• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.366-375
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• 2019

This experiment aims to determine the proper irrigation scheduling based on a whole-substrate capacitance using a newly developed device (SCMD) by comparing with the integrated solar radiation automated irrigation system (ISR) and sap flow sensor automated irrigation system (SF) for the cultivation of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L. 'Hoyong' 'Super Doterang') during spring to winter season. For the SCMD system, irrigation was conducted every 10 minutes after the first irrigation was started until the first run-off was occurred, of which the substrate capacitance was considered to be 100%. When the capacitance threshold (CT) was reached to the target point, irrigation was re-conducted. After that, when the target drain volume (TDV) was occurred, the irrigation stopped. The irrigation volume per event for the SCMD was set to 50, 75, or 100 mL at CT 0.9 and TDV 100 mL during the spring to summer cultivation, and the CT was set to 0.65, 0.75, 0.80, or 0.90 in the winter cultivation. When the irrigation volume per event was set to 50, 75, or 100 mL, the irrigation frequency in a day was 39, 29, and 19, respectively, and the drain rate was 3.04, 9.25, and 20.18%, respectively. When the CT was set to 0.65, 0.75, or 0.90 in winter, the irrigation frequency was about 6, 7, 15 times, respectively and the drain rate was 9.9, 10.8, 35.3% respectively. The signal of stem sap flow at the beginning of irrigation starting time did not correspond to that of solar irradiance when the irrigation volume per event was set to 50 or 75 mL, compared to that of 100 mL. In winter cultivation, the stem sap flow rate and substrate volumetric water content at the CT 0.65 treatment were very low, while they were very high at CT 0.90 was high. All the integrated data suggest that the proper range of irrigation volume per event is from 75 to 100 mL under at CT 0.9 and TDV 100 mL during the spring to summer cultivation, and the proper CT seems to be higher than 0.75 and lower than 0.90 under at 75 mL of the irrigation volume per event and TDV 70 mL during the winter cultivation. It is going to be necessary to investigate the relationship between capacitance value and substrate volumetric water content by determining the correction coefficient.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.197-205
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• 2024

This paper presents a fully automated stand-alone irrigation system with GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) module. Solar energy is utilized to power the system and it is aimed to conserve water by reducing water losses. The system is based on a DC water pump that draws energy from solar panels along with automated water flow control using a moisture sensor. It is also fitted with alert and protection system that consists of an ultrasonic sensor and GSM messages sender that transmits signals showing the levels of the water in the reservoir and the battery charge. The control system is designed to stop the water pump from pumping water either when the battery level drops to equal or less than 10% of its full charge, or when the water level becomes less than 10 cm high in the reservoir. The experimental results revealed that the system is appropriate to use in remote areas with water scarcity and away from the national grid.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.1-6
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• 2009

This study analyzed and evaluated the effect of agricultural water reduction by introducing automated agricultural water management using alternative cost approach. The approach is possible to evaluate none market property as an asset. The saved agricultural water was evaluated as none market property. As the alternative goods, Seongju and Donghwa dam, typical irrigation dams in domestic, were employed. The economic benefit from water saving effect of an automated agricultural water management was calculated as depreciation expense and maintaining cost of construction agricultural dam per saved agriculture water. As a result, the saved agriculture water was 8.5 million ton per year, and the economic benefit of it was $1.3{\sim}2.1$ million won.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 2000.11c
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• pp.764-769
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• 2000

A new transplant production system that produces high quality plug seedlings of specific crop has been studied. It is a plant factory designed to produce massive amount of virus free seedlings. The design concept for building this plant factory is to realize maximum energy efficiency and minimum initial investment and running cost. The basic production strategy is the sitespecific management. In this case, the management of the growth of individual plantlet is considered. This requires highly automated and information intensive production system in a closed aseptic environment the sterilized specific crops. One of the key components of this sophisticated system is the irrigation system. The conditions that this irrigation system has to satisfy are: 1. to perform the site specific crop management in irrigation and 2. to meet the no waste standard. The objective of this study is to develop an irrigation scheduling that can implement the no waste standard.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.58-58
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• 2022

