GRD Journals- Global Research and Development Journal for Engineering | Volume 5 | Issue 2 | January 2020

ISSN: 2455-5703

Enhanced Plant Monitoring System for

Hydroponics Farming Ecosystem using IOT
Deepika S
PG Student
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, Kerala, India

Vibesh V. Panicker Annie Koshy

Assistant Professor Assistant Professor
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
College of Engineering, Adoor, Kerala, India BM II College of Engineering, Sasthamcotta, Kerala, India

Shukriya Salim Shimol Philip

PG Student PG Student
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Department of Civil Engineering
TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, Kerala, India Saintgits College of Engineering, Kottayam, Kerala, India

Abstract
Hydroponics is an interesting way of cultivation where nutrients are effectively provided to the plants as mineral nutrient
solutions. It requires much less space than any type of agricultural techniques. Hydroponics is the method of growing plants or
vegetables without soil, but using mineral nutrient solutions mixed with water. This modern agriculture sector provides
numerous advantages such as efficient location and space requirements, adequate climate control, and water-saving and
controlled nutrients usage. This paper proposes a Hydroponic Farming Ecosystem (HFE) that uses IoT devices to monitor the
environment of the hydroponic device through some sensors in a real-time and stable way, and then accurately, automatically
transmit the data of temperature, humidity, light intensity, nutrient solution temperature, air temperature water level and pH in
real-time. The Internet of Things (IoT) concept assumes that various “things,” which include not only communication devices
but also every other physical object on the planet, are going to be connected and will be controlled across the Internet. The HFE
is made to support non-professional farmers, city people who have limited knowledge in farming and people who are interested
in doing vertical planting in very small areas in the city such as building roof, the balcony of high-rise buildings, and in small
office spaces. To make the system easy to control and easy to use, we have an android application to control IoT devices in the
HFE and alert users when their farm is in an abnormal situation. Therefore, the system is a valuable tool for hydroponics
condition analytics and to support decision making on possible intervention to increase productivity. The results reveal that the
system can generate a viable hydroponics appraisal, allowing to anticipate technical interventions that improve agricultural
productivity.
Keywords- Hydroponic Farming Ecosystem (HFE), Internet of Things

I. INTRODUCTION
In a developing country like India, where agriculture is the backbone of the country, agriculture is plagued by several problems
like small and fragmented land holdings, manures, pesticides, chemicals used for agriculture etc. Consumers also increasingly
demand for healthy diet that is rich in quality and free of agricultural chemicals and pesticides. Hydroponics is an efficient way
of cultivating crops in a soil less manner with increased productivity per area, reduced water and fertilizer usage. Hydroponics is
the method of growing plants or vegetables without soil, but using mineral nutrient solutions mixed with water. Since this
solution will be used as a food source for plants or vegetables, it is necessary to control or manage many factors in this liquid.
Some examples of variables we have to control are the pH value or concentration and electrical conductivity (EC) of the nutrient
solution. Hydroponics can be used to produce variety of plants/crops in compact spaces such as the backyard, terrace, or in
offices, by using a nutrient rich water solution. A conventional hydroponic set up is shown in Fig.1. The areas of the world with
poor or infertile soils can completely rely on hydroponics system. This gives people in these areas access to healthy and fresh
produce.
With the advances in technology and the improvement of people's living standards, hydroponic plants become an
integral part of daily life. Traditional plant cultivation has been mainly performed in the soil. It is known that a series of
drawbacks can be found for such a way. For example, regular watering and fertilizing have to require more time and labour.
With the development of various techniques, the soilless cultivation has become a more mature and popular breeding choice such

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 Enhanced Plant Monitoring System for Hydroponics Farming Ecosystem using IOT
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as hydroponic. Hydroponics is an eco-friendly system to cultivate crop without soil by utilizing aquaculture and hydroponics. At
present, hydroponics is mainly used in agricultural production.

