ARM Based Smart Water Meter with LoRa for Soilless Agriculture Application

Abstract

The aim of this study is to develop an integrated and micro-controller based electronic circuit which might be used in soilless agriculture and smart greenhouse systems. In this study, a novel soilless agriculture system design is proposed to measure and monitor parameters such as the desired ambient temperature, nutrient solution temperature, solution alkalinity (pH) and conductivity in the greenhouse. In addition to the design, a control mechanism is designed to keep the amount of nutrient solution, which changes over time, stable in the desired ranges. This proposed system consists of two different embedded systems where the necessary parameters are measured, actuators are controlled, and the related input / output pairs are observed. The yield of the nutrient solution in the system is continuously controlled, and the necessary conditions are provided for the growth of the product in the greenhouse. The microcontroller system is responsible for data transmission in the greenhouse, observing the pipes, and to identify possible problems which might be encountered in the corresponding lines. In addition, the embedded system in the field performs the control tasks of the actuators which takes a role in maintaining the temperature inside the greenhouse taking into account the feedback data. LoRa communication is employed to construct a data flow network between embedded systems. For this purpose, a new communication protocol is proposed to be used in soilless agriculture applications. In order to enable the users to observe the whole system in multi-greenhouse systems, a control unit (computer) is positioned over a main greenhouse where the relevant inputs / outputs of the embedded system can be read. The sensor and actuator data are obtained during the studies, the necessary conditions for soilless agriculture are examined, and the results are presented.