Microclimate-Specific Sprinkling System

Rain Bird Corporation Engineering, 2005-06

Liaison(s): Jason Alderman
Advisor(s): Joseph King
Students(s): Tyler Jank (TL), Renee Campbell (S), Alice Clifton (F), Donya Frank, Eugene Hsueh, Bart Oegema (S), Nate Schlossberg (F)

The goal of this project is to build a smart watering system to reduce water wastage during landscape irrigation. Traditional sprinkler systems are designed to water for the driest area, which means all other areas are over-watered. Rain Bird has requested that the team develop a system to solve this problem by adjusting for the microclimates within an irrigation zone. Our system would adjust for each microclimate by keeping on or turning off each sprinkler based on the moisture level in the area that each sprinkler covers. In order to develop this system the team has designed a wireless moisture sensor that transmits a moisture level to a central controller. That controller is attached to each valve and will cut off power to the sprinkler valve if the microclimate has been sufficiently watered.