1 s2.0 S2667345222000281 Main
1 s2.0 S2667345222000281 Main
1 s2.0 S2667345222000281 Main
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Keywords: This paper proposes a solar-powered portable water pump (SPWP) for IoT-enabled smart irrigation system (IoT-
Blynk SIS). A NodeMCU microcontroller with a Wi-Fi interface and soil moisture, temperature, and humidity sensors are
IoT exploited to monitor and control the water pump and build an IoT-based irrigation system. The proposed irri-
NodeMCU
gation system updates the gathered information from sensors (moisture, temperature, and humidity) using an
Smart irrigation
Solar energy
integrated algorithm to the Blynk IoT cloud in real-time. Farmers can access this information and control the
Water pump water pump accordingly via a user-friendly interface using their smartphones. The portable and eco-friendly water
pump is powered via a solar panel and can be controlled using Blynk mobile application, which is also used to
monitor the surroundings. The fabricated pump is inspired by wheeled travel luggage and is equipped with a
water filter and multi-nozzles sprayer. The developed solar-based water pump has managed to save electricity and
mitigate operational costs. Furthermore, the integration of the IoT concept has facilitated real-time monitoring
and control of the pump; thus, enhancing the water usage efficiency and enabling convenient farming operations.
The system functionality has been practically tested in a real environment, and its performance has been
evaluated.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (R.M. Ramli), [email protected] (W.A. Jabbar).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iotcps.2022.12.002
Received 18 August 2022; Received in revised form 3 December 2022; Accepted 19 December 2022
Available online 27 December 2022
2667-3452/© 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
R.M. Ramli, W.A. Jabbar Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems 2 (2022) 212–225
conventional irrigation methods. based on several factors related to soil and crops [13]. Water pumps are
IoT is a recent paradigm of communication technology, where all widely used in farming and irrigation systems. The normal water pump is
objects with communication interfaces, such as sensors, appliances, powered by a diesel or fossil fuel engine to rotate. Several issues are
smartphones, tablets, and laptops, can connect with each other and with rising due to the usage of such water pumps, including fuel price,
the Internet. The main intention of IoT is to form a global and smart maintenance cost, air pollution, generated noise, efficiency, and lack of
world using a global network system; thus, it creates a sense for data remote control and monitoring [14]. Such water pumps need fuel or
collection from a huge number of devices/sensors/nodes worldwide and diesel as a supplement; thus, the farmer needs to spend extra operation
makes it available over the Internet. IoT applications enhance all areas of costs for buying these supplements and maintaining the continuous
our daily lives and become more inspiring and pervasive in many operation of pumps that have a short life expectancy. Such add-on costs
emerging domains, including smart grid, smart city, home automation, can be challenging, especially for the farmers who own their farms on a
environmental monitoring, smart agriculture, healthcare and medical medium and small scale since their profit is not too much, and they
aids, and industrial automation. Consequently, integrating the IoT cannot afford this high cost. Furthermore, the carbon dioxide released
concept to construct a smart irrigation system will help farmers automate from fossil fuel and diesel into the atmosphere may also cause acid rain
the water pumping operation and improve the farming and plantation that can corrode the soil, vegetation, and crops [15].
process with less effort and cost. From another perspective, using main grid electricity to feed electric
Generally, the greater the solar radiation, the greater the evapo- water pumps for farming and irrigation in rural areas is another challenge
transpiration, the greater the need for irrigation, and the greater the solar [16]. The electricity demand is growing rapidly worldwide with the in-
energy to supply power for water application. Therefore, in this paper, a crease in the human population, urbanization, and modernization. About
solar-powered portable water pump is introduced by integrating a PV 70% of the population is employed in the agriculture sector, which
system with an electric water pump for irrigation purposes. The IoT consumed 18% of the total power generated compared to other sectors
concept is enabled to form a smart irrigation system that can update the [17]. This is required to produce a considerable amount of electricity to
collected information through sensors to the Internet and can be accessed support the energy requirements for agriculture field activities to secure
by farmers using a mobile application via smartphones. A solar-powered irrigation water in all rural areas. Governments have to spend a lot of
water pump is a water pump that uses energy generated by a solar panel, money and resources to meet the energy demand in agriculture, partic-
so it is cost-effective and environmental-friendly. The solar water pump ularly supplying electrical energy to rural areas, which is not always an
can run continuously for most of the daytime, directly from solar cells easy solution [18].
