Drip irrigation system based on distributed control — Part 1: Design and model

Improving the efficiency of drip irrigation systems contributes to the sustainable water usage in agricultural countries. By using distributed systems concepts, the drip irrigation control can be achieved with precision and saving water resources. In this paper we present a model based on replicator dynamics to control the soil moisture in a crop terrain with multiple zones. The method takes into account weather issues such as the rain to obtain the appropriate amount of water needed by the soil. The proposed strategy is evaluated by means of simulations in different scenarios and it is compared to traditional irrigation systems to propose a real implementation.