AUTOMATED SYSTEM FOR HYDROPONIC IRRIGATION WITH EARTH

Abstract

Family farming is one of the main sources of food production in Brazil, generating about 10 million jobs. However, they face difficulties in production because the technology for improving the plantation still has a very high cost, where many farmers have difficulties in acquiring them. In view, this prototype suggests the development of an automated irrigation system in strawberry cultivation at an affordable cost for farmers, in order to reduce labor, in an attempt to improve pest and disease control. The prototype consist of three modes of operation: manual, semi-automatic and automatic. In manual mode the operator have to manually open the valve, in semiautomatic it defines how many minutes the irrigation is turned on by means of a keyboard and in the automatic irrigation will obey the commands of the humidity and temperature sensor. The prototype use the Arduino microcontroller to control the operating modes.