and during nighttime using a battery. Besides, this solar water pump is Recently, more attention is dedicated to current studies on real-time
portable and free of power lines. It is suited for the farmer where the monitoring and advancement in remote control concepts over the
water resources are in remote locations. The system is equipped with Internet for precision irrigation, particularly in rural areas. It is expected
nozzles to control the water flow rate and a filter for purifying the irri- that the new IoT paradigm will play a crucial role in the agriculture field
gation water. The portable nature of the multi-nozzles of the solar- to improve the remote control of irrigation systems and attain real-time
powered water pump is an add-on feature that is required to cover a information about every aspect related to plantation and farming activ-
wider area and different plant kinds using a single pump; thus, provides ities. Therefore, smart irrigation systems that utilize various micro-
more convenience to the farmers. An IoT-based control system is controllers, sensors, actuators, and wireless technologies to send
attached to the developed solar-powered water pump to form a smart agriculture and irrigation-related data to an IoT platform are necessary.
irrigation system for real-time monitoring and remote control. The smart Such an IoT-based irrigation system will help farmers to monitor their
irrigation system includes a NodeMCU microcontroller, moisture and farms' conditions over the Internet using their smart devices, in addition
temperature/humidity sensors, and a relay board. to switching ON/OFF the water pumps remotely via a mobile application.
The main contribution of this study is to design and fabricate a cost- The solar photovoltaic system converts sunlight into electric energy
effective solar-powered water pump with IoT integration for the smart directly through the photovoltaic effect. This solar photovoltaic system is
irrigation system. To fulfil these requirements, this study adopts the a valuable and sustainable approach to overcoming the current envi-
following objectives and contributions: ronmental issue and crisis. The smallest element of a PV system is the
solar cell. Each solar cell has two or more specially prepared layers of
(i) Design and fabrication of a solar-powered portable water pump semiconductor material that produce direct current (DC) electricity when
(SPWP) to save energy and fuel costs and mitigate air pollution exposed to light. The wiring collects this DC in the panel. It is then
using a renewable energy resource. The portability nature of the supplied either to a DC pump, which pumps water whenever the sun
SPWP makes it easy to transport and relocate. shines or stored in batteries for later use by the pump. This kind of green
(ii) Development of an IoT-based smart irrigation system (IoT-SIS) energy can ensure energy, water, and environmental security. The PV
with an integrated algorithm to monitor the condition of the system and water pump combination is a necessity, as the solar water
surroundings and remotely control the pump over the Internet pump is used widely in agricultural production. PV system does not
using the Blynk IoT platform and mobile application. produce any harmful by-products, which cause environmental pollution.
(iii) Implementation of the developed smart irrigation system with the Since solar energy is not extracted from the earth's layers, so it will not
solar-powered water pump (IoT–SIS–SPWP) in a real environment cause any harmful pollutants to the surroundings. The basic working
and conducting practical experiments to validate its performance principle of a PV system is that the photovoltaic cell converts the solar
and functionality. energy from sunlight to electrical energy that can be used to feed loads
through the controller, which keeps the battery charging during the
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. The next section pre- daytime. The produced energy during the daytime is stored in a battery to
sents the literature review and related studies. Section III presents the be used in the nighttime.
methods and materials. The system validation and performance testing Solar photovoltaic water pumping system is an ideal alternative for
are explained in Section IV. Finally, the article is concluded in Section V. electricity, fossil fuel, and diesel-based water pumps. In 1970, a study
made to explore the economic feasibility and practicality of solar water
2. Literature review pumps brought some effort. The solar water pump is a combination of a
solar photovoltaic and pumping system. It involves multidisciplinary
There are numerous areas where the rainwater is not adequate to areas, including electrical, mechanical, electronics, civil, and computer
accomplish this aim, and many of these regions face drought for various engineering. In the past few decades, the world still depends on those
periods. Irrigation is the precise technology to cope with these issues limited and non-renewable energy sources which take millions of years to
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replenish. After industrialization, the energy demand increased, and the sent to the farmer via email over the IoT platform when needed. The
world is facing many environmental problems like acid rain, global farmer also can access information regarding to soil and environment
warming, and greenhouse effects. The global surface temperature is 0.6 parameters including soil pH value and moisture, temperature and flame
Celsius higher than the average temperature during 1900–2010 [19]. values through Graphical User Interface (GUI) to decide whether the
The main components of a solar water pump consist of a solar panel, plants need to be irrigated.
