Senix Sensors Drive Updates in Australian Irrigation Project
Senix, creator of ToughSonic® ultrasonic level and distance sensors, announced their presence in the continued expansion of Murray Irrigation’s historic irrigation automation project.
Murray Irrigation, Australia’s largest privately owned irrigation company, is automating 3,000 kilometers of gravity-fed irrigation channels in New South Wales. The project utilizes over 2,200 Senix ToughSonic 14 ultrasonic sensors to provide real-time level measurements that monitor water inventory and drive water distribution through irrigation gates.
The Beginning of Automated Irrigation Systems
In 2013, Murray Irrigation began their Private Irrigation Infrastructure Operators Program (PIIOP) with a goal to significantly reduce water distribution losses. Described as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to modernize irrigation infrastructure and supply system,” the $169.2 million AUD project is intended “for the benefit of all irrigation customers and to provide improved water efficiency and productivity for our customers’ farm businesses.”
The project called for upgrading approximately 2,200 water meters and more than 1,300 regulatory channel structures, then integrating those devices through an enhanced telemetry and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system.
In this next phase of the project, approximately 1,500 channel control points will be replaced with sensor-driven, automated gates using ToughSonic ultrasonic water level sensors, pictured here. ToughSonic 14 ultrasonic sensors provide real-time water level measurements to guide autonomous and semi-autonomous channel control structures. More than 1,000 irrigation control points have already been replaced since work began in 2013.
Senix & Murray Irrigation's Long-Running Collaboration
Murray Irrigation was among the first buyers of the ToughSonic 14 sensors. Senix modified the ToughSonic 14 model to reduce energy consumption and improve surge protection to defend against damage from lightning storms in remote locations.
“Murray Irrigation has been using our ToughSonic 14 sensors for years. We directly worked with them to take advantage of the new sensor technology for their important automation project,” says Doug Boehm, Founder and CTO of Senix. “Surge protection was added and special product features were utilized to optimize measurement performance for such an important application.”
For more information on how Senix can help with your application, contact us at info@senix.com or click here.