Modeling and control of interacting irrigation channels

Abstract

One of the most important activities in agriculture is irrigation, which has a high ecological impact and expends around 85$%$ of the freshwater that humanity consumes. In the irrigation process, most of the water is transported by networks of open-channel irrigation systems (OCIS) to each farmer. Despite the importance of the process, in Colombia these systems are not automatized in order to reduce the waste of water. Additionally, several studies address the control problem in non-interactive channels, however in OCIS the water is usually transported by interactive channels. In this paper, a modeling and control strategy for interactive channels are proposed. The model is based on mass balance and considers interactions, delays, and potential energy difference along the channels. The control strategy used is backstepping. The model is compared with EPA-SWMM, and the control strategy is tested over the proposed model. The results show that the model is suitable for control systems design and the control strategy is able to overcome parameter variation, channel interaction, nonlinearities, and internal delays.