Irrigation control and management system
First Claim
1. A method of providing cooperative control of irrigation between an operator having direct supervision of at least one irrigation station and management located remote to said at least one irrigation station, said controlled irrigation to occur at said at least one irrigation station having at least one head in relation to soil and plant material to be irrigated, wherein said irrigation is controlled by a control processor coupled to memory means, said control processor also being coupled to operator communication means, said control processor being located proximate to said at least one irrigation station, and said control processor capable of communicating with weather determining means and further capable of communicating with remote management communication means, said method comprising the steps of:
- creating a historical weather data accumulation in said memory means that is based on historical weather data elements stored in said memory means;
loading a budget value representing a predetermined budget for a predetermined period in said memory means;
accepting an operator communicated irrigation-related value through said operator communication means;
determining at said control processor a projected water usage for said predetermined period based on said operator communicated irrigation-related value combined with said historical weather data accumulation; and
determining at said control processor if said projected water usage will exceed said predetermined budget, whereby results of the determination of whether said projected water usage operator will exceed said predetermined budget is available through said operator communication means to the operator for consideration when directing water allocation to said plant material and said results are also available to the remote management through said remote management communication means so that the remote management may monitor and supervise any operator directed water allocation, thereby providing cooperative control of irrigation between an operator having direct supervision of at least one irrigation station and management located remote to said at least one irrigation station.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for providing cooperative control of irrigation between a groundskeeper having immediate supervision on plants to be irrigated and management personnel remotely located by using weather data and water budget restrictions. The system implements a method that involves responding to a signal from an atmometer that a predetermined "threshold" amount of water has been lost to evapotranspiration at or near an irrigation station. A daily total of these threshold signals are stored in a weather table for use in automatically determining a quantity of water that has been lost to evapotranspiration at the station since the most recent irrigation. The determined quantity is automatically combined with an evapotranspiration factor in order to determine how much water to replace. Alternatively, current data received from a remote site may used by the machine executed means to override the weather data table. An automatic check is performed to determine if the amount scheduled for application will exceed a predetermined budget based on historical weather data. If the budget is to be exceeded, an alert is sent via an attached display to an operator. The operator may use a keypad to instruct control logic to perform corrective action. If no corrective action is taken, then a "budget noncompliance" report is recorded in permanent storage for review by management personnel.
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Citations
45 Claims
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1. A method of providing cooperative control of irrigation between an operator having direct supervision of at least one irrigation station and management located remote to said at least one irrigation station, said controlled irrigation to occur at said at least one irrigation station having at least one head in relation to soil and plant material to be irrigated, wherein said irrigation is controlled by a control processor coupled to memory means, said control processor also being coupled to operator communication means, said control processor being located proximate to said at least one irrigation station, and said control processor capable of communicating with weather determining means and further capable of communicating with remote management communication means, said method comprising the steps of:
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creating a historical weather data accumulation in said memory means that is based on historical weather data elements stored in said memory means; loading a budget value representing a predetermined budget for a predetermined period in said memory means; accepting an operator communicated irrigation-related value through said operator communication means; determining at said control processor a projected water usage for said predetermined period based on said operator communicated irrigation-related value combined with said historical weather data accumulation; and determining at said control processor if said projected water usage will exceed said predetermined budget, whereby results of the determination of whether said projected water usage operator will exceed said predetermined budget is available through said operator communication means to the operator for consideration when directing water allocation to said plant material and said results are also available to the remote management through said remote management communication means so that the remote management may monitor and supervise any operator directed water allocation, thereby providing cooperative control of irrigation between an operator having direct supervision of at least one irrigation station and management located remote to said at least one irrigation station. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An irrigation management and control system for providing cooperative control of irrigation between an operator having direct supervision of at least one irrigation station and management located remote to said at least one irrigation station, said controlled irrigation to occur at said at least one irrigation station having at a control valve and at least one irrigation head in relation to plant material growing in a predetermined area of soil, said system comprising:
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a control processor coupled with memory means and further coupled with said control valve, said control processor being located proximate to said at least one irrigation station, and control processor capable of communicating with weather determining means; operator communication means coupled to said control processor; remote management communication means adapted to communicate with said control processor; machine executed means coupled for issuing commands to said control valve for executing an operator request to apply an amount of water at said at least one irrigation station from said at least one irrigation head; and the machine executed means including means for allowing an operator to determine the distribution of an allocated water budget by; creating a historical weather data accumulation in said memory means that is based on historical weather data elements stored in said memory means; loading a budget value representing a predetermined budget for a predetermined period in said memory means; accepting an operator communicated irrigation-related value through said operator communication means; determining at said control processor a projected water usage for said predetermined period based on said operator communicated irrigation-related value combined with said historical weather dam accumulation; and determining at said control processor if said projected water usage will exceed said predetermined budget, whereby results of the determination of whether said projected water usage operator will exceed said predetermined budget is available through said operator communication means to the operator for consideration when directing water allocation to said plant material, and said results are also available to the remote management through said remote management communication means so that the remote management max monitor and supervise any operator directed water allocation, thereby providing cooperative control of irrigation between an operator having direct supervision of at least one irrigation station and management located remote to said at least one irrigation station. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A control apparatus for providing cooperative control of irrigation between an operator proving direct supervision of at least one irrigation station and management located remote to said at least one irrigation station, said controlled irrigation to occur at said at least one irrigation station having plant material growing in a predetermined area of soil at said at least one irrigation station, said at least one irrigation station having at least one irrigation head and a control valve, said apparatus comprising:
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a control processor coupled with memory means and being located proximate to said at least one irrigation station, said control processor capable of communicating with weather determining means; operator communication means coupled with said control processor; remote management communication means adapted to communicate with said control processor; means coupled with said control processor for creating a historical weather table in said memory means that is based on historical weather data elements stored in said memory means; means coupled with said control processor for loading a budget value representing a predetermined budget for a predetermined period in said memory means; means coupled with said control processor for accepting an operator communicated irrigation-related value through said operator communication means; means coupled with said control processor for determining at said control processor a projected water usage for said predetermined period based on said operator communicated irrigation-related value combined with said historical weather data table; and means coupled with said control processor for determining at said control processor if said projected water usage will exceed said predetermined budget, whereby results of the determination of whether said projected water usage operator will exceed said predetermined budget is available through said operator communication means to the operator for consideration when directing water allocation to said plant material and said results are also available to the remote management through said remote management communication means so that the remote management may monitor and supervise any operator directed water allocation, thereby providing cooperative control of irrigation between an operator having direct supervision of at least one irrigation station and management located remote to said at least one irrigation station. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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Specification