IRRIGATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20090277506A1
• Filed: 05/08/2009
• Published: 11/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lindsay Corporation
• Original Assignee: WMC Technology Limited
• Inventors: Ricketts, Michael George, Bradbury, Stuart Francis
• Granted Patent: US 8,739,830 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 137/1
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/16 Control of watering
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 40/22 Improving land use; Improving water use or availability; Controlling erosion
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/0318 Processes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/1866 For controlling soil irrigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/402 Distribution systems involving geographic features
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 137/86397 With independent valve controller

Abstract

An irrigation system includes a control arrangement which receives field information relating to an area to be irrigated and source information relating to one or more water sources which supply water to the irrigation system. The control arrangement optimizes an irrigation plan based on the field information and source information and then controls one or more irrigators in accordance with the plan. The control arrangement may pulse valves positioned on the irrigator on and off in order to control the amount of water applied to the land by individual outlets on the irrigator. Latching valves may be used.

Claims

1. An irrigation system including:

a plurality of water outlets for delivering water to an area to be irrigated;

a plurality of valves for controlling flow through the outlets; and

a control arrangement configured to receive;

source information relating to a water source; and

field information relating to an area to be irrigated;

the control arrangement being configured to control the valves so as to control flow through the outlets based at least in part on the source information and the field information.

2. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the outlets are positioned on one or more irrigators.

3. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the irrigators are centre-pivot and/or lateral-move irrigators.

4. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the source information includes one or more water quota parameters.

5. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the source information includes one or more source pressure parameters.

6. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 5 wherein the source pressure parameters include one or more of:

a maximum pressure, a minimum pressure and an actual pressure.

7. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the source information includes one or more source flow parameters.

8. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the source flow parameters include one or more of:

a maximum flow, a minimum flow and an actual flow.

9. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 1 wherein at least some of the source information is gathered and used to update irrigation parameters in real time.

10. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the control arrangement is configured to receive field information relating to the area to be irrigated and to control the valves so as to control flow through the outlets based in part on the field information.

11. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the field information includes one or more of:

aerial photographs, soil type maps, soil moisture maps and conductivity maps.

12. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the field information includes one or more of:

areas not to be irrigated, crop types and terrain information.

13. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the field information includes historical data.

14. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the control arrangement includes a central controller configured to create and send control signals.

15. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the control arrangement also includes a main controller for each irrigator in the irrigation system, each main controller receiving irrigator control signals from the central controller and controlling the valves on the corresponding irrigator in accordance with the control signals.

16. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the control arrangement also includes a plurality of node controllers for each irrigator in the irrigation system, each node controller receiving node control signals from one of the main controllers and controlling a subset of valves on the corresponding irrigator.

17. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 15 wherein the irrigator control signals are communicated over a wireless link.

18. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 15 wherein the node control signals are communicated over a wireless link.

19. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 18 wherein at least some of the node controllers also act as repeaters in the wireless link.

20. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the control arrangement is configured to control speed of irrigator movement.

21. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 1 including one or more positioning systems configured to determine the position of each irrigator in the irrigation system.

22. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 21 wherein the positioning systems include one or more GPS receivers positioned on an irrigator.

23. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 21 wherein the positioning systems include one or more shaft encoders for determining rotational position of centre-pivot irrigators.

24. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the valves are latching valves.

25. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the control arrangement is configured to receive long term planning information and to control the valves based in part on this long term planning information.

26. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the long term planning information includes one or more of:

expected crop needs, expected crop need as a function of time, expected rainfall, expected rainfall as a function of time, and expected availability of water.

27. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 25 wherein the plan is updated automatically or manually throughout the plan term due to changes in weather or other plan input conditions.

28. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 1, including a chemical and/or fertilizer injection system adapted to introduce chemicals and/or fertilizers into the water flow and wherein the source information includes chemical and/or fertilizer source information.

29. An irrigation system including:

a plurality of water outlets for delivering water to an area to be irrigated;

a plurality of latching valves for controlling flow through the outlets; and

a control arrangement configured to control the latching valves so as to control flow through the outlets in accordance with an irrigation plan.

30. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 29 wherein the latching valves are magnetic latching solenoid valves.

31. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 29 including a low voltage supply for powering the latching valves.

32. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 31 wherein the low voltage supply is a 24V direct current supply.

33. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 29 wherein the control arrangement is configured to cause actuation of at most a subset of the valves at any one time.

34. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 33 wherein the control arrangement is configured to cause actuation of at most one valve per valve power supply at any one time.

35. An irrigation system as claimed in claim 29 wherein the control arrangement includes a plurality of node controllers which each receive node control signals and control a subset of the valves in accordance with the node control signals, the node controllers and latching valves being powered by a low voltage power source.

36. An irrigation system including:

a plurality of water outlets for delivering water to an area to be irrigated; and

a control arrangement configured to receive source information relating to a water source and to control irrigation parameters based at least in part on the source information.

37. A method of controlling an irrigation system, including:

receiving source information relating to a water source;

receiving field information relating to an area to be irrigated; and

controlling irrigation parameters in accordance with the source information and the field information.

38. A computer readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for implementation of the method of claim 37.