AT524682B1 - Intelligent individual learning irrigation system and methods of irrigation - Google Patents

Abstract

Method for watering plants with a pulse irrigation module that is capable of learning in its entirety, comprising the following method steps: a) watering pulse (17) for a first time period tg0 predetermined by the system, b) watering pause (18) of watering for a first time period tp0 predetermined by the system, c) repeating the above method steps a) and b), d) detecting a message from the surface sensor (1) about a change in soil moisture as a result of watering, e) detecting a message from the root zone sensor (2) about a change in soil moisture as a result of watering, f) detecting a message from the seepage sensor (3) about a change in soil moisture as a result of watering, g) determining a second optimized time period tg1 of watering and a second optimized time period tp1 of pausing watering, taking into account the results from the messages from the sensors ( 1, 2, 3) resulting data and the resulting seepage gsdauer, h) the previous method steps a) to g) are repeated until an optimum irrigation duration and amount of water for the plant is determined.

Description

The invention relates to an irrigation module, an irrigation system consisting of one or more irrigation modules, in particular a smart, adaptive, pulse-based, fully automated and self-sufficient irrigation module (system) which determines the water requirements of plants and waters them in a coordinated manner. An irrigation module and irrigation system according to the invention and a method of irrigation using the same are defined in the appended claims.

task / problem

To keep a plant alive and to maximize its growth, a regular water supply is required, depending on its species and environmental characteristics. In hot countries and desert areas in particular, plant life is very dependent on this regular (often daily) water supply.

This can be done in a traditional way, manually, by human hands. However, this effort is very human resource-intensive, especially in the case of large quantities of plants, large-area fields or plantations, and is not economical with high wages.

Another problem is that this task (watering) can quickly become a burden (e.g. when people with allotments, green facades, indoor farming or human forgetting are absent).

In addition, vertical greening systems are becoming more and more important internationally and are increasingly being used in different technical variants. In this way, the green spaces in the cities are increased, the climate and the quality of the environment are improved and thus the quality of life. The functionality of these wall and roof systems is 100% dependent on the irrigation systems used. The irrigation systems offered on the market hardly take into account the general conditions and special requirements of vertical greening.

State of the art

There are different irrigation systems on the market that can be used to water plants. Depending on the application, whether it is a field, plantation, garden

The garden management system from patent specification US 2015070188A1 is described with separate components (environmental sensors, soil sensors, valves, ..), which start watering as a reaction to soil and ambient moisture.

The disadvantage of this design is that it is not a uniform overall system and the positioning and interaction of the sensors with the smart, adaptive software, which adapts the watering process specifically to the plant species, is not given. In addition, in the present case, the pulse irrigation method enables water to be saved and, as a result, also lower energy consumption.

US 2015081058A1 is a plant profile game system comprising a plant sensor device that measures the plant environment and in conjunction with a mobile computing device compares the plant environment with ideal plant conditions for the plant as specified in the plant profile. The success of the game depends on whether the plant was watered correctly by the user. With this system, the plant is not watered directly by the system, but by the user. This differs with the objective of this present patent, which is automated irrigation.

Other irrigation systems available on the market have the following disadvantages:

° These systems consist of several individual components, such as sensors, controls, valves and energy supply units, which always have to be adapted to each other and are therefore cost-intensive solutions.

®° The controls of these irrigation systems are mostly time-oriented. This means that the times at which the watering process is to be started and how long the watering process should last (control / no regulation) are pre-programmed.

ee During the watering period, the valve through which the water is supplied is constantly opened from the beginning to the end of the watering period and the system thus gives the same amount of water to the plants, whether they need the entire amount of water or not.

®* The energy supply units of these irrigation systems are mostly wired and/or powered by batteries.

SOLUTION

The task is solved according to claim 1:

A method of watering plants with a in its

Whole trainable pulse irrigation module, comprising a

valve-controlled connection to a water supply, a

Area for dispensing water and a sensor control (4) for

the required sensors for determining the water demand

Watering a plant, with an arrangement at least three

Includes sensors, a first sensor (1) as

Surface sensor in the surface area of the plant, a

second sensor (2) as a root area sensor in the root area

of the plant and a third sensor (3) below the

Root area of the plant, characterized in that it

includes the following process steps:

a) casting pulse (17) for a first predetermined by the system

length of time go,

b) watering pause (18) of watering for a first of the system

predetermined period of time tgo,

c) repeating the above method steps a) and b),

d) detecting a message from the surface sensor (1) via a

change in soil moisture as a result of watering,

e) detecting a message from the root area sensor (2) via

a change in soil moisture as a result of watering,

f) detecting a message from the infiltration sensor (3).

a change in soil moisture as a result of watering,

g) determining a second optimized time period tgyı des

watering and a second optimized time period t,p1 des

pausing the watering, taking into account the out

the messages from the sensors (1, 2, 3) resulting data and

resulting seepage time,

h) the previous process steps a) to g).

repeated until one is optimal for the plant

Irrigation duration and amount of water is determined.

