Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Precision agriculture necessitates irrigation systems capable of adapting to spatial variability and dynamic crop requirements. Existing systems often rely on costly infrastructures or lack the fine-grained control and integration of fertigation. This paper presents the development and experimental validation of a cost-effective, modular Irrigation Modular System (IMS) designed for deployment on pivot or linear movement automated irrigation infrastructure. The system enables high-precision irrigation with nutrient addition, supported by real-time environmental sensing and Power Line Communication (PLC) for data transfer. The IMS comprises five main components: electrovalve-controlled irrigation modules, soil and atmospheric sensor nodes, nutrient supply units, a PLC-based communication layer, and a centralized decision-making platform. Field trials on early tomatoes and autumn cauliflower demonstrated improved water and nutrient use efficiency, reduced input consumption, and increased yields. The IMS presents a scalable, retrofit-ready solution for efficient resource management in precision agriculture.
Source: Applied Sciences
DOI: 10.3390/app15168819
Institution: Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iași
Language: English
Topic: Smart Agriculture and AI
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,896
OpenAlex ID: W4413206719