INTRODUCTION:
With the impending scarcity of nonrenewable resources, people consider to use alternate renewable sources of energy. From all available renewable resources, solar energy is the most abundant energy available and at the same time it can be easily converted into electrical energy. The solar energy refers primarily to the use of solar radiation for practical ends. Currently solar energy is very popular but a fixed solar panel cannot obtain maximum energy from sun due to its movement from east to west. In order to attain maximum efficiency while collecting solar energy, sun tracking based on intensity of radiation and time delay technique's are employed in this proposed prototype. The solar energy collected can be used to provide power for the automatic irrigation system. In the field of agriculture, use of proper method of irrigation is important because lack of rain and scarcity of land reservoir water. Continuous extraction of water from earth reduces the water level and a significant amount of underground water is wasted due to the improper usage. For this purpose, an automatic plant irrigation system is proposed, which irrigates the field depending upon the soil moisture content. The setup consists of an embedded system capable of automatically irrigating the land without human intervention using power derived from solar energy. The prototype is capable of sensing the moisture content based on the threshold values and supply water to it.
BLOCK DIAGRAM
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: o MSP 430 Microcontroller trainer kit o ULN2003A(Relay driver IC) o IC 7805 o TCS 4105(GSM module) o OP-AMP o MOSFET
WORKING:
Two techniques involved in this proposed prototype 1. SUN TRACKING: A solar panel in a fixed orientation between the dawn and sunset will lose about 75% of the energy in the morning and evening compared to rotating solar panel. Therefore the panels are rotated from east to west to recapture