Hydroponic monitoring and control system
What is Hydroponics? In this project, we will be working on a hydroponic monitoring and control system. But this raises a question; ?Why hydroponics and why are we working on this??. First, let's get to know hydroponics. A hydroponic growing system contains water tanks
2025-06-28 16:27:44 - Adil Khan
Hydroponic monitoring and control system
Project Area of Specialization Internet of ThingsProject SummaryWhat is Hydroponics?
In this project, we will be working on a hydroponic monitoring and control system. But this raises a question; “Why hydroponics and why are we working on this?”.
First, let's get to know hydroponics. A hydroponic growing system contains water tanks, fresh clean water, nutrients enriched, and pH-controlled water and wastewater too. The nutrients-enriched water works as a growth medium for plants. In the hydroponic system, we are controlling water pH level and nutrient composition using valves and pumps. Draining wastewater helps us to maintain consistent water levels while adjusting concentrations of nutrients and controlling water pH levels.
Why we need hydroponics?
With the human population increasing day by day and due to this increase, the urbanization of agricultural land is creating an alarming situation about the future of Farming.
To tackle this issue a trend is emerging with the name of Vertical Farming.
Some implementations of vertical farming are:
- Hydroponics
- Aquaponics
- Aeroponics
Problems in existing System
Hydroponics may sound like an advanced system for growing plants, but it has some flaws like other systems as well. Some of the flaws are:
- Nutrient Deficiency
- Monitoring as manual
- Production is limited
Proposed Solution - Hydroponic monitoring and control System
The most promising solution for problems that are existing in the present system is the Hydroponics monitoring and control system. With the implementation of this system, we are looking at complete automation of the hydroponics system.
While setting a hydroponic monitoring and control system we install conductivity and pH sensors in water reservoirs (which are acting as a medium for plant growth). Then we measure the pH and conductivity of water through our sensors. Based on the measurements taken from our sensors we set up the controllers signals for the operations of water pumps.
For example, if the nutrient concentration in water is too high, the controller should turn on the fresh-water pump to dilute the nutrient concentration. Similarly, if the nutrient concentration is too low, the controller should turn on the nutrient water pump. The case stays the same for pH. If pH is high the controllers should allow carbon dioxide to flow in the water reservoir to lower the water pH (we use carbon dioxide to lower pH because, carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid, which lowers the pH of water).
Additionally, we are using temperature and humidity sensors as well as light sensors and water level sensors. If the temperature gets too high, the fans should be turned on to release heat. The same is the case with water level pumps. If the water level is below the desired level pumps should fill the water reservoir to the desired level. And for the lighting system, we are going to use an ambient light sensor. When it is dark, the LED lights will turn on and lights will be turned off when the ambiance is light.
System Diagram
With this project we are going to accomplish the following objectives:
- Grow plants in the water while eliminating the need for fertile soil
- Monitor the growth of plants in real-time
- Ability to experiment with plants in a controlled system with a controlled supply of different nutrients
- Measure how different factors affect the growth of plants under different conditions
Our initial setup
We are already working on a basic hydroponics system with the basic sensors working and monitoring our system.
Here is the picture of our system in action:
We are using some basic sensors like pH sensors, temperature sensors, and ambient light sensor. These sensors are programmed to monitor the system, collect data and upload data to our predefined web interface.
Our plans for the Future
For the future, we are looking forward to expanding our system with some more sensors, a better web interface, AI trained model, and some IoT characteristics.
Implementation
As far as implementation is concerned, we are going to start with water tanks and plants, once the plants are set up in water tanks. We are going to set up our sensors and program those sensors according to our conditions.
After programming the sensors, the system should function as desired. The sensors will be used to monitor the plants as well as to collect real-time data on plants (how plants behaved under different circumstances).
Water sensors will be monitoring the water level of reservoirs, pH and Conductivity sensors will be monitoring pH and conductivity in water reservoirs respectively. The temperature sensors will keep an eye on temperature conditions and light sensors will be behaving according to the lighting conditions.
We will be using a Pi NoIR camera for the NDVI analysis of our hydroponics system. The camera will be monitoring our plants 24/7 and keep us posted on the health of our plants.
We are also going to use IoT and AI. We will be using digital image processing for the training of our model. Our camera will be monitoring the system and AI will be looking for any flaws within our plants, in case any action is required like, the need for freshwater or nutrient water, need of CO2, non-favorable temperature conditions, and lighting condition issues. In case the situation is more alarming, the system will issue a warning to the user.
Now, let's discuss how our equipment will be used:
- Air Pump: To control the flow of CO2
- Water pump: To supply freshwater or nutrients rich water when needed
- EC Sensor: To measure the electrical conductivity of water.
- TDS Sensor: To measure total dissolved salts in water.
- pH Sensor Kit: To measure the pH of water.
- NoIR Camera: To be used for NDVI analysis
- Distance and Gesture Sensor: To be used as a water level sensor
- Humidity and Temperature Sensor: To measure temperature and humidity
- Digital Light Sensor: To measure light ambiance
- Toggle Switches: To manually toggle pumps
- No soil is needed for hydroponics
- The water stays in the system and can be reused
- As the water can be reused, water requirement is lower
- Ability to control nutrient levels (thus lower nutrients requirement)
- No environmental pollution because of the controlled system
- The growth of plants can be monitored in real-time
- Reduced labor as most of the work is done by the sensors and automated system
- Real-time data can be reused in similar scenarios
- Web Interface
- A web interface for the better elaboration of collected data.
- Monitoring and Control System
- A system that will be monitoring the hydroponics system and taking steps required to keep the hydroponics system healthy and working.
- AI Models
- An IoT-based AI model trained with digital images plus data to keep an eye on the health of our plants and hydroponics system.
- An AI model for NDVI interface.
| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 79600 | |||
| Water Tank | Equipment | 1 | 5000 | 5000 |
| Air Pump | Equipment | 1 | 1500 | 1500 |
| Water Pumps | Equipment | 2 | 2500 | 5000 |
| Plants | Miscellaneous | 10 | 50 | 500 |
| Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (4GB RAM) | Equipment | 1 | 9500 | 9500 |
| Arduino Uno Rev 3 | Equipment | 1 | 4500 | 4500 |
| EC Sensor | Equipment | 1 | 10000 | 10000 |
| TDS Sensor | Equipment | 1 | 3000 | 3000 |
| pH Sensor Kit | Equipment | 1 | 6000 | 6000 |
| NoIR Camera | Equipment | 1 | 9500 | 9500 |
| Distance and Gesture Sensor | Equipment | 1 | 2000 | 2000 |
| Humidity and Temperature Sensor | Equipment | 1 | 1500 | 1500 |
| Digital Light Sensor | Equipment | 1 | 2500 | 2500 |
| Toggle Switches | Miscellaneous | 5 | 100 | 500 |
| Fans | Miscellaneous | 2 | 1000 | 2000 |
| Relay Module | Equipment | 2 | 300 | 600 |
| Light Bar | Miscellaneous | 2 | 1000 | 2000 |
| Solenoid Valve | Equipment | 2 | 1500 | 3000 |
| One way valve | Equipment | 2 | 500 | 1000 |
| Digital Meter | Equipment | 4 | 500 | 2000 |
| CO2 Tank | Equipment | 1 | 3000 | 3000 |
| Electric Boards and Electrical Equipment | Miscellaneous | 1 | 2500 | 2500 |
| Electrical Wires and Supplies | Miscellaneous | 1 | 2500 | 2500 |