Modelling a low cost, data acquisition and irrigation sequencing system for a greenhouse on an 8 Bit PIC Microcontroller

Abstract

The debate on climate change is still going on and on, and there is still no convincing evidence that greenhouse gases are the real, real cause of the recent changes in climate patterns. Some records tend to suggest that the climate change that is taking place is a normal cycle. However with the ever increasing world population, we cannot be to sure about the future of food and water.

A variety of Water use efficiency methods have been proposed, but most of them have been found to be very expensive and complicated to use. In future each and every farmer, whether poor or uneducated might wake up in need of such a system, therefore the proposed applications need minimal cost components, less powerful controllers, minimal human-computer interaction.

This thesis presents a strategy to provide a computer-less Irrigation control system, which uses a cheap 8 bit, low processing power, small working memory and small storage capacity PIC Microcontroller which requires minimal human-computer interaction, uses a single sensor and low electrical power.