With the development of advanced technology, automation of agricultural work is spreading. In association with the 4th industrial revolution-based technology, research on field smart farm technology is being actively conducted. A state-of-the-art unmanned automated agricultural production demonstration complex was established in Naju-si, Jeollanam-do. For the operation of the demonstration area platform, it is necessary to build a sophisticated, advanced, and intelligent field smart farming model. For the operation of the unmanned automated agricultural production demonstration area platform, we are building data on the growth of soybean for smart cultivated crops and conducting research to determine the optimal time for agricultural work. In order to operate an unmanned automation platform, data is collected to discover digital factors for water management immediately after planting, water management during the growing season, and determination of harvest time. A subsurface drip irrigation system was established for smart water management. Irrigation was carried out when the soil moisture was less than 20%. For effective water management, soil moisture was measured at the surface, 15cm, and 30cm depth. Vegetation indices were collected using drones to find key factors in soybean production prediction. In addition, major growth characteristics such as stem length, number of branches, number of nodes on the main stem, leaf area index, and dry weight were investigated. By discovering digital factors for effective decision-making through data construction, it is expected to greatly enhance the efficiency of the operation of the unmanned automated agricultural production demonstration area.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.28-35
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• 2020

This study is to compare irrigation efficiency between sap flow sensor automated system (SF) and conventional irrigation system based on integrated solar radiation automated system (ISR) in tomato rockwool hydroponics. Total irrigated volumes was higher in the ISR system by 5.0L per plant, a lower drainage rate was found in the SF system, compared to the ISR system. There was no difference in shoot and fruit fresh weights, water use efficiency (WUE) and water amount consumed for producing 200g of tomato fruit. The daily average sap flow density (SFD) was closer to the change of solar irradiance (SI) in the plant grown under the SF system, compared to the ISR system. The correlation coefficient (r²) between the fruit diameter and the volumetric water content during the 56 and 82 days after transplant showed the SF treatment was higher than the ISR at night and daytime, and the correlation was higher at night time. The sap flow density and humidity deficit (HD) of SF treatment was related as closely as the solar irradiance. Further studies should demonstrate that SF irrigation system is a convenient method for hydroponic farmers with advantages, such as growth, higher yield, WUE, and accuracy.

• Journal of Internet of Things and Convergence
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.93-98
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• 2023

In paddy rice farming, water management is a critical task. To suppress weed emergence during the early stages of growth, fields are deeply flooded, and after transplantation, the water level is reduced to promote rooting and stimulate stem generation. Later, water is drained to prevent the production of sterile tillers. The adequacy of water supply is influenced by various factors such as field location, irrigation channels, soil conditions, and weather, requiring farmers to frequently check water levels and control the ingress and egress of water. This effort increases if the fields are scattered in remote locations. Automated irrigation systems have been considered to reduce labor and improve productivity. However, the net income from rice production in 2022 was about KRW 320,000/10a on average, making it financially unfeasible to implement high-cost devices or construct new infrastructure. This study focused on developing an IoT-Based irrigation valve that can be easily integrated into existing agricultural infrastructure without additional construction. The research was carried out in three main areas: Firstly, an irrigation valve was designed for quick and easy installation on existing agricultural pipes. Secondly, a power circuit was developed to connect a low-power Cat M1 communication modem with an Arduino Nano board for remote operation. Thirdly, a cloud-based platform was used to set up a server and database environment and create a web interface that users can easily access.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.248-255
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• 2013

This study examined an automated irrigation technique by a frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) sensor for scheduling irrigation for tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L. 'Starbuck F1') cultivation aimed at avoiding effluent from an open hydroponic system with coir substrate containing different ratios of chip-to-dust (v/v) content. Specifically, the objectives were to undertake preliminary measurements of irrigation volumes, leachate volume, volumetric water content and electrical conductivity (EC) in the substrate, plant growth, fruit yield, and water use efficiency resulting from variation in chip content as an initial experiment. Commercial coir substrates containing different percentages of chips and dust (0 and 100%, 30 and 70%, 50 and 50%, or 70 and 30%), two-story coir substrates with different percentages of chips in the lower layer and dust in the upper layer (15 and 85%, 25 and 75%, or 35 and 65%), or rockwool slabs were used. The results showed that a negligible or no leachate was found for all treatments when plants were grown under a technique for scheduling non-drainage irrigation using a frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) sensor. Daily irrigation volume was affected by chip content in both commercial and two-story slabs. The highest plant growth, marketable fruit weight, and water-use efficiency were observed in the plants grown in the commercial coir slab containing 0% chips and 100% dust, indicating that the FDR sensor-auto-mated irrigation may be more useful for tomato cultivation in coir substrate containing 0% chips and 100% dust using water efficiently and minimizing or avoiding leachate and thus increasing yield and reducing pollution. Detailed experiment is necessary to closely focus on determining appropriate irrigation volume at each of irrigation as well as duration of each individual irrigation cycle depending on different physical properties of substrates using an automated irrigation system operated by the FDR sensor.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.252-252
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• 2017

