Pulse Width Modulation Drive System for Solenoid Flow Regulation

Given the significant increase in the global population, food production difficulties arise. Therefore, using technologies in agricultural production is necessary, especially in spraying, where precision agriculture reduces the damage to the health of workers, consumers, and the environment. In Brazil, there is a problem related to inequality in distributing this high-cost technology to small-scale producers. Thus, this work proposes developing and validating a low-cost solenoid valve actuation system for flow control, with variable rate via Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). In addition, a Simulink model is proposed to simulate the created spraying prototype. We performed a sensitivity analysis to validate the system’s physical parameters. This work carried out an experimental evaluation with four models of solenoid valves, with one commercial valve costing ten times more than the others. The performance of the flow response with frequency variation and duty cycle in each valve is evaluated. The analysis of the results shows that the best performance is obtained when using the normally open type compared to the normally closed type for PWM control applications.