Automatically adjusting irrigation controller

• US 9,043,964 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2013
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rain Bird Corporation
• Original Assignee: Rain Bird Corporation
• Inventors: Nickerson, Harvey J., German, John R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): LAUGHLIN, NATHAN L
• Application Number:
  US14/042,435
• Publication Number:
  US 20140031996A1
• Time in Patent Office: 610 Days
• Field of Search: 700282-284, 239/19, 239/723, 137/78.2, 405 36- 37
• US Class Current: 700/284
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/16 Control of watering
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/167 Control by humidity of the soil itself or of devices simulating soil or of the atmosphere; Soil humidity sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/1842 Ambient condition change responsive
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/1866 For controlling soil irrigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/189 Soil moisture sensing

Abstract

Methods and devices are provided to automatically determine plant water requirements and adjust irrigation. In one implementation, a method comprises: receiving, from a user via a user interface of an irrigation control unit and at a time after an initial commercial sale, a region identifier corresponding to a region of the irrigation controller; identifying a set of historical values from a plurality of sets of historical values pre-stored in a memory of the irrigation control unit; receiving a current value of at least one other environmental variable from at least one sensor; receiving at least one historical value from the identified set of historical values from the memory; determining the plant water requirements using the at least one historical value and the current value; outputting an adjustment control message to the irrigation controller; and adjusting execution of the irrigation schedule, the irrigation schedule defined for a peak irrigation period.

Claims

1. A method for use in irrigation control comprising:

receiving, from a user via a user interface of an irrigation control unit and at a time after an initial commercial sale of the irrigation control unit, a region identifier corresponding to a region of the irrigation controller, wherein the irrigation control unit is external to and at a location of an irrigation controller configured to execute an irrigation schedule;

identifying, by the irrigation control unit using the region identifier, a set of historical values of one or more environmental variables from a plurality of sets of historical values pre-stored in a memory of the irrigation control unit prior to the initial commercial sale of the irrigation control unit, wherein each of the plurality of sets of historical values corresponds to a different region, wherein the historical values of each of the one or more environmental variables stored in the memory comprise a plurality of historical values corresponding to different time periods;

wherein the one or more environmental variables of each of the plurality of sets of historical values are useful in determining plant water requirements, wherein the region identifier corresponds to a region having representative environmental conditions indicated by one of plurality of sets of historical values stored in the memory;

receiving, by the irrigation control unit, a current value of at least one other environmental variable useful in determining the plant water requirements from at least one sensor coupled to the irrigation control unit, the at least one other environmental variable being different from the one or more environmental variables and comprising temperature;

receiving, by the irrigation control unit, at least one historical value from the identified set of historical values of the one or more environmental variables from the memory;

determining, by the irrigation control unit, the plant water requirements using the at least one historical value and the current value of the at least one other environmental variable;

outputting, by the irrigation control unit and based on the determined plant water requirements, an adjustment control message to the irrigation controller; and

adjusting, by the irrigation controller, execution of the irrigation schedule stored by the irrigation controller in accordance with the adjustment control message, the irrigation schedule defined for a peak irrigation period.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the plant water requirements comprise evapotranspiration (ET).

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the evapotranspiration (ET) comprises a reference ET value.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more variables of each set of the plurality of sets of historical values comprise wind speed and humidity.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more variables of each set of the plurality of sets of historical values comprise wind speed, solar radiation and humidity.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one other environmental variable comprises rainfall.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the irrigation schedule comprises a user entered irrigation schedule entered by a user at a user interface of the irrigation controller.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the adjusting step comprises adjusting, by the irrigation controller, execution of the irrigation schedule by adjusting scheduled run times of the irrigation schedule in accordance with the adjustment control message.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the adjusting step comprises adjusting, by the irrigation controller, execution of the irrigation schedule by not irrigating at scheduled times of the irrigation schedule in accordance with the adjustment control message.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the adjustment control message accounts for rainfall.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the adjustment control message accounts for an amount of received rainfall.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the different time periods for the historical values of the environmental variables comprise at least one of:

different days of a year, different weeks of a year, different months of a year and different seasons of a year.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving the at least one historical value step comprises receiving, by the irrigation control unit, at least one historical value corresponding to a current time period from the identified set of historical values of the one or more environmental variables from the memory.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving the at least one historical value step comprises receiving, by the irrigation control unit, at least one historical value corresponding to a current season of the year from the identified set of historical values of the one or more environmental variables from the memory.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the region identifier comprises a geographic location identifier.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the irrigation control unit is not configured to be coupled to an external computer after the initial commercial sale to receive historical values.

17. An irrigation control system comprising:

an irrigation controller configured to execute an irrigation schedule defined for a peak irrigation period;

an irrigation control unit external to and coupled to the irrigation controller, the irrigation control unit at a location of the irrigation controller;

wherein the irrigation control unit comprises;

a memory storing a plurality of sets of historical values of one or more environmental variables, each set corresponding to a different region, wherein the historical values of each of the one or more environmental variables stored in the memory comprise a plurality of historical values corresponding to different time periods, wherein the plurality of sets of historical values are pre-stored in the memory prior to the initial commercial sale of the irrigation control unit, wherein the one or more environmental variables of each set of historical values are useful in determining plant water requirements;

a user interface configured to receive, at a time after an initial commercial sale of the irrigation control unit, from a user a region identifier corresponding to a region of the irrigation controller;

a sensor input configured to receive values from at least one sensor;

a first microcontroller configured to;

identify, using the region identifier, a set of historical values of the one or more environmental variables from the plurality of sets of historical values, wherein the region identifier corresponds to a region having representative environmental conditions indicated by one of plurality of sets of historical values stored in the memory;

receive a current value of at least one other environmental variable useful in determining the plant water requirements from at least one sensor coupled to the irrigation control unit, the at least one other environmental variable being different from the one or more environmental variables and comprising temperature;

receive at least one historical value from the identified set of historical values of the one or more environmental variables from the memory;

determine the plant water requirements using the at least one historical value and the current value of the at least one other environmental variable; and

generate an adjustment control message based on the determined plant water requirements; and

an output interface configured to output the adjustment control message to the irrigation controller;

wherein the irrigation controller comprises;

an input configured to receive the adjustment control message from the irrigation control unit; and

a second microcontroller configured to adjust execution of the irrigation schedule in accordance with the adjustment control message.

18. The system of claim 17 further comprising the at least one sensor coupled to the sensor input.