Integration of pivot control technologies offers automation & cost-effective water-use efficiency

Advancing agricultural irrigation management and efficiency through cost-effective integration of data, machine learning and automation with commercially available center pivot technology is the goal of a Texas A&M AgriLife-led team.

The team designed a system utilizing off-the-shelf sensors and components to create a cost-effective and platform-independent system that will allow producers to realize benefits of irrigation technologies by integrating and automating information and decision support tools.

The team designed a system utilizing off-the-shelf sensors and components to create a cost-effective and platform-independent system.

The novel, next-generation center pivot automation and control system, or CPACS, integrates three important components:

Center pivot control system: High accuracy GPS data guides the center pivot speed and location controls.

Weather, crop & soil moisture data: This information allows the computer software to best prescribe the right amount of water at the right time. It integrates real-time soil moisture monitoring, near real-time and short-term evapotranspiration rates, and precipitation forecasting. Crop models with crop type and growth stage also help the system know how much water the plants need at different times during the growing season.

Soil moisture sensor placement: Though soil moisture sensing is not a new technique in the agricultural world, the technology has not always been optimized on a location-specific basis. This methodology recommends sensor placement based on local soil conditions and crop root zone depth, as well as sensor and communications reliability. This assists in balancing data reliability and cost-effectiveness.

There are some great advanced irrigation technologies available, but they are complex, underutilized, difficult to use and not well integrated in existing control systems; therefore, their benefits are not being fully realized,” Porter said.

She said the cooperative and complementary efforts in several research studies at the research facilities shared by AgriLife Research and U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service near Amarillo are changing that.

Marek said they were able to significantly improve commercially available systems by developing the technology suite.

“In our case, advanced automation includes automated communication of data from soil water sensors to the pivot controller,” he said. “We are using a processing model that looks at recent field data and the status today, plus a machine-learning process to integrate data and decisions with an automated controller. Together this tells the user and the system what to do and when. The system is also unique in that it logs all of what it does, and all of this happens at the pivot.”

The project team has several patents pending as a result of the work, Marek said.

Funding and in-kind support for the project was provided by a Texas A&M University System Water Seed Grant, AgriLife Research, AgriLife Extension, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, High Plains Underground Water Conservation District and the USDA-ARS Ogallala Aquifer Program.

Kay Ledbetter is an associate editor/senior writer/media relations specialist for Texas A&M AgriLife.