Fig. 1: Conventional Hydroponic setup

This paper studies a smart monitoring and controlling system which can make it easy to implement the connection of
monitoring field and to remote monitoring centers. This system can monitor the environment of hydroponic device through some
sensors in a real-time and stable way, and then accurately, automatically transmit the data of temperature, humidity, light
intensity, water level and pH in real time.
This paper fills in the above said difficulties and demands using hydroponics. Since it is done in the controlled
environment, it can be done anywhere like room terrace, balcony etc. also large amount of plants can be planted in a less place.
This type of agriculture could be high yielding if monitored and controlled efficiently. We propose a project that controls the
necessary conditions required for the plant to grow hydroponically and also cultivators may control the agriculture remotely
using IoT.

II. RELATED WORK

Bhavasar et.al put forward an Android application to control IoT devices in HFE and alarm users when farm is in an abnormal
situation. Francisco B.C Elmer et.al studied about a communication methodology of wireless sensor network for collecting data
and sending command to turn ON or OFF irrigation system and manipulate power distribution. Putjaika et.al focused on the
control parts which are watering and roofing systems of an outdoor farm based on statistical data from sensor systems.
Kaewmard et.al proposed on how MCU gathers environment information from sensors. Melchizedek Alpino et.al studied about a
smart hydroponic system which can be used in automating the growing process of crops using interference in Bayesian Network.
Adhau et.al focused on the real time data from an HFE that is imported from a low cost AVR MUC board and Lab view to
monitor and automate the process and send the data over IoT applications. Lundin et.al put forward a fully automated
hydroponics greenhouse using sensors and actuators that minimizes water waste and makes for a more environmental system.

III. METHODOLOGY

Fig. 2: Block Diagram

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 Enhanced Plant Monitoring System for Hydroponics Farming Ecosystem using IOT
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The Hydroponic Farming Ecosystem (HFE) using IoT consists of microcontroller Node MCU, parametric sensors – DHT22
sensor, 3 in 1 analog pH meter and water level indicator, comparator module, 4 channel relay module, two motors and a
Smartphone. The Node MCU is powered by 3.3 V and relay is powered by 12 V. Node MCU is interfaced with DHT22 sensor,
pH meter and water level indicator which measures and monitors humidity, temperature, pH value and the level of the solution in
the tub ,where plants are grown respectively. The water level indicator is connected to the Node MCU via the LM358
comparator module. Three relays, interfaced with the MCU are connected to the motor IN, motor OUT and fan respectively. This
whole system monitors the hydroponic farming ecosystem which provides information to the user about the updates of his HFE
via the blynk application installed in his smart phone. The blynk app which is a user friendly application can be used to manage
more than one HFE at a time, requires no technical intervention and can be used by an ordinary person.

IV. SYSTEM OVERVIEW

The system consists of several hardware and software components which are detailed below:

