ToughSonics® Control Critical Water Flow in Farming and Agriculture
Farming and agriculture are strong economies throughout the world and are key to ensuring humanity thrives. With recent agricultural advancements, many farmers are making changes to operations in order to maximize land and water resources and deliver nutritious food to the world’s ever-growing population.
ToughSonic® ultrasonic sensors are one of the many sensors bringing innovation and optimization to its users in agriculture and beyond.
Industry 4.0 and Agriculture
Technology advancements in semiconductor technologies, robotics, artificial intelligence, GPS, and Cloud-based storage have pulled the world into a digital era. Specifically, for farming and agriculture, these technology advancements provide many opportunities for farmers to increase yields and profitability while simultaneously reducing both waste and environmental impact. With climate changes that are affecting our water and land, fulfilling the global demand for food is becoming more challenging.
SWIIM System measures and accounts for water use on farms. The company’s focus on water measurement and water balance analysis allows growers and water stewards to receive accurate accounting about where water is delivered, how much was disbursed, and the flow from farms and fields. SWIIM offers a turn-key solution that monitors on-farm water budgets, providing actionable, cost-effective field- or crop-level data through the use of sensors, software, data loggers, telemetry, and remote sensing. 
SWIIM selected Senix ToughSonic ultrasonic distance and level sensors to use in many of their water management systems.
SWIIM’s measurement applications require reliable accuracy in harsh, outdoor environments varying from the hot, dusty, low desert conditions of California and Arizona to the mountain valleys of Colorado. Rising to the challenge, Senix ToughSonic sensors were selected due to their rugged design and ability to operate reliably in extreme conditions.
ToughSonic IP68-rated sensors are designed with heavy-duty electronics that are epoxy-potted into type 316 stainless steel housings. They include permanently attached cables and ruggedized piezoelectric transducers.
The Role of ToughSonics in Agriculture & Farming
SWIIM uses Senix sensors to monitor water delivery and measurement structures in open-channel irrigation systems. The dynamic operation of these open channels often means that manual measurements taken several times each day cannot adequately represent fluctuations in water levels and flow rates. SWIIM’s customers rely on these monitoring systems to report these fluctuations in near-real time to help manage their use of precious natural resources as efficiently as possible, while maintaining profitability in increasingly competitive global markets.
SWIIM’s specific applications of Senix sensors include water level monitoring in flumes, weirs, ditches, and submerged orifice turnouts. SWIIM also uses ToughSonic sensors to monitor the vertical position of manual and remote-controlled irrigation gates. Accuracy in these measurements is critical; they calculate volumetric flow rates in carefully calibrated equations where errors are often compounded. 
For some applications where SWIIM is used, measurement systems must operate reliably at desert temperatures exceeding 120°F and others must be ready to monitor spring runoff after months of exposure to subzero temperatures and intermittent snow and ice. The company’s technical team extensively tested the temperature compensation capabilities and durability of the ToughSonic sensors. They also depend on the averaging algorithms and digital output features because some applications require measurements as frequent as every 3 seconds to keep up with fluctuating water levels, a requirement well within the ToughSonic sensors’ capabilities.
For more information on how Senix can help with your application, contact us at info@senix.com or click here.