Engineering Role in Irrigation Channels

The role of Electrical-, Electronic-, Computer-, Control- and Information Engineering in operation of irrigation channel

Control engineering. Design of control algorithms for moving the gates along the channel such that flows and water levels are kept on set point and minimal amount of water is wasted.

Signal processing. Design of filters to remove effects of high frequency waves and estimation of wave frequencies.

Computer engineering/Electronic engineering. Interface measurement devices such as water level sensors and gate position sensors with microprocessors. Design of boards with microprosseors, analog and digital input and output, memory and busses for collection and transmission of water level and gate position data.

Communication systems. The data collected at each gate (water level measurements and gate position measurements) are transmitted to a central computer and to other gates via a radio network, and the new gate positions are recieved via the same radio network.

Mathematics. Provides the foundation for control, signal processing, communcation etc.

Software engineering. Computer implementations of the control systems, filters, communcation systems, etc.

Electrical engineering. The gates are moved using electrical motors. The motors and the electronic hardware get their power from solar panels.