Design and Implementation of a Smart Electric Fence Built on Solar with an Automatic Irrigation System

One of the major challenges faced by farmers is that their farms are eaten by animals, which causes huge losses for them in terms of money, time, and effort. Constant agricultural maintenance becomes quite difficult. To solve this issue, a smart electric fence is created that energizes when an animal approaches it, and de-energizes when it moves away. The proposed system produces a very tiny shock pulses that paralyze the animal instead of injuring it. Additionally, an autonomous irrigation system is installed that activates the pump whenever the soil becomes dry and shuts it down when the soil becomes wet. Solar energy, a free energy source, powers the entire system. The demo module has two sets of IR sensors which are placed in separate locations all across the module. IR sensors are used to detect an approaching animal at the boundary. These miniature pole-mounted sensors also include conducting wires that produce shocking pulses. A high-frequency switching transformer with a ferrite core can produce shocking pulses when an IC 555 is configured in an astable mode of operation. The main processing unit is built on an Arduino nano-board. Information about the soil state, such as whether it is dry or wet, the motor state, such as whether it is on or off can be displayed on an LCD and transmitted to the app through the Wi-Fi module. An ESP8266-based communication link with a smartphone is employed. Simple soil sensors are used, and the water pumping motor connected to a tiny plastic water container will be mechanically controlled based on the data collected by these sensors. The motor will start running if the earth is completely dried out. Likewise, if the ground is damp, the motor will be off. When the fence is activated, the buzzer is activated automatically to notify inmates of their whereabouts. Once the fence is energized, it remains energized until the reset button is activated.