IoT-Based Automatic Irrigation Scheduling Using MQTT Protocol

Abstract

In this paper, an IoT-based wireless sensor network for automatic irrigation of agricultural fields has been designed and developed. Four numbers of sensor nodes are placed over the desired locations to collect data from an agricultural field, and a controller node is placed near the pump to control the water flow of the agricultural field. The sensor node consists of a microcontroller NodeMCU ESP8266 and a soil moisture sensor, and the controller node is made of NodeMCU ESP8266 and a relay to control the on–off state of the pump. The soil moisture sensor of these nodes collects soil moisture content data and delivers it to the cloud or server using the message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) protocol, through wireless communications modules. The ThingSpeak cloud platform is used where the data is aggregated and processed to make a decision about the status of the pump. This proposed system ensures that the agricultural farm receives the exact amount of water it needs and prevents water waste. As the moisture content in the soil drops below the specified value, the system will automatically start the pump. Detected parameters and current pump status are displayed on the user’s Android application. The farmer uses the Android app to receive updates on the status of his field.