Smarter Irrigation 2: Precise real-time automated cotton & dairy irrigation for improved water productivity

This project is building on previous research to further develop fully autonomous broadacre irrigation systems for cotton (furrow and pivot) and dairy pasture (pivot). Research is being conducted on large commercial-scale fields under commercial farming conditions.

The project will maximise yield improvements or water saving objectives using existing advanced bio-physical crop modelling. This will be done in conjunction with the latest irrigation optimisation models, under the VARIwise control system. In addition, the project will further develop two minimal viable products (MVPs); VARIwise cotton yield and dairy pasture biomass prediction capability based on fixed tower and UAV camera vision analysis of key plant attributes; and synchronous furrow irrigation optimisation measurement and modelling techniques. The latter product is being upgraded to operate synchronously and autonomously from Taggle IrriMATE advance sensors using SISCOweb.