pump, electric motor, water distribution nozzles, water filter, and In this regard, PV-based water pumping is among the viable alter-
controller. The electric motor used in the water pump is to rotate the natives in irrigation systems that have attracted considerable attention
pump and manages the AC or DC. Besides, the function of the controller and have been deployed in numerous remote regions. Such solar-
in the water pump is to adjust the motor speed and the output power. The powered pumps can be used in various applications to supply water in
solar water pump is more efficient and economical than the traditional rural areas ranging from irrigation to livestock. PV-based pumps have
water pump; it is extremely useful for the farmer who works on a small many features that make them attractive to be a substitute for conven-
and medium-scale farm. This kind of solar water pump is not only used in tional water pumping systems. It is based on green and clean energy
the crop; it can also be used in feeding, gardens, and irrigation. The without carbon dioxide emission (no fossil fuel), eco-friendly, reliable,
operation concept of the solar water pump is simple, where the solar with no noise, and low cost for operation and maintenance. The reported
panel collects the solar energy from the sun and converts it into electrical literature proved that solar-powered water pumps are more economical
energy through the silicon wafers embedded in the solar photovoltaic and can compete in low pumping capacities than conventional fuel-based
panel. The electric energy is then transferred to a DC-based motor pump pumps and wind-powered pumps. Some studies focused on the config-
system which operates the motor. The motor rotates the shaft, coupled to uration parameters of the water pumping system, and others studied
the mono-block pump, and the pump starts lifting the groundwater. motors and pump types based on applications. Some addressed control-
There are two types of water pumps, which are surface water pumps and ling water pumping systems, while other studies were devoted to
submersible water pumps. The surface water pump is suitable for lifting analyzing various economic and environmental parameters. Although
and pumping the water from a maximum depth of 20 m, while a sub- many solar-powered water pumping systems are already implemented in
mersible water pump can be used in an area of greater depth of 50 m many countries, it still limited to small and medium scales and need to be
[20]. promoted at a large scale. Integration of IoT-control concepts is necessary
In [21], the authors proposed a user-friendly, reliable, and automated to convince farmers in remote areas to switch their manual/local control
3- phase water pump control system based on Wi-Fi to be used by pumps with the remote IoT-based PV water pumping system. Such an IoT
farmers. The system includes monitoring electric supply availability, the system is required to persuade farmers that solar-powered pumps with
water level inside the reservoir, the water flow rate, and water pump automation capabilities and real-time monitoring are the correct option
short circuit conditions. The NodeMCU ESP8266 is the microcontroller of to reduce production costs, increase irrigation efficiency, improve plan-
this system. However, system design is very sensitive and should be tation quality, and keep plants safe and healthy. Such transformation is
handled with utmost care because the microcontroller is a 5 V device. It is necessary for developing nations where agriculture is the main activity,
employed to control a high-voltage 3-phase irrigation pump. and solar irradiance is sufficient throughout the year.
Ref. [22] focused on multiple factors that influence the PV water Overall, many studies instigated solar-powered water pump applica-
pump performance. They claimed that the cell's temperature, PV module tions in irrigation systems. However, to the best of our knowledge,
degradation, incidence angle, surface dust, and efficiency of the motor limited studies focused on developing IoT-based smart irrigation using
pump have the most impact on the system performance. In addition, solar-powered water pumping systems. In addition, none of the previous
mismatching, self-shading, and shadowing are other involved factors that studies focused on using a portable PV-based water pump as a standalone
affect the performance of solar-powered pumps. In Ref. [23], the authors system in farming activities. Most of the proposed systems were not
determined the number of PV modules and the pumping power that is validated in a natural environment, even though they were tested in LABs
required in PV-based water pumps with a battery bank. A comparison using simulation models or prototypes. Therefore, we developed a
study between conventional pumps and solar-powered pumps was car- portable solar-powered water pump with an IoT-enabled controller as an
ried out regarding the required cost for installation, operation, mainte- innovative irrigation system in this study. The NodeMCU ESP8266 mi-
nance, and total life cycle. The results proved that the PV-based water crocontroller enables users to send commands towards the pump ac-
pumps saved a lot of fuel and engine oil costs, which results in reducing cording to the collected readings from the sensors. A mobile application
CO2, air pollution, and noise. The study considered other geographical to monitor the pump and control the system has been created, and it can
characteristics, flowrate and optimum tilt angle. be used from a certain distance with the use of an internet connection.