A. Hardware Architecture
In this session, theoretical aspects of various components of Hydroponic Farming Ecosystem are discussed. The overall system
architecture is shown in Fig.2. The various components used in the HFE systems are as follows:
1) Power Module: The power module consists of dual 12V and 5V power supply, their corresponding grounds, voltage
regulator, capacitors, led and jack.
2) NODEMCU: Node MCU is an open source LUA based firmware developed for ESP8266 Wi-Fi chip. Node MCU operates
on 3.3V.It is an open-source, programmable, WI-FI enable system.
3) DHT22 MODULE/AM2303 [Digital Humidity and Temperature sensor]:It utilizes exclusive digital-signal-collecting-
technique and humidity sensing technology, assuring its reliability and stability. Its sensing elements are connected with 8-
bit single-chip computer. Every sensor of this model is temperature compensated and calibrated in accurate calibration
chamber and the calibration-coefficient is saved in a type of program in OTP memory. When the sensor is detecting, it will
cite coefficient from memory.
4) 3 In 1 Analog pH Meter: A pH meter is a scientific instrument that measures the hydrogen-ion activity in water based
solutions, indicating its acidity or alkalinity expressed as pH. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 14. The analog pH sensor has
a scale of 0 – 8 to measure soil or nutrient solution pH. The optimum pH for growth of spinach is 5.8 to 6.
5) Water Level Indicator: Water level indicator indicates the level of water in the tank where plants are grown and prevents
flooding of water in the tank due to abnormal pH increase or decrease. It consists of 4 metal conductor strips where one end
is dipped in the tank and the other end is connected to a comparator. When the water level is up to a particular height
touching the indicator, the resistance value of the conductor will be low producing no voltage drop and comparator output
will be zero. When the water level is so low, the resistance value of the conductor will be high, producing a voltage drop and
comparator amplifying it to switch on the motor.
6) LM358 Comparator Module: A comparator is a device that compares two voltages or currents and outputs a digital signal
indicating which is larger (Fig.4). It has two analog input terminals V+ and V- and one binary digital output Vo. The
LM358comparator module which is connected to the water level indicator produces a voltage signal corresponding to the
resistance obtained from the water level indicator. It consists of 4 pins; Vcc, ground, digital pin and analog pin. The
resistance is converted to voltage signal by a voltage divider circuit formed by two resistors of 100K and 10K and LM358
op-amp. When the resistance value goes high the LED glows indicating the reduced water level and hence turning on the
water pump to fill the tank up to the predefined level.

Fig. 3: Pin Diagram of LM358N

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B. Software Architecture
BLYNK-THE IoT PLATFORM: Blynk is the most popular IoT platform to connect devices to the cloud, design apps to control
them, and manage deployed products at scale. It runs on emulators and runs over 400 hardware modules like ESP8266, ESP32,
JavaScript, Python,Lua, Bluetooth etc. By connecting it we have access to apps which let us control the hardware from
anywhere. Blynk helps in building IoT app in less than 5 minutes by beautiful drag-n-drop widgets.

Fig. 4: Blynk Architecture

1) Features
 Similar API & UI for all supported hardware & devices
 Connection to the cloud
 Set of easy-to-use Widgets
 Direct pin manipulation with no code writing
 Easy to integrate and add new functionality using virtual pins
 History data monitoring via Super Chart widget
 Device-to-Device communication using Bridge Widget
 Sending emails, tweets, push notifications, etc.
A couple of things are required for the blynk app, which are:
a) Hardware
The Arduino, Raspberry Pi or a similar development kitBlynk works over the Internet. This means that the hardware we choose
should be able to connect to the internet. Some of the boards, like Arduino Uno will need an Ethernet or Wi-Fi Shield to
communicate, others are already Internet-enabled: like the ESP8266, Raspberry Pi with WiFi dongle, Particle Photon or
SparkFunBlynk Board.
b) A Smartphone
The Blynk App is a well-designed interface builder. It works on both iOS and Android.
c) Working of Blynkapp
 Create a Blynk account
After the Blynk App is downloaded, we‟ll need to create a new Blynk account. This account is separate from the accounts used
for the Blynk Forums, in case we already have one. It is recommended using a real email address because it will simplify things
later. An account is needed to save our projects and have access to them from multiple devices. It also acts as a security measure.

