Volumetric budget based irrigation control

• US 10,188,050 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2016
• Issued: 01/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rain Bird Corporation
• Original Assignee: Rain Bird Corporation
• Inventors: Walker, Ryan L., Nickerson, Harvey J., Snider, Blake
• Primary Examiner(s): MENZ, LAURA MARY
• Application Number:
  US14/989,771
• Publication Number:
  US 20160113220A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,119 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/16 Control of watering
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/021 in which a variable is automatically adjusted to optimise the performance

Abstract

The present embodiments provide systems, processes and/or methods of controlling irrigation. In some embodiments, methods are provided that receive (4112) water usage information corresponding to a first volumetric water usage at a site location having an irrigation controller (130), wherein the first volumetric water usage corresponds to volumetric water usage from a beginning of a budget period of time to a first time within the budget period of time; determine (4114) automatically whether a volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the first volumetric water usage, the volumetric water budget corresponding to a specified volume of water for use during the budget period of time; determine (4116) automatically, in the event the volumetric water budget will not be met, an adjustment to the irrigation by the irrigation controller; and output (4118) signaling to effect the adjustment.

Claims

1. A method of controlling irrigation, the method comprising:

receiving water usage information corresponding to a first volumetric water usage at a site location having an irrigation controller configured to implement and control irrigation at the site and comprising valve drivers each configured to activate one or more valves distributed through the site location and an irrigation controller processor configured to implement an irrigation schedule stored in local memory of the irrigation controller, wherein the first volumetric water usage corresponds to volumetric water usage from a beginning of a budget period of time to a first time within the budget period of time;

determining automatically whether a volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the first volumetric water usage, the volumetric water budget corresponding to a specified volume of water for use during the budget period of time;

determining automatically, in the event the volumetric water budget will not be met, an adjustment to the irrigation by the irrigation controller, wherein the adjustment comprises a reduction of runtimes of remaining irrigation events scheduled to occur during the budget period of time such that the adjustment substantially spreads a compensation for an amount of water usage that will exceed the volumetric water budget over the remaining irrigation events; and

outputting signaling causing the irrigation controller to control the valve drivers of the irrigation controller to control opening and closing of one or more of the valves at the site location coupled with the irrigation controller in controlling water released through water delivery devices fluidly coupled with a corresponding one of the valves in controlling irrigation at the irrigation site to effect the adjustment.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving step comprises:

receiving the water usage information taken by a water meter at the site location and corresponding to the first volumetric water usage at the site location having the irrigation controller.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the budget period of time spans multiple irrigation cycles implemented by the irrigation controller.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first volumetric water usage during the budget period of time comprises an accumulation of volumetric water usage at least from two or more of the multiple irrigation cycles.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining automatically whether the volumetric water budget will be met step is performed by the irrigation controller processor of the irrigation controller and output the signaling to cause the irrigation controller to control the valve drivers at the irrigation site to effect the adjustment.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining automatically a predicted volumetric water usage at the site location, the predicted volumetric water usage is based at least on the first volumetric water usage and a second volumetric water usage predicted for a remainder of the budget period of time;

wherein the determining automatically whether the volumetric water budget at the site location will be met step comprises;

determining automatically whether the volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the predicted volumetric water usage.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of determining automatically the predicted volumetric water usage comprises:

predicting non-irrigation volumetric water usage;

predicting irrigation volumetric water usage; and

summing the non-irrigation volumetric water usage and the irrigation volumetric water usage.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of determining automatically the predicted volumetric water usage comprises:

identifying one or more predicted irrigation events where an irrigation event is an event identified in which irrigation is predicted to be activated; and

predicting irrigation volumetric water usage for each of the one or more identified predicted irrigation events; and

summing the predicted irrigation volumetric water usage for the one or more identified predicted irrigation events.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of identifying the one or more predicted irrigation events comprises:

predicting evapotranspiration (ET) values that correspond to one or more potential irrigation events remaining in the budget period of time; and

determining, for each of the one or more potential irrigation events remaining in the budget period of time and from the predicted ET values corresponding to the one or more potential irrigation events, whether irrigation is to be activated.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the water usage information comprises receiving user inputted information used to determine the water usage information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the water usage information is based on known water flow rate information corresponding to one or more irrigation components at the site location.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

communicating a notification that the irrigation is to be adjusted.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the communicating the notification comprises providing a predicted cost to exceed the water budget.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the communicating the notification causes the notification to be displayed on a display that is part of the irrigation controller.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the communicating the notification comprises communicating the notification to a display device that comprises a display, where the display device is separate from the irrigation controller.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating information relevant to the first volumetric water usage at the site location to a display causing the information relevant to the first volumetric water usage to be displayed.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the signaling to effect the adjustment causes adjustments selected from one or more of the group consisting of:

adjusting an irrigation schedule, replacing the irrigation schedule, applying one or more adjustment factors, adjusting irrigation of one or more irrigation zones, and terminating the irrigation.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a predicted volumetric water usage over a selected period of time during the budget period of time;

determining an actual volumetric water usage over the selected period of time as a function of the first volumetric water usage;

determining whether the determined actual volumetric water usage has a threshold difference from the determined predicted volumetric water usage over the selected period of time; and

identifying that a leak is detected in response to determining that the actual volumetric water usage has the threshold difference from the determined predicted volumetric water usage.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

generating, in response to identifying that the leak is detected, a notification that the leak is detected.

20. An apparatus for use in controlling irrigation, comprising:

an irrigation controller processor configured to implement an irrigation schedule;

a plurality of valve drivers each coupled with the irrigation controller processor and configured to activate water valves distributed through a site location where irrigation is controlled;

a memory that stores executable program code, wherein the irrigation controller processor is configured to execute the executable program code to;

receive water usage information corresponding to a first volumetric water usage at a site location having an irrigation controller and comprising valve drivers each configured to activate one or more valves distributed through the site location and configured to implement an irrigation schedule stored at the irrigation controller, wherein the first volumetric water usage corresponds to volumetric water usage from a beginning of a budget period of time to a first time within the budget period of time;

determine automatically whether a volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the first volumetric water usage, the volumetric water budget corresponding to a specified volume of water for use during the budget period of time;

determine automatically, in the event the volumetric water budget will not be met, an adjustment to irrigation by the irrigation controller, wherein the adjustment comprises a reduction of runtimes of remaining irrigation events scheduled to occur during the budget period of time such that the adjustment substantially spreads a compensation for an amount of water usage that will exceed the volumetric water budget over the remaining irrigation events; and

output signaling causing the irrigation controller to control the valve drivers of the irrigation controller to control opening and closing of one or more of the valves at the site location coupled with the irrigation controller in controlling water released through water delivery devices fluidly coupled with a corresponding one of the valves in controlling irrigation at the irrigation site to effect the adjustment.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the budget period of time spans multiple irrigation cycles implemented by the irrigation controller.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the irrigation controller processor is configured to receive the water usage information, wherein the water usage information is taken by a water meter at the site location and corresponding to the first volumetric water usage at the site location having the irrigation controller.

23. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the irrigation controller processor is further configured to execute the executable program code to:

determine automatically a predicted volumetric water usage at the site location, the predicted volumetric water usage is based at least on the first volumetric water usage and a second volumetric water usage predicted for a remainder of the budget period of time;

wherein the irrigation controller processor is further configured to determine automatically whether the volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the predicted volumetric water usage.

24. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

a display device communicationally coupled with the irrigation controller processor, wherein the display device is configured to display information corresponding to the first volumetric water usage.