A study in Ref. [24] addressed the simultaneous operation of irriga- Thus, it can be accessed anywhere and anytime when the Internet
tion areas using standalone solar pumps. Such a system entails the direct connection is available. This will lessen the burden on the user and in-
application of the pumped water to the different sectors depending on the crease the efficiency of the water pump. For instance, the farmer can start
reservoir; thus, it decreases the total cost and eliminates the evaporation and stop water pumping through the phone without being close to the
process. The authors developed a model based on linear programming. water pump. A mobile application is used to remotely control the on-and-
The model operation is based on the required water volume and the PV off operation of the water pump from smartphones and to monitor the
power. The result proved that the simultaneous operation of PV-based surroundings over the Blynk IoT platform.
pumps provided higher efficiency and saved energy compared to the
individual operation. In Ref. [25], the authors devoted the study to 3. Methods and materials
developing an IoT-based system for solar water pumping, which can be
operated and controlled via a vision-based technique using a fuzzy-based This section defines the methods and research activities adopted in
algorithm. The system observes the soil moisture, temperature, and hu- this study, including the methodical organization of various research
midity and runs the pump accordingly. The system also supports manual phases in conjunction with the detailed design and implementation of the
and remote control by the user and controls automatically via the proposed solar-powered water pump with the IoT-based smart irrigation
Fuzzy-based control mode. Ref. [26] highlighted the design and imple- system. Moreover, the components selection and their integration are
mentation of a water pumping system based on the health of plants. The explained in detail to fulfil the design objectives. A portable solar-
system model supports the automatic start/stop of the electric motor powered pump for the IoT-based irrigation system was fabricated. The
based on water threshold values. The study analyzed the sensor data to hardware development of the IoT-based system was carried out by uti-
decide on irrigation time according to plant health status with the plant's lizing the NodeMCU ESP8266 Wi-Fi module as a microcontroller, and
threshold value. An emergency notification about plant health will be sensors were selected to measure the considered parameters. The relay
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board has been decided to control the switching process of the pump. energy and reduces pollution. However, the usage of solar energy has a
After that, software was developed by integrating the required sensor major challenge which is theft. Making the system portable is beneficial
libraries using Arduino IDE as the interface between the NodeMCU and as it could be transported anywhere and stored safely in storage.
the programming device. The arrangement/sequence of the code must be The water pump body is made of polypropylene. Polypropylene is a
improved according to the thought of the entire water pumping system, rugged and highly chemical-resistant material often used as material for
whether which sensor runs first and then followed by the next sensor toolboxes. It has similar properties to polyethylene but is more chal-
with each action once the sensors are triggered. The Blynk IoT platform lenging and more heat resistant. Durable and lightweight making it
was chosen as the IoT cloud to save the collected data updated over Wi-Fi suitable for encasing electrical equipment in a work environment with
to the Internet. A mobile GUI was designed to display the updated additional resistance to chemicals, making it suitable for usage in the
readings from the sensor and enable the remote control of the water marine environment. It is also heat resistant, which makes it suitable for
pump using smartphones. The detailed research activities are illustrated usage under prolonged sunlight. Polypropylene seems to be destined to
in the flowchart of Fig. 1. increase its importance as raw material for the production of plastics due
to its excellent thermal and mechanical properties, low cost, and versa-
3.1. System modelling tility of uses.
For the hose, we use Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) garden hose with
The proposed system architecture of IoT–SIS–SPWP is described in polyester fibre reinforcement. This hose has excellent chemical and
Fig. 2. In the developed system, the sun rays are applied on two solar physical properties, very ideal for conveying water, widely used in con-
panels (50 W each) to generate the electrical power used to power the struction, agriculture, fishery, project, household, and industrial service.
