Modular Environmental Controller for Sustainable Agriculture

The objective of this project was to design and implement a modular control system for use in controlled environment agriculture. The system is comprised of a TI Cortex A-8 based master node which communicates with PIC18 based sensor and control nodes using the CAN bus standard over standard Ethernet cable. The network cable carries both serial communications and 24V power for nodes on the network for ease of installation and expandability. The system can be monitored and controlled via a dynamic web page. A proof of concept was built which accurately monitors CO2 concentration, relative humidity, and temperature and controls standard outlets

Integrated Farming System

People heavily rely on large-scale farms to grow and ship produce to their local markets. This has become an issue today due to the high transportation costs associated with bringing copious amounts of produce to crowded urban areas. The goal was to design an automated farming system that alleviates these issues. The constructed model focused on the caring aspects of the overall system. This prototype has proven the feasibility of the system\u27s design to save space while reducing crop costs

A lunar base reference mission for the phased implementation of bioregenerative life support system components

Previous design efforts of a cost effective and reliable regenerative life support system (RLSS) provided the foundation for the characterization of organisms or 'biological processors' in engineering terms and a methodology was developed for their integration into an engineered ecological LSS in order to minimize the mass flow imbalances between consumers and producers. These techniques for the design and the evaluation of bioregenerative LSS have now been integrated into a lunar base reference mission, emphasizing the phased implementation of components of such a BLSS. In parallel, a designers handbook was compiled from knowledge and experience gained during past design projects to aid in the design and planning of future space missions requiring advanced RLSS technologies. The lunar base reference mission addresses in particular the phased implementation and integration of BLS parts and includes the resulting infrastructure burdens and needs such as mass, power, volume, and structural requirements of the LSS. Also, operational aspects such as manpower requirements and the possible need and application of 'robotics' were addressed

Fresh Bytes - Connected Hydroponics for Small-Scale Growing

Many users are now transitioning to small-scale hydroponics and aquaponics at home. There can be a barrier to entry with these systems as there is a delicate balance of chemicals, pH, etc. that must be maintained. There are sensors for these various components but they are either aimed at commercial production or are un-automated. Fresh Bytes is a microcomputer with sensors to detect all of these unseen components in a hydroponic system. A prototype of this microcomputer is produced along with CAD plans for more professional versions of it. The sensors are verified and future development is contemplated

Secured Framework for Smart Farming in Hydroponics with Intelligent and Precise Management based on IoT with Blockchain Technology

Hydroponics is a type of soil-free farming that uses less water and other resources than conventional soil-based farming methods. However, due to the simultaneous supervision of multiple factors, nutrition advice, and plant diagnosis system, monitoring hydroponics farming is a difficult task. Hydroponic techniques utilizing the IoT show to deliver the finest outcomes, despite the usage of various artificial culture methods. Though, the usage of smart communication technologies and IoT exposes environments for smart farming to a wide range of cybersecurity risks and weaknesses. However, the adoption of intelligence-based controlling algorithms in the agricultural industry is a good use of current technical advancements to address these issues. This paper presented a secured framework for smart farming in hydroponics system. The proposed architecture is characterized into four-layer IoT based framework, sensor, communication, fog and cloud layer. Data analytics is performed using supervised machine learning techniques with intelligent and precise management and is applied at the fog layer for efficient computation over the cloud layer. The data security over channel is protected by using Blockchain Technology. The experimental results are evaluated and analyzed for several statistical parameters in order to improve the system efficacy

Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) conceptual design option study

Results are given of a study to explore options for the development of a Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) for a future Space Station. In addition, study results will benefit the design of other facilities such as the Life Sciences Research Facility, a ground-based CELSS demonstrator, and will be useful in planning longer range missions such as a lunar base or manned Mars mission. The objectives were to develop weight and cost estimates for one CELSS module selected from a set of preliminary plant growth unit (PGU) design options. Eleven Space Station CELSS module conceptual PGU designs were reviewed, components and subsystems identified and a sensitivity analysis performed. Areas where insufficient data is available were identified and divided into the categories of biological research, engineering research, and technology development. Topics which receive significant attention are lighting systems for the PGU, the use of automation within the CELSS system, and electric power requirements. Other areas examined include plant harvesting and processing, crop mix analysis, air circulation and atmosphere contaminant flow subsystems, thermal control considerations, utility routing including accessibility and maintenance, and nutrient subsystem design

MACARONS: A Modular and Open-Sourced Automation System for Vertical Farming

The Modular Automated Crop Array Online System (MACARONS) is an extensible, scalable, open hardware system for plant transport in automated horticulture systems such as vertical farms. It is specified to move trays of plants up to 1060mm x 630mm and 12.5kg at a rate of 100mm/s along the guide rails and 41.7mm/s up the lifts, such as between stations for monitoring and actuating plants. The cost for the construction of one grow unit of MACARONS is 144.96USD which equates to 128.85USD/m2 of grow area. The designs are released and meets the requirements of CERN-OSH-W, which includes step-by-step graphical build instructions and can be built by a typical technical person in one day at a cost of 1535.50USD. Integrated tests are included in the build instructions are used to validate against the specifications, and we report on a successful build. Through a simple analysis, we demonstrate that MACARONS can operate at a rate sufficient to automate tray loading/unloading, to reduce labour costs in a vertical farm

Environmental Parameters Monitoring And Control System In Horticulture Greenhouse Using The Internet Of Things: Case Of IPRC Musanze

Efficient management of greenhouse farming is a challenge to ensure high yield production. This is a great challenge to farmers who do not have a reliable mechanism to ensure the optimum environmental conditions for their crops. Farmers are opting to look for solutions from technologies such as Machine to Machine and Internet of Things. This paper proposes a wireless sensor network architecture for real-time greenhouse environmental parameters monitoring to achieve technology- based farming at a low management cost. Uncontrolled temperature, humidity, light intensity and soil moisture content, are among the major parameters that contribute to the deterioration of plants in the green house. The system employs the temperature and Humidity sensor DHT11, a light sensor LDR and soil moisture sensor to detect the environment parameters inside the greenhouse. A low-cost Wi-Fi microchip, with built -in TCP/IP networking software called as ESP8266, has been used to help connect the microntroller with the internet wirelessly. Sensed data is monitored on-site using a Liquid Crystal Display. The ThingSpeak Cloud platform has been used to assure the remote monitoring of the sensed data, and further analytics can be done through it. Actuators namely the solenoid valve, cooling fan, and heating bulb are immediately triggered in case the limit level of the environmental parameters been sensed, has been exceeded. The Global System for Mobile Communication has been used to provide notification to the farmers cell phone farmers in case of critical conditions.  The results of the system are provided in form of waveforms observed through the ThingSpeak for the sensed parameters, others are in form of notification through LCD and GSM, and the actions performed by the solenoid valve, cooling fan and Heating bulb in case the sensed environment data goes beyond the required level

Capacitive electrode sensor: design and testing

This paper proposed an alternative method of measuring water level using a Printed Circuit Board(PCB). The design of the electrode water level sensor went through circuit sketching, printing of sketch on PCB and etching. The signal conditioning circuit board was fabricated using a donut board and other electrical components. Experimentation was carried on the fabricated electrode sensor and the capacitance and current for each electrode finger was measured using digital multimeter and LCR meter. The multiple correlation of the water level, measured current and measured capacitance produced a value of 0.921 with P-values less than 0.05 showing the strength of the data obtained from the test conducted. The electrode water level sensor has proven to be consistent and reliable under normal working condition