Russian scientists developed Smart sprinkling machine

By the end of the 90s, the production of domestic sprinkling equipment had almost stopped in Russia, and farmers began to purchase imported equipment. However, foreign watering technologies often does not correspond to the climate of the irrigated zones of country. With all the positive technical characteristics of imported sprinkling machine, experts note the irregularity of the soil moisture after watering.

So Russian scientists have developed a control system for a smart sprinkler machine. With the help of this system, a mobile agro land reclamation complex can independently analyze the state of the soil when moving across the field, to evaluate the soil humidity and the availability of necessary mineral fertilizers. Depending on the data received, the sprinkling machine regulates the intensity of watering and fertilizing application.

There is currently technology for determining the soil humidity on the market. However, the technology installed mainly on satellites because of the high cost. Installation on ground devices is economically unreasonable. Accordingly, it is impossible to obtain operational data.

Samara University scientists proposed to use a method based on visible light that can equip sprinkler machines on the field. The cost of control system set will be about 255€ per one agro land reclamation complex.

One of the developers, professor of the Department of Technical Cybernetics at Samara University, Roman Skidanov said: “Sensors determine the moisture of the soil or the content of certain chemicals in the soil and give signals to the on-board computer. I think that addressable system of irrigation and fertilizing will be in demand both in our country and abroad.”

Translated from Samara University website.