Automate Flood Irrigation
Completely automate flood irrigated fields. AutoFlood™, pat. pending, retrofits manually operated delivery gates with reliable, smart low-cost actuators. The AutoFlood system senses when water enters an on-flood canal, wakes the system up, controls all the field gates, Pipe and Check-gates, detects water as it moves down-field so AutoFlood can optimize gate operations and virtually eliminates spill into drainage canals while assuring proper flooding. Operators will monitor and control via cellphone. Save 75-90% of labor costs and reduce water consumption 5-10%.
Unattended AutoFlood Operations
Detects water flow into on-farm canal and wakes up AutoFlow Opens and closes pipe (delivery) gates in user defined sequence:
- Detects flow down-field to calculate time to complete flooding
- Goes to sleep when irrigation is done and waits for water to re-renter canal.
System Components
Gate Retrofit Assembly
The AutoFlood retrofit slips right into a standard "pipe" delivery frame once the old blade is removed. The new AutoFlood blade with its attached "A"-frame actuator platform assembly is ready to automate flood irrigation as soon as the frame is bolted to the canal and a battery is installed in the WT-50 enclosure. It will be able to "talk" to its Controller, open fully or partially as needed by the system, and collect and report its station data.
Water Present Sensor
A Water-Present sensor is installed in each section of the field to be flooded. It is linked by software to one or more gates flooding the field. The sensor wakes up periodically to look for water or a signal from the Controller to go to "active" mode. When water reaches the sensor it broadcasts the event to the Controller so the Controller can calculate water transit-time to the sensor from the gate its is attached to and then from the sensor to the end of the field. Lithium-ion batteries guarantee multiple years of typical operations before replacement.
Field Controller
The Field Controller is the brain of the on-farm AutoFlood system. It manages communication to all gates and sensors, while controlling gate positions, Check gate positions, and on-farm canal level, collects and stores data on all battery voltages, time tags for all gate operations, performs calculations for water flow transit times, and much more. It generates system alarms and communicates to end users via an optional cell-modem or on-board 900 MHz radio. It can also link to other Controllers within radio range to act as a data accumulator for more efficient system-wide data management. Operators will define their irrigation sequence preferences and generally customize how AutoFlood will work for them by changing AutoFlood setpoints in the Controller.
Automated Check Gates for On-Farm Canals
Check-gates are used in on-farm canals to manage proper water level (head) at pipe gates. Typically, Check-gates divide an on-farm canal into sections and are closed and opened as irrigation operations move downstream along the canal to assure sufficient head at the most upstream pipe openings of each segment. AutoFlood also can use the Checks to manage canal level against system intolerable extremes of water level.
