Smart IoT irrigation system based on fuzzy logic, LoRa, and cloud integration

Abstract

Natural resources must be administered efficiently to reduce the human footprint and ensure the sustainability of the planet. Water is one of the most essential resources in agriculture. Modern information technologies are being introduced in agriculture to improve the performance of agricultural processes while optimizing water usage. In this scenario, artificial intelligence techniques may become a very powerful tool to improve efficiency. The introduction of the edge/fog/cloud paradigms, already adopted in other domains, may help to organize the services involved in complex agricultural applications. This article proposes the combination of several modern technologies to improve the management of hydrological resources and reduce water waste. The selected technologies are (1) fuzzy logic, used for control tasks since it adapts very well to the nonlinear nature of the agricultural processes, and (2) long range (LoRa) technology, suitable for establishing large distance links among the field devices (sensors and actuators) and the process controllers, executed in a centralized way. The presented approach has been validated in the laboratory by means of a control scheme aimed at achieving an adequate moisture level in the soil. The control algorithm, based on fuzzy logic, can use the weather forecast, obtained as a cloud service, to reduce water consumption. For testing purposes, the dynamics of the water balance model of the soil were implemented as hardware in the loop, executed in a dSPACE DS1104. Experiments proved the viability of the presented approach since the continuous space state output controller achieved a water loss reduction of 23.1% over a 4-day experiment length compared to a traditional on/off controller. The introduction of cloud services for weather forecasting improved the water reduction by achieving an additional reduction of 4.07% in water usage.