Development of an automatic system for precision irrigation with center pivot In order to developed an automation system so as to provide precision irrigation through center pivot equipment, softwares and hardwares were built at the Escola Superior de Agricultura "Luiz de Queiroz", University of Sao Paulo-ESALQ/USP, within the Piracicaba campus. This project was carried out in two stages, the one performed in Piracicaba, state of Sao Paulo, in which the system was developed, built and tested, and the second one in Barra do Bugres, state of Mato Grosso (MT), in which a laboratory experiment was performed to verify the operation. The evaluations were carried out in laboratory, except the radio range test. An apparatus to simulate a center pivot operation was built. Along the experiment, one used radio-frequency operating on 315 MHz and 433.9 MHz, liquid crystal displays, integrated circuits, discrete electronic components, connectors, cables and wires, material and tools for handmade printed circuit boards and a microcomputer. Along the entire work 12 circuits (hardwares) were developed, with 10 for computer interface and 2 to drive and transmit the tensiometer data. All circuits were tested both individually and grouped. At the end, all 10 computer interface circuits were grouped into a single printed circuit board, which was used in simulations in Barra do Bugres, MT. Six softwares were developed, three of which for the computer and three for the microcontrollers used. For computer software development one used Borland's Delphi 3, while the Basic Step softwares were developed in TBasic. No failures were detected in any of the softwares developed for the microcontrollers. The software developed for the computer was named PivoRF and presents three versions: user, administrator and monitoring. The user version is the more robust and destined for direct field application. The administrator version has the sole function of generating data files for the administrator version input; as for the monitoring version, it continually monitors a given irrigation section, and its application is more suitable for research. Tests were carried out to evaluate radio range, data transmission efficiency and center pivot control capacity. The results revealed that the radio-frequency moduli have short range and are not suited for real application in center pivot systems. Evaluated at below 50-meter distances the system proved to be efficient for data transmission with no failures. The user version was exhaustively tested, and operated adequately in over 300 tests. Based on the results, one verifies that the technology developed has a great potential for practical use, thus making irrigation management easier. However, radio-frequency moduli with higher range than those used are required, and those can be easily found in the market today.