Date of Award

6-23-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2021.

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Computer Science and Engineering

First Advisor

Silvia Figueira

Abstract

Agriculture is a huge field that can benefit from Internet of Things (IoT) with many solutions focused around the monitoring and management of water in irrigation or storage systems. Different types of sensors to measure water quality, amount, flow and pressure are used to monitor the health of these systems and actuators are deployed like pumps or valves to manage the water in theses 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 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, however effective, for monitoring and operating multi-tank irrigation systems, is an overkill for systems comprising of only a single water tank. Furthermore, the HA system thus far, had not included a mechanism for emptying the water tanks or for decreasing the existing water levels in the tank when needed for preventing damage to the tanks when freezing of the water was possible. This thesis discusses the implementation of a smart tank for the HA system which is comprised of an AU for water level control automation and is controlled directly by a slightly improved SU rather than a specialized Base Station.

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