General description of the irrigation system: The subject of this invention is a smart, adaptive, pulse-based, fully automated and self-sufficient

The irrigation system can save a lot of water because its built-in intelligence enables it to learn and independently determine the watering impulse, watering process and watering period, calibrates itself according to the soil density and thus ensures that there is neither overwatering nor underwatering. This is a great advantage for plant irrigation in general, but especially for vertical greening, since vertical plants provide little soil for root development and can negatively affect their environment (e.g. by increasing the ambient humidity, mold growth, etc.).

The inventive irrigation module or system is explained in more detail below with reference to the attached drawings, wherein

Figure 1 is a schematic representation of an embodiment of the irrigation system according to the invention, showing the system components;

the views in figure 2 are side views (19 and 20), a perspective view (21) and a plan view (22) of an irrigation module according to the invention;

Figures 3 and 4 are diagrams illustrating irrigation during the watering period;

Figure 5 is a more detailed representation of the sensors location; FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of an irrigation system according to the invention with 2 sensors for vertical greening; and

Figure 7 is a schematic representation of an embodiment of the irrigation system of the present invention showing the system components.

The irrigation system according to the invention is characterized by a:

1. Stand alone irrigation module: with its own renewable energy source, rechargeable battery (7), wireless communication interface (11), own sensors for water demand determination and own microcontroller (5) for controlling the irrigation valve (9). The irrigation module contains all components that are necessary to water a plant smartly.

Each irrigation module contains smart and adaptive irrigation software, which on the one hand delivers the right amount of water to the plants and on the other hand sends the recorded data to the central unit of the irrigation system (for saving in a database, for visualization and for monitoring) and receives commands from the central unit and processed.

. Fully automatic operation:

The (moisture) sensors measure the water requirement of the plant via the humidity of the soil and the environmental parameters. The microcontroller (5) then calculates the necessary watering process for the plants (information about the plant species from the database is also taken into account) and the irrigation valve (9) is opened and closed fully automatically depending on the calculated water requirement of the plant species.

. Wireless interface: The irrigation module has a wireless communication interface. This means that an irrigation module can be connected to the neighboring irrigation modules as well as to the control center of the

communicate with the entire irrigation system.

. smart behavior

The system (software) is smart because it calculates the required water requirement using the special sensor arrangement and the intelligent process/software. . Self-sufficient renewable energy supply: The system has a photovoltaic panel (6), which is attached to the surface of the irrigation module and a battery (7), which is capable of within a short period of solar radiation (approx. 4-6 hours) store a charge to power the irrigation module for a sufficient period of time (about 1 week).

. Learning ability of the system:

The system is able to learn through its software, as it constantly records new data and as a result constantly improves the irrigation process. This means that the more data records are recorded during the watering processes, the more precisely the water delivery is adjusted to the plant.

. Software for the irrigation system (external, central): With this, all irrigation modules (1-n) are informed via the

The components and tasks of the irrigation system software are as follows:

1) A database system: in which both important information about the plant species, environmental characteristics and other relevant information is stored, and in addition to this the information collected from all irrigation modules belonging to this irrigation system.

2) Irrigation management software: automation system / signal processing system / monitoring / data processing / display system:

With this software, the data is fetched from the database and processed/applied/displayed for the following tasks:

A. Alerting: When alerting, the app will alert the user to alert and see that the watering is below the limit (exactly how much). The alarm is repeated until the system is acknowledged (an acknowledgment only occurs if the plant is watered again or if this is carried out by a responsible person in the system).

B. Monitoring: Displays the condition of the plants and the irrigation system or its components visually and with images on the PC, screen or mobile phone (app, internet website, etc. > external platform). The display images on the platform enable the irrigation management and the person responsible to see and track the statuses in real time.

C. Influencing: This function enables the user or the responsible person from the control center of the irrigation system to access (data protection, access authorization) the entire irrigation system in order to directly control and influence its components or their normal function.

Figure Lineup:

Figure 1 shows irrigation system components

Figure 2: shows the irrigation module: are side views (19 and 20), a perspective view (21) and a top view (22) of an irrigation module according to the invention;

FIG. 3: shows a casting process (15), in particular the casting impulses during a casting process. As you can see, every watering impulse and every watering pause is slightly different than the one before. This is because the system calibrates and adapts to the plant and its needs, taking into account the environmental parameters. The last pouring impulse in pouring process 1 corresponds to the first pouring impulse of pouring process 2. The aim is that after a few pouring runs the pouring impulses are all almost the same and in the long term hardly change (except, for example, with an external water supply, for example due to rain or when the plant grows and needs more and more water, etc.)

