Implementation of smart monitoring system in vertical farming

Abstract

The agriculture industry is facing labour shortage problem due to the difficulty to employ workers for "3D" (dangerous, dirty and difficult) jobs. This will reduce the number of labours needed and minimize the threats associated with the traditional agricultural system. Cyber-physical system (CPS) can provide farmers with a framework to remotely monitor and control the various factors that affect plant growth. The aim of this project is to implement CPS into a vertical farming system in which an Android-based remote monitoring and control (M&C) system is developed based on CPS for optimal production of the plantation system using Arduino ESP32 and sensors through the Internet. Experiments were carried to evaluate the practicality of implementing CPS in vertical farming process. Growth factors that were monitored and controlled in the experiments include ambient temperature, water temperature, humidity, pH level, light and carbon dioxide. In this study, an android application was developed and evaluated. The controlled parameters were display on the phone. The evaluation results shown that, the CPS system is practical to be used in plant growth monitoring (sensors and feedback system) and plant growth optimisation (sensors, feedback system and actuators). In addition, the automation of plant growth monitoring process can overcome the shortage of manpower in agriculture industry.