease-alert modules
5. Pilot test with real farmland owners for performance insights
6. Move towards commercial product development and deployment

Built With

• apache
• arduino
• c++
• javascript
• mysql
• php
• xampp