high-pressure auto diaphragm water pump with the DC motor set. The It could handle temperatures ranging from 10 C to þ65 C. PVC hose
extra energy will be stored in the 12 V battery through the solar charger also has good abrasion resistance making it suitable for a rugged envi-
controller. The battery used is a Panasonic lead-acid 12 V, 7.5 Ah battery ronment. Since there are many types of hose based on oil-resistant
that copes with the micro diaphragm water pump. The battery capacity elastomers and many specifications for each type, sometimes with con-
can supply electricity to the motor for up to 3 h whenever required during flicting requirements, it is impossible to generalize regarding current uses
night irrigation activities. The microcontroller collects the data from the or future trends. PVC blends are used in covers when excellent abrasion
utilized sensors and sends it to the Blynk IoT cloud server over the Wi-Fi resistance is required. We use a portable water filter with hollow fibre
interface of the NodeMCU and, at the same time, forwards the farmer's membranes (HFMs) as filter material for water filtration. HFM was
switching commands to the SPWP. The NodeMCU connects to the initially developed in the 1960s for reverse osmosis applications; it has
Internet via the nearest Wi-Fi access point. The farmer will be able to become prevalent in water treatment. HFM could ensure that no patho-
remotely monitor the surrounding conditions in the farm (soil moisture, gens can slip through removing substances such as Bacteria, Protozoa, E.
temperature, and humidity) using the GUI based on the Blynk mobile Coli, Giardia, Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella Typhi, Leptospirosis, and
application through Internet-connected smartphones. The sensors are microplastics.
connected to the input GPIOs of NodeMCU, and a four-channel relay The amount of solar energy collected by a solar panel is a function of
module is connected to the output GPIOs. The farmer also can receive local solar radiation, ground reflection property, and collecting a panel's
notifications for abnormal conditions via the same app. when some tilt and orientation. The orientation and the tilt of a solar panel strongly
threshold values are exceeded. affect the amount of the collected yield. Therefore, solar panels must be
Accordingly, the farmer can switch ON/OFF the solar-powered water slanted and oriented at optimum angles to collect the maximum solar
pump for irrigation purposes when needed. The DC pump is a water- energy available in a specific region. The best method to optimize the tilt
pressure diaphragm pump of 12 V, 8 A, and 100 W. The maximum and the orientation of a solar panel is by applying an active sun tracker.
output water pressure is 0.8 MPa with a maximum flow rate of 6.5 L per Active sun trackers are electromechanical or pure mechanical devices
minute. The pump is connected to a hose pipe with multi-nozzles to spry that keep changing the tilt and the orientation of a solar panel/solar array
the water during the irrigation process at different pressure and flow periodically during the day. However, the capital cost of such a system is
rates. Also, the pump is coupled with a water filter to improve the irri- high, and it consumes energy during tracking. Thus, changing the tilt
gation water quality for keeping plants healthy and in good condition. angle and the orientation monthly, seasonal, or yearly for a photovoltaic
The mobility support of the system allows its movement and reallocation (PV) panel, as in our system, maybe more feasible than applying an active
based on demand. sun tracker.
The IoT–SIS–SPWP system layout has been designed using NX10, as After the design phase, we started the fabrication and installation
shown in Fig. 3. The parts or components of the SPWP are a poly- phase of the portable solar water pump since it is the central part of the
propylene luggage toolbox (the overall body), two solar panels 50 W, a proposed system. Besides that, the structural analysis is compulsory to
hose pipe's hook, an extendable holder, and a cover box to store electrical ensure that this design can support all the load weight. Next, the type of
components of the IoT-SIS, metal support, battery, and water pump. It material used to build the water pump frame is identified and obtained
also shows the dimension of the overall parts of the IoT–SIS–SPWP. We from the supplier. After that, the inspection was conducted immediately
aim to build an ergonomic design of a solar water pump to fit the people after the material was received to avoid any defects happening. The
who use this water pump. Proper ergonomic design is necessary to pre- overall fabrication process sequence is illustrated in Fig. 4. Basic
vent repetitive strain injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders. It is manufacturing processes, including welding, grinding, cutting, and many
relevant in designing such things as safe furniture and easy-to-use in- others, have their safety precautions. Extreme caution should be exer-
terfaces. The solar water pump is more compactable and lightweight. The cised when using any tool to prevent injury to personnel. While working
luggage design makes this water pump portable, and the size is ergo- in a machines room, rules and regulations need to be obeyed for our
nomic and suitable for smallholder irrigation. The design of this portable safety. Safety measures need to be taken into account at our workplace
