Hydration Automation (HA): Smart Tank

Many agricultural Internet of Things (IoT) solutions focus on the monitoring and management of water in irrigation or storage systems. The hydration automation (HA) automated water monitoring and management system utilizes low cost, small form factor, and sustainable sensing units (SUs) to collect water level reading of water storage systems through the use of an ultrasonic sensor and actuating units (AUs) for automating the control of valves and pumps that are operated via a Base Station. The SUs and AUs are housed in water proof, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly custom-built 3D printed casings and often placed miles away from each other in agricultural lands. This necessitates the existence of a long-range communication subsystem which utilizes the ÂB communication protocol atop of LoRa or other link layer protocols. This setup of the HA system, effective for monitoring and operating multi-tank irrigation systems, is however an overkill for systems comprising only a single water tank. Furthermore, the HA system thus far had not included a mechanism for remote emptying or decreasing of the existing water levels of water tanks. A capability that is, for instance, needed for preventing damage to the tanks when freezing of the water is possible. This paper discusses the implementation of a smart tank for the HA system which comprises an AU for water level control automation and is controlled directly by a minimally enhanced SU rather than a specialized Base Station.