Desenvolvimento de software e hardware de baixo custo para gerenciamento da irrigação

Abstract

Defining when and how much to irrigate is part of irrigation efficiency. Estimating the water requirement of each crop is one way of managing irrigation. Efficiency in water use is achieved through investments in new technologies that mainly save water. With that in mind, in view of the diffusion of the Internet of Things (IoT), the solution that this present work brings automates the management of irrigation and facilitates this task through the development of a multi- interface technological platform capable of monitoring the state of soil moisture, agrometeorological variables, in addition to integrating tools that help agricultural planning, such as estimating the reference evapotranspiration (ETP) and generating the climatological water balance, aiming at agricultural zoning. The physical front (hardware) was programmed on the Arduino platform that integrates the field sensors responsible for collecting data on soil moisture and temperature and relative humidity of the air, and the actuators (relays and solenoid valves), elements responsible for carrying out the commands sent by the software, programmed in Python 3 language. However, based on the results, it is concluded that the developed platform is operationally and financially viable, the applications are fully functional, the field actuators worked as programmed. The performance of the estimated monthly potential Evapotranspiration calculation using the Thornthwaite method (1948) was classified, according to Willmont (1985) as “Very good”, which demonstrates the viability of the tool.

Palavras-chaves: Internet of Things; Irrigation; Automation; Arduino.