solar water pump is inspired by wheeled travel luggage. are likes wearing safety boots, jackets, face shields, and gloves when
The designed IoT–SIS–SPWP system will be used in the area alienated handling tools and machines. The machinist should not wear a watch,
from the electricity grid. The implementation of solar power would jewellery, other accessories, or loose clothes that can cause trouble to
reduce energy costs such as fuel and electricity. The usage of solar power them when handling the machine. Every different type of operation on
benefits long-term savings, but it also promotes the usage of renewable machines must be conducted followed by the correct procedure and tools
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to avoid accidents happening in the machine room. The floor must al- programmatically. Thus, it is a good candidate for IoT applications with a
ways dry to avoid slipperiness, and the table must be cleaned repeatedly. limited number of sensors and actuators like our system. NodeMCU has a
For metal support, firstly, the mild steel bar is cut into four parts. Then, ready-to-use structure as it comes in a complete package form, including
the metal bar edges are ground and polished using a grinder and sander. the 5 V regulator, a burner, an oscillator, a micro-controller, a serial
The metal was then welded together and fitted onto the luggage box communication interface, LED, and headers for the connections. The
using a drill and rivet. programming of the NodeMCU can be done by using Arduino software,
For PV panels, two PV panels are attached using screws and hinges, an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), to write the code of in-
and a slider is attached on the top and bottom of the solar panel. Then, structions and upload it to the microcontroller.
sheet metal is sheared and bent using a shearing machine and press For NodeMCU, a beginner would need to learn a new programming
brakes. The PV Panels, sheet metal, and luggage box are attached using method different from Arduino but much easier. This is because the
screws, rivets, and L-section. Then, the placements of the filter and pump programming environment is easy to use for beginners yet flexible
and the box containing microcontrollers, as shown in Fig. 5. Then, the enough for advanced users to take advantage of. The required coding to
solar controller and hose hanger are attached to the solar water pump initiate the connection between NodeMCU, sensors, and actuators can be
sides, as shown in Fig. 6. For final adjustment, L-section is attached to developed via Arduino IDE and uploaded to the NodeMCU memory. It
parts for durability. Latches are added to the solar panel to avoid turning represents the heart of IoT systems since it acts as a sensing node and a
when transporting. Fig. 7 depicts the finished system product of the solar- gateway simultaneously. We have used the Wi-Fi module to create a
powered water pump with the implemented IoT-SIS controller. mobile application to remotely control the water pump on and off
operation from smartphones. A mobile application to monitor and con-
trol the system has been created. It can be used from anywhere and
3.4. Components selection
anytime over an internet connection. The real-time monitoring and
control will lessen the user's burden and increase the efficiency of the
Hardware and software components are crucial and essential in the
water pump.
design of IoT systems. NodeMCU ESP8266 is used in our system as it is a
Soil moisture sensor measures the water content in the soil. The
single-board microcontroller intended to make the application of inter-
relation between the measured property and soil moisture must be cali-
active objects or environments more accessible. It is a cost-effective and
brated and may vary on environmental factors such as soil type, tem-
open-source physical computing platform with an extensible software
perature, or electric conductivity. Reflected microwave radiation is
development environment for board programming. It is used to gather
affected by soil moisture and is used for remote sensing in hydrology and
data read by the sensors and upload the data to the MQTT server. Besides,
agriculture. Farmers or gardeners can use portable probe instruments.
it also receives commands given by the user to do specific tasks via the
Soil moisture sensors typically refer to sensors that estimate volumetric
MQTT server. NodeMCU consists of a physical programmable circuit
water content. Another class of sensors measures another property of
board like any other development board, such as Arduino and Raspberry
moisture in soils called water potential. The FC-28 soil moisture sensor is
Pi.
mounted at the side of the system to measure the soil moisture at the
This microcontroller can be used to develop interactive objects, tak-
farm. This module also includes a potentiometer that will fix the
ing inputs from various switches or sensors and controlling a variety of
threshold value, & the comparator-LM393 can evaluate the value. The
relays, lights, motors, and other actuators. We use NodeMCU ESP8266 as
LED will turn on/off based on the threshold value. The sensor needs to be
the microcontroller to enable farmers to observe sensor readings and pass
placed into the soil, and the measurement of the soil moisture will be
the command towards the water pump. The NodeMCU is attached with a
exposed and then data uploaded to the Blynk application.
