Development of Intelligently Controlled IoT Based Vertical Farm

In our basic needs of life, food and nutrition are the most important things besides water. Every year, there is a significant increase in population, currently the population of world in 2021 is 7.9 billion, a 1.03% increased since 2020 and it is predicted to be 9.7 billion by 2050. Food production

Project Title

Development of Intelligently Controlled IoT Based Vertical Farm

Project Area of Specialization

Internet of Things

Project Summary

In our basic needs of life, food and nutrition are the most important things besides water. Every year, there is a significant increase in population, currently the population of world in 2021 is 7.9 billion, a 1.03% increased since 2020 and it is predicted to be 9.7 billion by 2050. Food production depends on crop lands and water supply, which are in limitation due to the exponential rise in population throughout the world and especially in Asia, it has been increasingly challenging to meet the need of food for such large population in the coming years. However, the conventional methods of crop production result in degradation of soil health and thus cause soil erosion. Moreover, the use of fertilizers and pesticides adversely affect the quality of food. Keeping these issues in view, it is pertinent need that cities should produce food internally to fulfill the requirement of food for growing population along with other mentioned challenges as well. One of the highly appreciated and innovative methodology is indoor farming with controlled environment famously known as vertical farming.

The Vertical Farming has been recognized with many different definitions based on its size, amount of control, layout, building type, location and purpose of use. However, for simplicity the vertical farming can be defined as the multilayered production of plants to increase yield per surface area. Therefore, in this project, prototype of an intelligently controlled vertical farm (VF) will be developed. The plants that have been included for VF are given below:

1. Egg plant
2. Tomato plant
3. Strawberry plant

The design approach is based on monitoring and providing controlled environment to the indoor plants i.e., water, temperature, light, humidity and pH level for their better growth. The project will be based on IoT framework and data will be continuously available on the dashboard for monitoring and analysis purpose. Moreover, remote access will be provided to control the system parameters through the developed GUI.

Project Objectives

The objectives of the project can be classified into research and industrial objectives.

Research Objectives:

a) Development of an IoT based architecture for multilayer VF

b) Development of mechanical structure for VF

c) Automation of VF and its monitoring through cloud

d) Design of an interactive GUI for digitally illiterate people

Industrial Objectives:

a) Provide IoT based smart solution to agriculture industry for the production of higher amount of food per every square meter.

b) To revolutionize agriculture field with the industry 4.0 design principles.

c) To provide a sustainable, efficient and cost effective food production solution to the agriculture industry.

d) To provide a feasibility report of VF implementation that includes VF implementation methodology, selection of crops, advantages, disadvantages and also the limitations. This report will assist in VF development at a larger scale.

Project Implementation Method

 Intelligently controlled VF will be developed by using the following steps

1. Design and construction of multilayered shelves from PVC pipes for plants production.
2. Integration of sensors and actuators with internet enabled microcontroller to monitor control various parameters of VF.
3. Development of IoT based webserver to update data on GUI for monitoring and cloud controlling of VF.
4. Development of data base to store the acquired data of VF.

The block diagram for the hardware implementation is shown in Fig. 1

          Fig. 1 Block diagram of intelligently controlled VF

The block diagram consists of three sections i.e., vertical farm, local control and cloud control.

Vertical Farm: It is an architecture of multiple story shelves to grow various types of crops. A water pump will be used to provide required water from the water tank to the crops through pipes to maintain desired moisture and water will be recycled. Artificial light intensity will be provided through LEDs. To control the temperature of VF, low power fans are also installed. However, all of these actuators are automatically controlled based on the information acquired from sensors. The multilayered VF also consists of various sensors to measure VF parameters i.e., moisture, temperature, light, humidity, pH level and water level in tank.  

Local Control: At this stage the parameters of VF are anonymously controlled according to the settings set by the user. And user can change the operational settings as per the crop need and for better growth of the crops. The system will resume according to the new settings and the logical decisions to turn on and off various actuators installed in VF are taken at the gateway. The gateway provides bidirectional communication between the sensors and the cloud.  

Cloud Control: The parameters of VF received at gateway are real-time transmitted to the cloud through internet and all system information will be displayed on a web based graphical user interface/dashboard. In addition to monitoring, remote control access will also be implemented on GUI so that user can globally control the VF effectively. Moreover, the gathered real-time data will be used for data analytics to optimize the performance of VF in terms of efficiency and production.       

Benefits of the Project

The purpose of the project is to revolutionize the agriculture industry with industry 4.0 standards. The transformation of conventional farming to the vertical farming will provide numerous advantages and in long term it will tremendously improve the food quality standards and ensure food sustainability in the world. Various benefits of VF are given below:

1. Ensure consistent crop production: The most important feature of VF is its reliability as it will provide continuous crop production throughout the year.
2.  Optimal Space Utilization: The traditional farming requires several acres of fertile land and in comparison to this vertical farming does not have such pre-requisites. Even it can be designed and implemented in all kind of locations and environmental conditions.
3. Small usage of water:  It is very important to know that in conventional farming crop utilizes only 10% of the water provided to land and remaining water is absorbed by land. However, VF efficiently utilizes the water as mainly nutrients are supplied through water and recycling of water is done. This process of water recycling continues until the pH level of water is changed.
4. Transport cost reduction: The traditional farming requires large fertile lands and they are generally available in rural areas so transportation of crops to cities is an expensive aspect in the supply chain of crops. Moreover, import of crops from other countries contribute to high increase in prices. In comparison to traditional farming, VF provides opportunity to harvest any crop anywhere so it becomes feasible to grow crops with in the cities to meet the needs of food without involving any transport cost.
5. Organic food production: The use of pesticides in the vertical farming can be eliminated by maintaining controlled environment in VF. Consequently, it prevents degradation of crops and results in healthier and safe food.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The final deliverable of the project is a hardware-software integrated system. The technical details about the final deliverable are given below:

1. VF consists of three layered cultivation shelves. Pipes are used to provide solution of water and nutrients to the roots of the plants. A water reservoir based tank is developed.
2. Various sensors are integrated to VF for monitoring various parameters of VF. The parameters to be monitored are temperature, humidity,   pH value, ppm value of water, growth of plants. 
3. Actuators are used to control the environment of the VF. Theses actuators include LEDs, water pump and fans. LEDs are used to provide artificial light to the plants according to the growth requirement. Similarly, fans are used to have check on temperature and humidity. Pump is used to provide water to multiple shelves of VF.
4. IoT architecture is developed to continuously monitor the real-time data and logical operations are developed at the gateway to control various parameters of VF based on the acquired data from sensors. The obtained data is also sent to the cloud through internet.
5. Web based GUI is developed for monitoring and remote controlling of VF.
6. Data-base is developed to store information and for analysis purpose.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Agriculture

Other Industries

Core Technology

Internet of Things (IoT)

Other Technologies

Sustainable Development Goals

Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-Being for People, Clean Water and Sanitation, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Sustainable Cities and Communities

Required Resources

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