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Integrating Recurrent Neural Networks and Deep Q-Networks for Precision Irrigation Control
Author(s)
Date Issued
January 1, 2025
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Agricultural irrigation accounts for a substantial portion of global water consumption, necessitating intelligent irrigation strategies. Conventional systems, such as fixed irrigation or evapotranspiration (ET)-based control, often exhibit inefficiencies due to reliance on static measurements and empirical farmer knowledge, lacking adaptive decision-making capabilities. To address this challenge, this paper presents an IoT-based framework integrating Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) for weather prediction and Deep Q-Networks (DQNs) for adaptive irrigation decisions. The RNN achieves high-precision forecasts for solar radiation, rainfall, and reference evapotranspiration (ETo) with determination coefficients (R2) of 0.819,0.915, and 0.892, respectively, surpassing the other two neural network models in our tests. Simultaneously, the DQN agent learns irrigation policies that reduce water consumption by 16.6-25.3% compared to conventional methods while maintaining post-irrigation soil moisture above the critical threshold (Vmad=0.50) in testbed experiments. The proposed RNN-DQN architecture demonstrates significant improvements in water-use efficiency and plant health maintenance, offering a robust solution for smart agriculture in water-limited, data-scarce arid regions.
Citation
Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Technology and Electrical Engineering Icitee, 2025