Wi-Fi interface to be connected to the Internet via a hotspot. NodeMCU
DHT11 is a primary, ultra-low-cost digital temperature and humidity
has 17 GPIO pins that can be allocated to different functions such as I2C,
sensor. It uses a capacitive humidity sensor and a thermistor to measure
I2S, UART, PWM, IR remote control, LED light, and button
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Fig. 4. System fabrication phases. Fig. 5. Placement of filter, pump, and microcontroller box.
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the surrounding air and spits a digital signal on the data pin (no analogue
input pins are needed). It is relatively simple to use but requires careful
timing to grab data. The only real downside of this sensor is that it can
only update new data once every 2 s. The sensor is utilized in our system
to measure the surrounding temperature and humidity. DHT11 with its
jumpers are mounted at the side of the prototype, upper the toolbox in a
drilled hole. Thus, the DHT11 sensor can be exposed to the surrounding
temperature and measured to be uploaded to the Blynk application.
DHT11 sensor has four pins- VCC, GND, Data Pin, and a not connected
pin. A pull-up resistor of 5 k to 10 k ohms is provided for communication
between the sensor and the microcontroller.
A 4-channel 5 V DC relay module is exploited in this study to perform
the switching of the pump and any other actuators if necessary. It can also
be used to control various appliances and equipment with a large current.
The relay is energized or reenergized based on the received signals from
the NodeMCU depending on the farmer's commands. It is equipped with
high-current relays that work under AC 250 V 10 A or DC 30 V 10 A. It
has a standard interface that can be controlled directly by the
microcontroller.
The Arduino IDE is a cross-platform application that is written in the
Cþþ programming language. It is used to write and upload programs to
Arduino-compatible boards, but also with the help of third-party cores,
and other vendor development boards. It connects to the Arduino and
Genuino hardware to upload programs and communicate with them.
Support for third-party hardware can be added to the hardware directory
of the sketchbook directory. Platforms installed may include board def-
initions (which appear in the board menu), core libraries, bootloaders,
and programmer definitions. Coding for this project has included all
types of sensors, including DHT11 sensors and soil moisture sensors. The
specific library of all these sensors has been applied to ensure all the
sensor is working correctly. Next, the ESP8266 NodeMCU's library has
been included in the program for the communication feature between the
user and the microcontroller system. AT command has been used as the
Fig. 7. Finished IoT–SIS–SPWP system product.
tool to send feedback and receive a command from the user.
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R.M. Ramli, W.A. Jabbar Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems 2 (2022) 212–225
performance will be tested and evaluated. We have conducted practical measured and recorded. The DC water pump is designed on the basic
experiments in two different environments to evaluate multiple criteria, requirement of the agriculture product. The power of the pump is ob-
including water quality, flow rate, energy consumption, and IoT system tained from Eq. (1):
functionality. We have successfully tested the developed system in both
offsite and onsite testing in this context. The offsite testing was held at the Power consumed by pump ðWÞ; P ¼ V I (1)
LAB and workshop, while the onsite testing was held at UMP Pilot Fer-
where V is the DC voltage, I is the current, and P is the power of the water
tigation Farm. Before starting the system development, a site visit was
pump.
conducted to obtain information regarding the farm. Our system proto-
As stated earlier, our SPWP is attached with multi-nozzles to control
type could be deployed at the farm to check its applicability and
the water flow rate and a filter for purifying the irrigation water. Such
compatibility in real environments. From the site visit, we get informa-
features enable our system to conveniently cover a wider area and
tion on the coverage area of the farm, the fertigation way that is used at
diverse plants using a portable pump.
the farm, the quantity of the plants on the farm, the type of water
The system can pump the water at different flow rates using six
pumping system used in the farm, and the system operation hour. Since
nozzles: cone, quad, fan, flat, soaker, and jet. Each nozzle type has a
our system composes several main components including a solar panel,
different water flow rate and required a specific amount of power. Water
DC motor, water pump, water filter, irrigation nozzles, and IoT-system
was discharged, and its volume was measured to determine the water
components, several tests were conducted.
flow rate according to Eq. (2), where 6 L of water are collected, and the
time taken to collect the water is estimated.
