Implementation of Greenhouse Monitoring and Control System Using a Smartphone and a Computer with Internet

Abstract

Nowadays there are numerous greenhouse environmental control systems presented on the market. The network system for greenhouse control was developed by using recent technologies of networking and wireless communications. In this paper, a remote monitoring and control system for greenhouse using a smartphone and a computer with internet has been developed, and this system is capable of analyzing data and automatically saving many data. The greenhouse monitoring and control system is composed of a sensor unit, a remote terminal unit (RTU), a local server, a control panel and network cameras. The server commutes with the sensor unit and the RTU by the Zigbee communication. The RTU has AI 8ch, DI 8ch, DO 16channel. The RTU receives the environment data from the Zigbee sensor module and the signal transmitter of sensors. In addition, it sends the operating commands to each control device and receives the operating signal from it. These data can be displayed on a web page and transmitted using the server program to a computer and a smartphone. Daily-based data are saved in a DB server. In abnormal conditions, this server program sends a SMS and e-mail message to a smartphone and a computer and the users have an access in real-time via mobile phone or internet anytime and anywhere. The software is available to support a various web browser, such as. For the security, a smartphone user authentication and target system access control are included in the system developed in this study. The greenhouse environment is managed by the RTU control through the local server connected a smartphone and a computer with internet. Furthermore, all control devices in a greenhouse are remotely monitored and controlled, and they are managed via a camera installed inside of greenhouse. The findings of this study showed that the range of error for control command was within 0.2~0.5% level, which proved that the system is very precise and accurate.