Patent ID: 7590471

Claim:
An intelligent sprinkler irrigation system for attachment to a pressurized fluid source for delivering fluid to an arbitrarily-shaped area, said system comprising: at least one programmable sprinkler head fluidly connected to said fluid source, said sprinkler head comprising: an inlet for receiving said fluid; a valve component fluidly connected to said inlet for regulating emission of said pressurized fluid; a multidirectional movement component configured to vector position said sprinkler head; at least one sensor strategically located about said arbitrarily-shaped area to define one or more irrigation boundaries and to output one or more signals to define a pre-determined sprinkler function, said sensor being selected from one or a combination of a force sensor that detects application of force provided by said fluid as emitted from said valve component, and an optical sensor that detects an optical signal output by an optical signal transceiver in said sprinkler head, said optical signal transceiver receives a corresponding optical signal as returned by said optical sensor; a computer system configured to receive said signals from said sensors and control said sprinkler head according to a said pre-determined sprinkler function, said computer system comprising: a teach mode, wherein a plurality of control parameters are learned and recorded via said sensor to control said sprinkler head, said plurality of control parameters defining said pre-determined sprinkler function; and an operation mode for executing said pre-determined sprinkler function to precisely deliver said fluid to at least a portion of said arbitrarily-shaped area.