SMARTGROW: AN ENERGY-AWARE SOLAR-POWERED IOT VERTICAL HYDROPONIC MONITORING AND AUTONOMOUS CONTROL SYSTEM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJIREV.825029Keywords:
Cloud-Based Monitoring, Energy-Aware Systems, Internet of Things, Solar-Powered Hydroponics, Vertical FarmingAbstract
With the increasing need for sustainable and resource-efficient food production, hydroponic systems have become popular for urban agriculture, particularly for the cultivation of vegetables and other plants, where the Internet of Things (IoT) technology is employed. There are currently many hydroponic platforms that are still connected to a grid power source and offer only partial integration of renewable energy, autonomous control, and remote monitoring in a single platform. These restrictions lower the operational sustainability, reduce deployment flexibility and require human intervention at all times. In this study, an energy-aware IoT vertical hydroponic monitoring and autonomous control system, called SmartGrow, is designed, developed, and implemented to enhance the cultivation efficiency, energy sustainability, and remote management of the system. The methodology proposed here uses a systematic engineering process with three major phases: system architecture design, hardware development, embedded software implementation, printed circuit board design, prototype fabrication and experimental validation. The microcontroller is an ESP32, which is equipped with pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), water level and light intensity sensors, and also automatically controls the nutrient pump, water circulation pump and grow light according to the set threshold values. The system also has an embedded HTML based web dashboard for in-situ monitoring and manual operation, a cloud based data logging system using Google Sheets, an instant alert notification system using Telegram and an energy subsystem powered by PV modules to enable energy aware operation. Experimental testing proved that sensors could be acquired, the threshold based actuator responses were reliable, data could be recorded continuously in the cloud, data could be monitored remotely and real-time alerts could be sent in the event of abnormal operating conditions. Combining renewable energy with automation via the IoT increases the system's autonomy and decreases reliance on traditional power sources. The proposed SmartGrow platform highlights the capability of developing a vertically integrated hydroponic system with renewable energy, intelligent sensors, autonomous control, and cloud-based monitoring, providing a viable and scalable solution for sustainable urban agriculture, educational purposes, and future smart agriculture projects.
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References
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