I Alramadhan, H Enshasi and M Alshakhs
Several smart and efficient irrigation techniques have been introduced by engineers and researchers over the last few decades. These techniques can be divided into three main categories: Laboratory, In situ, and Remote sensing methods. Focusing on the in situ moisture sensing methods, in this research we built two smart efficient irrigation systems using two methods where each one is based on a different physical phenomenon. The first phenomenon is the electrical conductivity, where we used two separated probes of conductive materials to measure the conductivity of the soil. Having high conductivity measurements is an indication of high moisture in the soil, and it will direct the irrigation system to stop watering. The effectiveness of this method does not last for long time due to the corrosiveness of the conductive electrodes. The second fundamental physical concept is wireless power transfer. In this method, a novel polymer-based technique is proposed to increase or decrease the distance between power coils and consequently varies the amount of wireless power transfer. The power variations at the receiver end will allow the system to manage the irrigation process. We showed the effectiveness of the wireless method compared to the conductivity measurement method and we introduced a new technique to manipulate the wireless power transfer using soil moisture.
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