FIG. 4: shows a casting period, with a casting process whose casting impulses are currently being calibrated being shown in the upper area of the figure (as already in FIG. 3). The lower part of the figure represents the entirety of all watering periods.

FIG. 5 shows the positions of the sensors (1, 2 and 3), with the first sensor 1 measuring whether water is flowing; the second sensor 2 measures the correct (required) amount of water and the third sensor 3 measures the excess of water.

Figure 6: shows 2 sensors (1 and 2) for vertical greening

Figure 7:

Shows a schematic representation of an embodiment of the

Irrigation systems according to the invention, wherein the

System components are shown.

General Description of the Invention

then, via its signal processing (data analysis, control and regulation processes), determines the water requirement for a plant species and finally adapts it to the plant. In addition, this data is sent to the head office (see Central Software (external)) for further use (database storage, data transfer to other systems).

To determine the appropriate water requirement, sensors are installed in the plant environment. What is new about this system compared to the irrigation systems described in patents US2015070188A1 and USS2015081058A1 is the positioning of the sensors and the interaction of the sensors with the smart, adaptive software, which adapts the watering process specifically to the plant species.

Here, at least 3 sensors are mounted essentially vertically one below the other at three different distances. The sensors are positioned in such a way that the first sensor 1, the surface sensor, is close to the ground

Surface area attached next to the plant. This is used to report the start of the watering process and use this to calculate the subsequent watering time tgyo (17) and the subsequent watering break tpo (18).

The second sensor 2, the root area sensor (12 and 13), is located a little deeper in the ground (in the root area) and is attached at a distance adjusted to the respective plant species (root depth) WHERE the most roots are on average in the ground (under the ground). It is used to indicate the optimal area for the plant in which the water should be and to subsequently determine tgyı and tpı from this.

The third sensor 3, the seepage sensor (3), which serves to prevent overwatering, is located at a moderate distance below the root area of the plant. It is used to capture the area where the water is well below the roots of the plant, indicating overwatering. Furthermore, it is also used to determine tgyı and tpı

The valve is opened for a certain duration tyo (it is poured) and then closed so that the infiltration time of the water in the ground is taken into account (therefore no unnecessary water is wasted 7 no stagnant water at the surface by slow infiltration time into the ground compared to the amount of water added.

After a certain period of the casting pause tpo (first tpo is initialized with an appropriate starting value), the valve (9) is opened again for the casting time tgyo.

Depending on the surface and the duration of infiltration, the surface sensor (1) reports first.

This pulsating watering process is repeated with the start time constants to and tpo until root sensor 2 responds. The seepage time is thus determined by a first approximation. After this, tgyo and to, with which the pouring process was started to save water, are optimized. With these optimized, recalculated, calibrated time constants (tgı and tg1), the casting impulse is repeated until the entire casting process (optimized) is completed.

The watering period (16) is predefined according to the plant species.

The infiltration sensor (3) assists in the calibration of tgo and tpo by taking its signals into account by the internal irrigation software until the watering process mainly generates surface sensor and root zone sensor (2) reports. This means that the less the seepage sensor (3) reports, the more optimized the watering process is and the more water is saved that would otherwise be lost through seepage.

Numerous advantages are achieved by the invention. Smart/capable of learning: The more often the watering process is repeated, the more data the system has for evaluation and changes the watering process accordingly (adjust and

Water saving: As you can see, the "water saving" advantage is ensured on the one hand by preventing unnecessary water accumulation on the surface around the plant and on the other hand by preventing unnecessary seepage of excess water.

This also ensures that the root area of a plant species has enough water (humidity) until the predefined watering process TG is reached, with TG depending on the plant species.

The key to the success of this method is the learning software (described above), which calculates the pouring breaks and which pouring processes the system should pour itself. The calculated watering impulses (water "watering" and water "pause") play an important role, as they are calculated in such a way that the water collects at the roots (does not seep too deeply or evaporate on the surface and/or flow away unnecessarily elsewhere ) and the watering breaks play an important role here, as they are precisely tailored to this.

watering period

The signal processing system calculates depending on

the values for the following parameters over and over again:

1. Plant species (specific information about the plants)

2. Weather dependency and season (In summer this time constant is shorter than in winter)

3. External water supply

4, system calibration phase (here this is optimized by the system)

Other advantages of this invention are as follows:

1. Stand-alone module: The system includes all the necessary components in one module to smartly irrigate a plant/species. This means that the customer is not burdened with any additional costs, such as buying external sensors, batteries, controls, valves or a bridge (communication interface).

2. Easy to use: the user only has to place the module/sensors next to his/her plant/s to be watered and connect the water supply on one side of the valve (9) and on the other, depending on the plant type, a drip- Connect a hose, a water metering fitting, a sprinkler (etc.).