Nowadays water shortage is becoming one of the biggest problems in the Korea. Many different methods are developed for conservation of water. Soil water management has become the most indispensable factor for augmenting the crop productivity especially on soybean (Glycine max L.) because of their high susceptibility to both water stress and water logging at various growth stages. The farmers have been using irrigation techniques through manual control which farmers irrigate lands at regular intervals. Automatic irrigation systems are convenient, especially for those who need to travel. If automatic irrigation systems are installed and programmed properly, they can even save you money and help in water conservation. Automatic irrigation systems can be programmed to provide automatic irrigation to the plants which helps in saving money and water and to discharge more precise amounts of water in a targeted area, which promotes water conservation. The objective of this study was to determine the possible effect of automatic irrigation systems based on soil moisture on soybean growth. This experiment was conducted on an upland field with sandy loam soils in Department of Southern Area Crop, NICS, RDA. The study had three different irrigation methods; sprinkle irrigation (SI), surface drip irrigation (SDI) and fountain irrigation (FI). SI was installed at spacing of $7{\times}7m$ and $1.8m^3/hr$ as square for per irrigation plot, a lateral pipe of SDI was laid down to 1.2 m row spacing with $2.3L\;h^{-1}$ discharge rate, the distance between laterals was 20 cm spacing between drippers and FI was laid down in 3m interval as square for per irrigation plot. Soybean (Daewon) cultivar was sown in the June $20^{th}$, 2016, planted in 2 rows of apart in 1.2 m wide rows and distance between hills was 20 cm. All agronomic practices were done as the recommended cultivation. This automatic irrigation system had valves to turn irrigation on/off easily by automated controller, solenoids and moisture sensor which were set the reference level as available soil moisture levels of 30% at 10cm depth. The efficiency of applied irrigation was obtained by dividing the total water stored in the effective root zone to the applied irrigation water. Results showed that seasonal applied irrigation water amounts were $60.4ton\;10a^{-1}$ (SI), $47.3ton\;10a^{-1}$ (SDI) and $92.6 ton\;10a^{-1}$ (FI), respectively. The most significant advantage of SDI system was that water was supplied near the root zone of plants drip by drip. This system saved a large quantity of water by 27.5% and 95.6% compared to SI, FI system. The average soybean yield was significantly affected by different irrigation methods. The soybean yield by different irrigation methods were $309.7kg\;10a^{-1}$ from SDI $282.2kg\;10a^{-1}$ from SI, $289.4kg\;10a^{-1}$ from FI, and $206.3kg\;10a^{-1}$ from control, respectively. SDI resulted in increase of soybean yield by 50.1%, 7.0% 9.8% compared to non-irrigation (control), FI and SI, respectively. Therefore, the automatic irrigation system supplied water only when the soil moisture in the soil went below the reference. Due to the direct transfer of water to the roots water conservation took place and also helped to maintain the moisture to soil ratio at the root zone constant. Thus the system is efficient and compatible to changing environment. The automatic irrigation system provides with several benefits and can operate with less manpower. In conclusion, improving automatic irrigation system can contribute greatly to reducing production costs of crops and making the industry more competitive and sustainable.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2016

Water drainage from the open hydroponics often causes significant environmental pollution due to agrochemicals and loss of water and nutrients. The objectives of this study were to show the potential application of an irrigation schedule based on threshold values of volumetric substrate water content for tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L. 'Samsamgu') cultivation in a commercial hydroponic farm during spring to summer cultivation. This study was performed for minimizing effluent from coir substrate hydroponics using a frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) sensor-automated irrigation, as compared with an integrated solar-radiation (IR) and conventional timer-irrigation (TIMER) after transplanting. In results, no significant difference in daily irrigation volume was found among the treatments until 88 days after transplant (DAT). However, during the 88 to 107 DAT, the daily irrigation volume was in the order of IR (2125 mL) > TIMER (2063 mL) > FDR (1983 mL), and during the 108 to 120 DAT, it was in the order of IR (2000 mL) > TIMER (1664 mL) > FDR (1500 mL). The lowest drainage volume was observed in the FDR treatment with the order of IR (12~19%) > TIMER (4~12%) > FDR (0~7%) during the entire growing period. A lower irrigation volume in the FDR treatment after 88 DAT may be due to the sensor's detecting capacity for less water absorption by plant after completing fruit maturity with apical pruning and removal of lower leaves, while a higher irrigation volume in the IR treatment may be due to gradual increase in integrated solar-radiation amount as closer to summer season. There was no significant difference in plant growth and fruit yield among the treatments; however, a 11% and 18% of higher soluble sugar content was observed in the FDR than that of TIMER and IR treatment. respectively.