Fig. 5: Blynkapp

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 Enhanced Plant Monitoring System for Hydroponics Farming Ecosystem using IOT
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 Auth Token
Auth Token is a unique identifier which is needed to connect the hardware to the smartphone. Every new project that is created
will have its own Auth Token. Auth Token is automatically found in the email after project creation. It can also be copied
manually. Click on devices section and selected required device.
The following note is visible after installation:
NOTE: DON‟T SHARE YOUR AUTH TOKEN WITH ANYONE, UNLESS YOU WANT SOMEONE TO HAVE ACCESS
TO YOUR HARDWARE.
It is very convenient to send it over email. On pressing theemail button, the token will be sent to the email addressused
for registration. Also, on tapping on the Token line, it will be copied to the clipboard.
Now press the “Create” button.
 Add a widget
The project canvas is empty. Tap anywhere on the canvas to open the widget box. All the available widgets are located here.
Now pick a button.
Drag-n-Drop - Tap and hold the Widget to drag it to the new position.
Widget Settings - Each Widget has its own settings. Tap on the widget to get to them.
The most important parameter to set is PIN. The list of pins reflects physical pins defined by your hardware. If your LED is
connected to Digital Pin 8 - then select D8 (D - stands for Digital).
 Run the project
Now press the PLAY button. This will switch from EDIT mode to PLAY mode where you can interact with the hardware. While
in PLAY mode, we won‟t be able to drag or set up new widgets, press STOP and get back to EDIT mode. We will get a message
saying “Arduino UNO is offline”. ARDUINO IDE.
Arduino 1.8.9 is used as the integrated development environment to run the source code for HFE using Iot. For this
libraries of DHT, ESP8266, and Blynk app needs to be installed in the OS running the arduino. The open-source Arduino
Software (IDE) makes it easy to write code and upload it to the board. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. The
environment is written in Java and based on Processing and other open-source software. This software can be used with any
Arduino board.
Arduino is a cross-platform IDE that works in conjunction with an Arduino controller in order to write, compile and
upload code to the board. Wrapped inside a streamlined interface, the software features both the looks and the functionality that
appeal to Arduino developers, paving the way to a successful output via the debugging modules. Provided that you‟ve connected
the Arduino board to the computer and installed all the necessary drivers, one of the first steps we see fit is to choose the model
you‟ll be working with using the Tools menu of the application. Then, you can start writing programs using the comfortable
environment that Arduino offers.

Fig. 6: Arduino IDE

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 Enhanced Plant Monitoring System for Hydroponics Farming Ecosystem using IOT
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C. Circuit Description

Fig. 7: Circuit Diagram

The above figure shows the circuit diagram of hydroponic farming ecosystem (HFE) using IoT.The microcontroller used is
NodeMCU which is an open source IoT platform running on ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC. It is interfaced with DHT22 sensor, water
level indicator via LM358 comparator module, pH sensor and 4 channel relay.
The DHT22 (Digital Humidity and Temperature) sensor measures the humidity and the temperature of the HFE. It
works in the power of range 3.3-6V.It outputs a digital signal via a single bus. The water level indicator is connected to the
microcontroller via the LM358 comparator module. The output of the comparator module gives digital output 1 when water level
is normal and goes to zero when the water level is low. The 3 in 1 pH meter measures pH and it is connected to the analog pin of
NodeMCU.The 12v 4 channel relay is used for switching motor in and out according to the sensed parameters of the hydroponic
system.

V. RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS

A. Plant Growth
In order to study the plant growth, leaf variations and height of the plants, spinach seeds were grown in 4 different pots (plastic,
cement, earthen and grow bag)and the following were observed:.
During the 1st week:

Fig. 8: Spinach seeds grown in different pots

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1) After 2 Weeks:

Fig. 9: (a) Earthen Pot (b) Plastic Pot

Fig. 10: (c) Grow Bag (d) Cement Pot

It was observed that the plant grew healthy in grow bag and shortest in the cement pot.

B. Initial Hydroponic Setup

Fig. 11: Initial Hydroponic Setup

The initial setup for hydroponics was prepared by:

 Inserting net cups in the holes made in the plastic container
 Filling the net cups with coconut compost and putting spinach seeds in it
 Filling three fourth of the container with nutrient solution

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 Enhanced Plant Monitoring System for Hydroponics Farming Ecosystem using IOT
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C. Prototype Testing

Fig. 12: Prototype of Hydroponic Setup

Initially, the setup was tested with water. Water level indicator continuously monitors the water in a predefined level. When
water is below that level, „motor in‟ is turned on and the user is notified as water is low viablynk application. „Motor in‟ pumps
the water into the set up until it reaches the predefined value and the user gets notification as water is normal.
Secondly, the setup was tested with hydroponic solution. The pH of the solution is continuously monitored by the
analog pH meter. When the pH of the solution is less than 6.9, „motor out‟ pumps out the solution to reduce the pH and the user
is notified as solution is acidic, to maintain the pH value of water is pumped in to dilute the solution.

