DEVELOPMENT OF A SCADA SYSTEM FOR IRRIGATION PROGRAMMING AND EDUCATIONAL USE IN AGRICULTURE

Along the last three decades, SCADA systems (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) are being widely used in agriculture applications and specifically in irrigation systems management. E.g. Climate control computers in greenhouses are used to control heating and ventilation, supply water and dilute and dispense nutrients, etc. They integrate models into optimally controlled systems. The introduction of modern software and hardware concepts in Agriculture adds power and extra opportunities to automation in this sector. The objective of this communication is to show a SCADA system for irrigation programming and educational use in Agriculture. This system is made up a SCADA application developed with LabVIEW® and a DAQ-card used for data collecting of transducers and the activation of actuators of an irrigation system. This application includes the advantages of a high range irrigation programmer and a low cost. Using different SCADA applications, this system allows automating, in different grades, diverse irrigation systems. Moreover, because this SCADA application is developed with a programming language, complex mathematical models could be implemented for irrigation programming. Additionally, as this SCADA application works in a PC, data sampling and on line irrigation programming by Internet are included. On this paper, a SCADA application that combines the NI USB 6008® DAQ-card with a drip irrigation system model for educational use is presented. Moreover, the possibilities of using this DAQ-card increasing the features of this software are shown.