11.

. Intelligent and user-friendly: The system helps with this

City and municipal administrations to increase green spaces in an economical and easy way. If they want, private individuals can easily create green areas on their roofs and facades, and the simplicity of the system encourages them to practice indoor farming, and if required, not only ornamental but also useful plants such as tomatoes, mushrooms or herbs to breed.

. Fully automatic:

The user only has to attach the system next to the plant(s) to be watered, initially pass on plant-specific information to the system and then no longer have to worry about watering the plants, since these processes run completely autonomously.

. Wireless (no need for cables): Since the module on the one hand

has its own energy source and on the other hand transmits the data wirelessly to the system, no cables are used

needed.

. The quality of life of the plant is increased: the water requirement is increased

adapted to the plant by means of the module and its ability to learn. Thus, neither under- nor over-watered. Thus, the system is capable of learning and promotes vitality and allows the plants to thrive optimally.

. Water saving:

Since the irrigation is pulsed and adapted to the plant in a smart way, you save water.

. Renewable energy supply: The system has in over

a photovoltaic panel (6) and thus feeds the battery (7), which supplies the system with electricity.

. Environmentally friendly: Since the system itself uses renewable

powered, no external resources are required. Optimal for vertical greening: The system brings a great advantage for vertical greening, which is very sensitive, since vertical plants on the one hand have little soil (13) for root formation and on the other hand can negatively affect their environment (e.g. by increasing the ambient humidity, mold growth, Etc.). Visualization system software (external): User can follow the watering process in real time. The user can thus call up data externally, which was measured by the sensors and forwarded to the software, and, if necessary, influence commands manually from a distance (reasons for this could be, for example,

There are three scenarios here:

A. Alerting: When alerting, the app will alert the user to alert and see that the watering is below the limit (exactly how much). The alarm is repeated until the system is acknowledged (the acknowledgment only occurs when the plant is watered again or when it is carried out by a responsible person in the system).

B. Monitoring: Shows the condition of the plants and the irrigation system or its components visually and with images on the PC, screen or mobile phone (app, internet website, etc. > external platform). The display images on the platform enable irrigation management and those responsible to see and track the status in real time. C. Influencing: This function enables the user or the person responsible to access (data protection, access authorization) from the control center of the irrigation system to the entire irrigation system in order to directly control and influence its components or their normal function.

12. Database extra By analyzing measurement data, conclusions can be drawn about dry periods, periods of flooding, "harvest volume", plant growth, etc. at certain times.

13. Smart: The system (software) is smart because it uses the special sensor arrangement and the intelligent software to calculate the required water requirement.

14, Adaptable: The system (software) is capable of learning, as it constantly records new data and as a result constantly improves the irrigation process. This means, the more data there is, the more precisely the water requirements are adapted to the plant.

List of References

1 sensor S1, surface sensor

2 Sensor S2, root zone sensor 3 Sensor S3, infiltration sensor 4 Sensor control

5 microcontrollers

6 photovoltaic panels

7 battery

8 charging electronics

14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22

Valve

valve control

communication interface

Root zone sensor (placed in the root zone) Root zone sensor (in the ground for the plants in the vertical greening system 2 substrate, gravel, potting soil or similar)

Symbolizes a green wall

casting process

Casting period (= one casting process + the time until the next casting process)

Pouring impulse ty (pouring impulses like tgo tgı,)

Watering break tp (watering break like tpo t>21)

a side view 1 of the irrigation module,

a side view 2 of the irrigation module,

a perspective view of the irrigation module, a plan view of the irrigation module

Claims (1)

1. A method for watering plants with a pulse irrigation module that is capable of learning in its entirety, comprising a valve-controlled connection to a water supply, an area for dispensing water and a sensor control (4) for the sensors required for determining the water requirement when watering a plant, with an arrangement at least comprises three sensors, a first sensor (1) as a surface sensor in the surface area of the plant, a second sensor (2) as a root area sensor in the root area of the plant and a third sensor (3) below the root area of the plant, characterized in that it comprises the following method steps includes: a) casting pulse (17) for a first predetermined by the system length of time go, b) watering pause (18) of watering for a first of the system predetermined period of time tgo, c) repeating the above method steps a) and b), d) detecting a message from the surface sensor (1) via a change in soil moisture as a result of watering, e) detecting a message from the root area sensor (2) via a change in soil moisture as a result of watering, f) detecting a message from the infiltration sensor (3). a change in soil moisture as a result of watering, g) determining a second optimized time period tgyı des watering and a second optimized time period t,p1 des pausing the watering, taking into account the out the messages from the sensors (1, 2, 3) resulting data and resulting seepage time, h) the previous process steps a) to g). repeated until one is optimal for the plant Irrigation duration and amount of water is determined.