Intelligent Control of Mushroom Growing Conditions Using an Electronic System for Monitoring and Maintaining Environmental Parameters

Abstract

In order to make plant cultivation as economical and efficient as possible, and to reduce the amount of human errors and labour costs, autonomous systems for growing plants and, in this case, also mushrooms, are increasingly being implemented. In this work, a prototype of an electronic/automatic system was designed and manufactured for the monitoring and control of the parameters of mushroom growing conditions. Appropriate sensors were used to monitor the application parameters such as CO2 level, temperature and humidity, and the data were sent to the main logic controller using an RS 485 interface-based local data transmission network. Both the main controller and the individual parts of the system were made on the basis of PIC18F25K83 microcontrollers, using the C programming language to create the program code. In order to achieve optimal system operation, a software algorithm was created to ensure fast system operation. During the production, the PCBs of the system were optimized to achieve the smallest possible dimensions and optimal construction and the arrangement of the active electronic elements. For the convenience of the user, a system application was created so that it is possible to monitor information from the environmental sensors and the process of parameter control. This work aimed to show that such autonomous systems based on environmental sensor monitoring are universal and can be applied to a large number of plant species. In addition, the capabilities of the plant cultivation system can be expanded if needed by additionally connecting relevant environmental sensors and environmental parameter regulation units.