Montagem, instalação e testes de sistemas de controle de irrigação com diferentes níveis de automação.

Abstract

The specific aim of this research was to assembly, install and test irrigation control systems with different levels of automation, in terms of yield and water use efficiency. The systems were defined as non automatic, automatic by timer, and automatic intelligent. The two simpler systems were assembled in a shorter time due to less complexity. Concomitantly to assembling the intelligent system, the other two systems were tested using drip irrigation in melons. A control algorithm based in fuzzy logic was developed for the intelligent system. This system included in its configuration soil sensors and a digital control card. In a second test, the three systems were tested using drip irrigation in beans. The systems non automatic and automatic by timer did not presented differences related to yield and water use efficiency in both tests. The intelligent system presented an water use efficiency 39% larger than non automatic system and 19% larger than the system automatic by timer, with a decrease in yield of 27% when compared to the latter.