Design and Simulation of an Adaptable Pulsating Irrigation System Using Programmable Logic Controller Unit

Due to the scarcity of water on the globe today, it is considered as a valuable natural resource. This requires intensive and applied research to preserve it, and this, in turn, requires the design of smart irrigation systems that use water according to the actual needs of plants and with the least possible waste. Currently, plants irrigation all over the world consumes most of the freshwater that should be used in other more important areas. The commercial irrigation water controllers that are widely used in the world do not fulfill their intended purpose of saving the amount of irrigation water. The development and lower price of PLC have made it possible to use them as standalone controllers for smart and economical irrigation. In this paper a PLC type (s7-200) was used to control daily pulsed irrigation amounts according to actual transpiration ETo, using the Hargreaves-Samani method. Once ETo is calculated by the PLC, it begins to manage the timing of the irrigation system pulses as per the commands given by its program depending on the calculated values of the ETo.