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More Food?
Real-Time Three-Dimensional Imaging of
Soil Moisture Distribution for Intelligent
Irrigation
2017
Rationale
Hunger, one of the most prominent problems in the world today, is primarily
caused by a shortage of fresh water. This problem is especially severe in third-world
countries and regions with low rainfall or prone to severe droughts. The most recent
California drought vividly demonstrated the importance of fresh water conservation. The
states large agricultural industry was most heavily impacted by the weather abnormality.
Many farmers were deprived of water for irrigation, which forced them to reconsider
their irrigation methods. For example, the use of traditional sprinkler systems is
accompanied by substantial evaporation and watering of unused soil regions. In response
to this, some have implemented subsurface drip irrigation systems, which can save up to
25-50 percent of water [1].
Significant optimization of water use can be achieved by knowing the time and
amount of watering, as well as the specific location of soil that requires irrigation.
Recently, various novel methods for soil moisture measurement were developed.
However, most existing techniques can only provide measurements at one point in the
soil, require frequent calibration, and remain very costly.
A novel, affordable, standalone device that provides real-time three-
dimensional imagining of soil moisture content can significantly improve the
efficiency of fresh water use, greatly increasing the availability of food and water
resources all around the world.
Figure 1: The recent California drought left an immense impact on the states agriculture
industry and posed concerns for the efficiency of present irrigation methods.
resistor. To digitize the array of resistances most precisely, the range of measured voltages should
be maximized:
Vmax Vmin = ;
After the resistance measurements between all pairs of electrodes, Rmax and Rmin are
determined, and the optimal value of Rtest is calculated.
If the optimal resistance value is different from the current one, the Arduino sets the new
resistance with clock, enable, and direction pins.
Watering #1 (at 7:29 GMT, the left side of the soil volume was irrigated)
Figure 3: Raw data obtained from pairs of opposite electrodes. Readout noise is visible
for fast single measurements.
Figure 4: The calculated ratio of present soil resistance to dry soil resistance values. Two horizontal and
two vertical sets of electrodes are shown (as indicated by the legend).
Watering #2 (at 3:16 GMT, the right side of the soil volume was irrigated)
Figure 5: The calculated ratio of present soil resistance to dry soil resistance values. Two horizontal
and two vertical sets of electrodes are shown (as indicated by the legend). Note the different in initial
resistance values among different electrodes.
Discussion of Results
1. After the application of water, there was a substantial change in soil resistivity across all
measurements. This justifies that resistivity can be used for a qualitative assessment of water
content (Figure 1).
2. A continuous measurement session over several days showed a very slow dynamic of water
content depletion (Figure 2).
3. A distinct difference in resistance near the top and bottom of the soil volume was observed.
The dynamics of water penetration downward could be clearly observed (Figure 4.d).
4. When the soil was watered near electrode #9, there was a difference in the moisture content
along the horizontal plane (e.g. electrodes 9, 10, 11, 12) (Figures 3.a and 4.a).
5. For some time, the water accumulated near electrode #9 and did not seep through the soil.
This resulted in a rapid dip in resistance, shortly followed by a rapid increase. Based on this,
irrigation abnormalities such as water pockets can be spatially resolved (Figure 3.a, Figure
4.a).
6. Even before the application of water, various electrodes exhibited different resistance
measurements, constant with time (Figure 3). In order to account for these irregularities, a
ratio of present resistance values to the resistance of dry soil is computed. This process
separates the variation of resistance due to moisture from the variation of resistance due to
instrumental factors.
Conclusions
The results of soil resistance measurements indicate a possibility for an evaluation of Soil
Moisture distribution in three dimensions, enabling intelligent irrigation management.
A novel system capable of real time assessment of soil moisture content was built. The
system consists of a self-sustained data acquisition device, three-dimensional data analysis
algorithm, and real time visualization.
The system is very low cost compared to analogous instruments (can be under 15 dollars), is
capable of wireless data transmission, solar-powered, features one-button calibration, provides
accurate time and location from GPS signal, and can store historical data over long periods of
time.
The system is flexible and can be effectively used with data acquisition devices of various
geometries, including a laboratory research Smart Pot (created by me).
Three-dimensional Visualization of Soil
Moisture
Circuit Diagram
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