Research and development of smart irrigation in China^*

Abstract

Smart irrigation systems are the focus of modern agriculture and have many engineering applications in China, in a still growing trend. According to the communication mode between the irrigation controller and the on-farm execute devices, such as solenoids and sensors, irrigation controllers currently used in agriculture fields can be classified into three categories: (a) multi-wire controller, (b) wireless controller, and (c) two-wire decoder controller. The characteristics and application scopes of these three irrigation controllers are summarized and analysed; the result shows that the wireless controller and two-wire decoder controller are more suitable for the large-scale intensive irrigated agriculture in China. In addition, control of irrigation systems is gradually progressing from the conventional open-loop mode to the closed-loop mode, which can achieve precise irrigation decisions based on sensor feedback and crop water requirement model. Furthermore, non-destructive testing technologies, such as crop canopy infrared temperature sensors and meteorological sensors, which can safely reflect crop drought or soil moisture over a large area are preferred as feedback sensors of irrigation controllers. More importantly, with the development of the internet, local operation of irrigation controllers is gradually being replaced by remote control, and then by comprehensive control and management, based on cloud computation. The application of internet technology can efficiently manage multiple irrigation controllers located in different places, make big data collections, share irrigation experiences, and make reasonable irrigation decisions much easier. This paper introduces the development of smart irrigation in China.