4.1. Experimental setup
water discharged ðlitresÞ
The proposed SPWP-IoT-SIS system was placed at the UMP Pilot Flow rate; Q ¼ (2)
time taken ðminÞ
Fertigation Farm during the onsite testing phase, as shown in Fig. 11. The
University Malaysia Pahang (Gambang area) latitude is 3 430 23 North, The six types of nozzles' performance are analyzed in terms of flow
and the longitude is 103 70 16 East. The system is powered on and con- rate, voltage, and power. The data is collected and tabulated to compare
nected to the Internet via a Wi-Fi access point. The DC water pump was the voltage, power, irradiance, and flow rate of six different types of
connected to the solar panel. After attaching the inlet port of the pump nozzles, as listed in Table 1. The obtained results for the voltage mea-
with a suction pipe, priming was done. The inlet port of the solar water surements are between 11.0 V and 11.8 V, while the current is between
pump was connected to the water pump in the irrigation system of the 6.8 and 7.3 A. The power is roughly between 74.8 W and 86 Watts. The
Fertigation Farm. Another hose pipe was attached to the end of the outlet difference between the highest value and the lowest value for the voltage,
of the water pump. After that, the solar water pump was switched on via current, and power readings is typically based on the different irradiance
the Blynk GUI by using the mobile phone. received by the panel during each nozzle type and the impact of the flow
rate of each nozzle. From the table, it can be seen that the voltage and the
power for the cone nozzle are the highest compared to the other five
4.2. Power and water flow rate comparison
nozzles. The voltage, current, and power for the cone nozzle are 11.8 V,
7.3 A, and 86.14 W, respectively. This data proves that the solar panel
In the first step, we have devoted our focus to determining and
absorbs more sunlight irradiance, thus providing more voltage, current,
comparing the generated power from the solar panel with respect to
and power than the other five nozzles. While for the jet nozzle, the
irradiance for different water flow rates of the pump. The system has two
electrical parameters have the lowest readings compared to the other
solar panels with 50 Watts per panel. In the onsite testing and offsite
nozzles. The voltage, current, and power readings are 11.0 V, 6.8 A, and
system testing, the proposed solar water pump performance has been
74.8 W. This data proves that the solar panel absorbs less sunlight and
observed, measured, and evaluated. The voltage, current, and power
provides less voltage, current, and power compared to the other five
consumed by the water pump and the flow rate of the water pump were
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R.M. Ramli, W.A. Jabbar Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems 2 (2022) 212–225
Table 1
Data for each nozzle.
Type of nozzle Irradiance Voltage Current Power Water Discharge Time Flow Rate
2
(W/m ) (V) (A) (Watt) (Liter) (min) (L/min)
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R.M. Ramli, W.A. Jabbar Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems 2 (2022) 212–225
Fig. 13. Power vs. water flow rate for various nozzle types.
223
R.M. Ramli, W.A. Jabbar Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems 2 (2022) 212–225
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R.M. Ramli, W.A. Jabbar Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems 2 (2022) 212–225
Declaration of competing interest [11] A.S. Pascaris, C. Schelly, L. Burnham, J.M. Pearce, Integrating solar energy with
agriculture: industry perspectives on the market, community, and socio-political
dimensions of agrivoltaics, Energy Res. Social Sci. 75 (2021), 102023.
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial [12] B.S. Pali, S. Vadhera, A novel solar photovoltaic system with pumped-water storage
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence for continuous power at constant voltage, Energy Convers. Manag. 181 (2019)
the work reported in this paper. 133–142.
[13] A.N. Angelakis, et al., Irrigation of world agricultural lands: evolution through the
Millennia, Water 12 (5) (2020) 1285.
Acknowledgment [14] S.S. Kumar, C. Bibin, K. Akash, K. Aravindan, M. Kishore, G. Magesh, Solar powered
water pumping systems for irrigation: a comprehensive review on developments
and prospects towards a green energy approach, Mater. Today Proc. 33 (2020)
The research was supported by Universiti Malaysia Pahang (www 303–307.
.ump.edu.my), Malaysia, under grant scheme No. RDU190397. [15] M. Aliyu, G. Hassan, S.A. Said, M.U. Siddiqui, A.T. Alawami, I.M. Elamin, A review
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