Smart and Sustainable Home Aquaponics System with Feature-Rich Internet of Things Mobile Application

Abstract

Food security has been a recurring issue for many countries in the world including Singapore. This issue is exacerbated by growing world population and climate change, which inevitably leads to an increased demand for food. In recent years, large scale aquaponics has shown efficient production of edible fish and plants. This paper further exploits the design and development of an aquaponics system for home environment, with the notion that if every household within a country can generate its own fish and plants, the overall food demand of the country will be reduced. The proposed smart and sustainable home aquaponics system consists of various sensors, actuators, and microcontroller with internet connectivity to continuously monitor, control, and record fish tank water and ambient air quality. Healthy growth of fish and plants are ensured by sending an early warning to the user in the event of any abnormal system condition via a push notification in a feature-rich internet of things (IoT) mobile application. Furthermore, appropriate actuators are automatically operated to rectify abnormalities in a timely manner. Plant grow lights and fish feeder are also automatically controlled to optimize fish and plant growth. All sensor readings and actuator statuses are intuitively displayed to the user in real time through the IoT mobile application and securely sent to an online spreadsheet for storage and further analysis. Measurement results successfully demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed home aquaponics system to grow healthy fish and plants, with minimal operational costs and human intervention.