D. Advantages
 Controlled water usage: In hydroponics plants are grown in a tank where water is recirculated and watering is not
specifically needed as in soil farming.
 Pesticides and fertilizers are not used: As soil is not used, we need not use pesticides and fertilizers. So toxic contents in the
plants are reduced.
 Yield is doubled: As the hydroponic solution specifically provides essential nutrients to the plants, yield will be more when
compared to that of manual farming.
 Not season specific: Plants can be hydroponically grown anywhere at any time regardless of the season because it does not
depend on any factors of soil and environment.

VI. CONCLUSION
This paper which applies the Internet of Things for smart Hydroponic Farming Ecosystem (HFE) can help those who are new
farmers or people who need to have a hydroponic farm but do not have time to manage and plant crops. After the experiments
were conducted, we made sure this system could work whether using it in automatic or manual mode. It will help make life
easier no matter how near or far they are from their farm. Initial cost is high.
Further, applying the system in a symmetrical plantation to check the accuracy of the HFE across multiple farms in the
same area and verifies that controlling via mobile application works correctly. In automatic control, a relatively higher yieldthan
manual control is expected due to intricate monitoring and controlling system. Parameters like weight (gm), height (cm),
circumference (cm2), no. of crops in automatic control is expected to be 20%-60% more than in manual control. The market for
hydroponics will increase rapidly in metro cities and urban agriculture increases with hydroponic farming.

VII. FUTURE SCOPE

The market for Hydroponics farming increases in metro cities. India has a number of bustling urban areas, hydroponics in places
like Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Gurgaon etc. is the solution to allowing people to grow clean, pesticide-free food from the
safety and comfort of their own homes. Hydroponic plants also have fewer problems with disease, funguses, and bug
infestations. So it will be a great blessing to the working people as it provides them healthy and unadulterated production with no
human interference.
 Urban agriculture prospers with Hydroponics farming.
Hydroponics is the fastest growing sector of agriculture, and it could very well dominate food production in the future.
As population increases and arable land declines due to poor land management, people will turn to new technologies like
hydroponics and vertical farming to create additional channels of crop production. However, with constant innovation and
adoption of newer techniques of growing, the cost differential is reducing. So, we will see progressive farmers adopting the
technology faster in coming years. But still the large part of farming in India will remain traditional due to cost considerations
and also technology limitations.

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 Symmetrical plantation across multiple farms in the same area can be monitored and controlled via a mobile app.
The HFE using IoT can be used to control more than plant within a single area via the blynk app. Other than the blynk
application, Raspberry pi, bayseian network, and Labview can also be used to control the ecosystem.

REFERENCES
[1] ChrisWoodford “What is hydroponics” http://www.explainthatstuff.com/hydroponics.html
[2] AnkitaPatil, AkshayNaik, MayurBelder,Sachin Deshpande(2016)”Smart Farming using Arduino and Data Mining”2016 International Conference on
Computing for Sustainable Global Development (INDIACom)
[3] https://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fseaagri.com%2Fwpcontent%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F11%2FHydroponics-
e1452178510456.jpg
[4] https://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F2Fspringpot. com%2Fw content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F06%2Fhow-to-grow-plants-in-
water.png
[5] Growth Technology, What is Hydroponics growing? from:http://www.growthtechnology.com/growtorial/what-is-hydroponics growing/
[6] Francisco B.C Elmer, P.Dadios“Smart Farming using Wireless Sensor Network for Data Acquisition and Power Control Distribution”20168th IEEE
International Conference Humanoid
[7] NarayutPujaika, Sasimanee Phusae, Anupong Chenim, Dr. Phond Phunchongharn “A Control System in an Intelligent Farming by using Arduino
Technology”.2016 Fifth ICT International Student Project Conference (ICT-ISPC).

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