Fuzzy-based automated nutrient solution control for a hydroponic tower system

Abstract

Hydroponic farming is gaining significant interests in the field of agriculture due to its many advantages. Its design is modular thereby allowing it to be installed in limited spaces and urban applications. Also, the trend of controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is now prevalent in the study of hydroponics. This ensures that hydroponic setups are invulnerable to plant diseases, infestations, and variable weather systems. One of the challenges in its operation, however, is in the efficient and accurate maintenance of the nutrient solution. Sudden changes in the growth parameters such as ambient temperature, relative humidity, electrical conductivity (EC), and pH level negatively impact the growth of hydroponic plants. Several studies have proposed systems which can control the distribution of the nutrient solution and maintain the optimal levels of growth parameters. This paper discusses a proposed control framework for nutrient solution management in a hydroponic system. Moreover, this system is based on fuzzy logic and designed for the adjustment of the pH level and electrical conductivity (EC) of the mixture. Additionally, the complexities in the process and maintenance of the system were made simple to facilitate easy adaptation and familiarization that even non-educated growers can easily acclimate to the proposed system. Also, dedicated sensor modules were used for monitoring the growth environment. Four treatment solutions were administered using dosing pumps to correct parameter values that went beyond the desired setpoint ranges. This system is applied on a nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponic tower farm to assess its performance on an actual physical setting.