IoT System Monitors and Controls Farm Irrigation Systems

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IoT System Monitors and Controls Farm Irrigation Systems

An IoT system to monitor and control farm irrigation systems developed by WaterForce, Schneider Electric and Microsoft is reducing water consumption by 30% and energy used for irrigation by 50%.

The system is based on Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxture IoT architecture and platform and the Microsoft Azure IoT suite. It enables farmers to control pivot irrigators via a laptop or smartphone based on information from the irrigators and environmental data such as temperature, soil moisture content and wind speed and direction.

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Closeup of sensor hardware, installed on pivot . Credit: Schneider Electric

WaterForce has been developing the system, known as ScadaFarm for the past four years but according to Schneider Electric a key recent development is the use of its WonderWare Online Insight in conjunction with Microsoft Azure to provide advanced analytics and historical data capture across desktop and mobile.

“WonderWare Online InSight collects and stores high fidelity, time-series data from multiple, disparate sensors and smart devices in a secure cloud environment,” Schneider Electric says.

“Information is delivered to authorised users, via web or mobile, in easy-to-digest power analysis and intelligent reporting tools such as charts, dashboards, newsfeeds and alerts.”

Schneider Electric has highlighted deployment of the system at Blackhils Farm on the Rakaia River, a 400 hectare farm with over 1000 cattle 800 lambs and growing kale, beet and rapeseed. It runs six pivots, the largest being over 700 metres in length. Schneider Electric has posted a video on YouTube about the installation

Read full article: Computerworld

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http://www.youtube.com/embed/o-cM3NZ7YEc

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