“A system using light, soil moisture and humidity sensors to control the water, light and humidity needed by the vertical farm.
Introduction
In this group project, the design was to introduce an automation to vertical farming. The automation on vertical farming would bring a better solution for efficiency and higher yield output for crops to answer the future food supply shortage. Making the vertical farm automated with the help of sensors and actuators would reduce the need of manual inspections on vegetation conditions. The automation system would provide consistent observation on the plants to provide the best condition of the plants environment at all times. The objective was to be able to integrate all 3 working sensors with supporting components altogether using the developed Arduino UNO code with GUI (WIFI module) to display the readings at remote location.
The vertical plants as an example in which has been automated using various sensors and supporting components to maintain the optimal condition of the plants. The types of sensors used as part of the automation was DHT22 (humidity and temperature sensor), light intensity sensor and soil moisture sensor. The DHT22 sensor would provide data on the humidity level and temperature of the surrounding environment, the light intensity would read and provide data on the amount of light the plants has received while the moisturization sensor provides the data on the soil condition in the vertical farming.
Light Intensity Sensor + Light Control(Vlad)
It is essential for the “Automated Vertical Farming” system to have the automated process of supplying the plants with light, especially for indoor locations, at the required light intensity level, which is identified by the “lux” unit. Therefore, since the prototype system is located indoors, plants will require sunlight to perform the photosynthesis process, which allows stable and secure growth. Although the sunlight can infiltrate through windows or doors of the enclosed area, the intensity of the light might be insufficient for the plant to grow and absorb the sunlight characteristics and energy.
So, for the stated project it becomes necessary to develop an artificial lighting source for the plant to receive the needed and important light energy for the internal processes, which will stimulate its growth. Moreover, to make the system work independently, it was decided to include the automatization components, such as relays. Subsequently, their combination with LED lamps, DH1750 light intensity sensor, Arduino Uno Rev3 Board, shared Breadboard, and Power Supply (4xAA 1.5V batteries) with the jumper wires will establish the independent and automated light detection and control system for the plant. The prototyped representation of the system with sensors and lamps attached near the plant can be seen in the figure below:
Regarding the components used, their connections can be seen in the figures below, where the Arduino Board is represented by a key and hub element, which connects all the parts of the system together. To be more specific, the Arduino Board will collect the data from the DH1750 light sensor through its communication pins and send the respective output to the relay from the associated digital pin.”