Lab Prototype of Wireless Monitoring and Control for Seed Potatoes Growing Chamber

7/25/2019 Lab Prototype of Wireless Monitoring and Control for Seed Potatoes Growing Chamber

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1. Introduction

Indonesia is an agricultural country. With a vast area and large population, self-sufficiency in

food and agriculture products to support the welfare of the people is a necessity of a high

importance. While an achievement of food self-sufficiency has been claimed in the late PresidentSoehartos reign mainly in the 1990s [1], there is a significant need for improvement of

agriculture sector productivity in Indonesia, in which presently the nation depends largely in

imported goods rather than self-sufficiency [2][3]. While there are several approaches have beenused to identify what is the current problems and possible solutions to improve Indonesian

agriculture productivity [4][5], one of such efforts which was performed by a collaboration

between Bandung Institute of Technology and NTTData of Japan has produced insightful results.The study has shown that current problems in the Indonesian agriculture sector could be divided

into some aspects, with the four main accounted problems including: low productivity,

ineffective marketing of farm products, high cost of farming supplies procurement, and low

farmers empowerment rate [6].

From the result of the study performed for potato cultivation in West Java, particularly in

Lembang and Pangalengan area, it was understood that seed quantity, quality, and availabilityhold significancy in overall cost and productivity [6]. Therefore, it was considered necessary to

increase the production quality and quantity of potato seeds, especially at the G0 potato seedingfacility which resulting yields will affect the consecutive seeding productions.

According to Blackmore (1994), there are four factors that are interlinked in precision

agriculture, those were: reduction of input, enhanced control system, increased efficiency, andinformation management system [7]. One of the agricultural systems that can be applied to

enable precision farming is aeroponic system. Aeroponic is the process of growing plants in an

environment without the use of medium soil or aggregate. The basic principle of aeroponic isgrowing plants in a closed or semi-enclosed environment with an equipment necessary for

spraying plants roots with nutrient-rich solution. The aeroponic system has more advantagesthan hydroponic in terms of spraying high air content in the nutrient solution to provide oxygen

to plant roots, stimulating growth, and help the prevention of pathogen compounds formations[7]. The main focus in the aeroponic system research are as follows: microenvironment

(temperature, humidity, pH), and the effectiveness of nutrition (spraying/ fogging).

Cultivation of G0 potato seeds require a controlled growing chamber inside a greenhouse to be

grown adequately. Precision farming which is constituted by exact dose, exact timing, and exactlocation [8] is surely necessary, while power efficiency will certainly be useful in production

cost reduction. Based on such necessities in improving production of G0 potato seeds,

understanding of potato seeding, and a research background on sensor systems, research effort in

developing information system for the purpose of productivity improvement was deemednecessary. A research partnership with Balitsa (Vegetables Research Center) of Ministry of

Agriculture located in West Java, Lembang, with proper facilities and expertise in green houses

and growing chambers as shown in Figure 1 has been initiated to obtain optimal results anduseful insights.


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2. Methods

In designing an optimal WSAN for the purpose of greenhouse and growing chamber monitoring

and controlling system, the requirements of the system will be as follow:

1. Adaptive to changes against the size of the monitored system,2. Adjustable according to user's preferences,

3.

Able to monitor key parameters of greenhouse and growing chambers including but not

limited to: temperature, humidity, light intensity, and pH level.

According to the system's requirements, a wireless sensor and actuator network based on ZigBee

was chosen to be the wireless protocol. Based on the work specifications and studies of otherimplementations of WSAN [9][10], ZigBee has system advantages including high adaptibility

through its mesh network topology.

Considering high possibility of future implementations where the greenhouse and its growing

chambers might be located far from the database server and from its system administrator, amethod to transmit data from the location to the server was also designed. With the high

availability of GSM service providers in the country and intended pilot project location, textmessage (short message service - SMS) was chosen as an alternative.

The basic proposed system diagram is provided through Figure 3.

Figure 3. (a)Sensor and actuator system. (b)Communication system.

(c) Database server.

The designed basic connection scheme would be the following:

1. Every sensors and actuators located within close proximity (e.g. located inside a same

growing chamber, i.e.


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nutrient water flow, and then check the acidity condition inside the growing chamber every

certain period of time.

3.1.2. Actuator System

For the basic actuators, the system will control the following:

1. Water pump,2. Nutrient pump,

3. Mistmaker,

4. Blowers,5. Disposal valve.

Water pump, as well as nutrient pump, are installed in their own respective tanks. Timely

treatments of water and nutrition are expected in a growing chamber system, therefore an

adjustable water and nutrient treatment pump is necessary. An adjustable treatment system is

also important for R&D purposes, whereas the researchers of Balitsa usually run various

experiments on new G0 potato seeding techniques from time to time. In this experiment, wewere requested by the researchers of Balitsa to implement ultrasonic mistmakers as a mean of

nutrients distribution, in which the nutrient will be pumped into a container inside the growingchamber, and then the ultrasonic mistmakers will create ultrasonic vibrations inside the

containers. These mistmakers are installed inside nutrient accumulator boxes as shown on figure

5a. The vibrated nutrient solution will then turn into mist, which will be more easily distributedinside the growing chamber. This mist of nutrient solution is shown on figure 5b.

Blowers are required when the internal temperature of growing chamber is leaving the threshold

of optimal growing conditions. A single-speed blower was used in this research, and will be ranuntil internal temperature reached ambient temperature, which in Lembang area is around 17-

18 C at noon and 15-17 C at night.

Every time the potato roots were treated periodically by water or nutrients, the accumulated

liquid needs to be drained. This drainage pipes connect back to water and nutrient tanks,

therefore enabling reuse of water and nutrients, eventhough after some time they need to bereplaced. However, because of the reusability concern, different pipelines are required for each

tank. Therefore, disposal valve is required in determining whether the outgoing liquid is being

returned to water tank or nutrients tank. Disposal valve will open the channel from the growingchamber to the respective liquids drainage pipeline, activated after every treatment.

3.1.3. Actuator and Sensor Control System

To control the actions that should be taken by each actuator and sensor according to theprogrammed tasks, an ATMEGA128 microcontroller was used. In this project, a method to

control the parameters of actuator was enabled using a control panel with an LCD screen at the

parent nodes box.


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3.2. Communication Systems

Communication between the components of this system happened in two forms: the first isbetween zigbee nodes and the parent node, which used ZigBee wireless protocol, and the second

is between the parent node and database server, which used text message as a mean of data

transmission.

3.2.1. ZigBee nodes

Each ZigBee node was connected with several signal conditioners, each corresponded to a

certain sensor or actuator. In this research, the sensors used were temperature, humidity, and pHsensors, while the actuators used were mistmakers, blowers, pumps, and valves. With every

ZigBee node attached to a single growing chamber, and every ZigBee node able to accomodatemultiple sensors and actuators, the amount of ZigBee node that was required to be deployed was

equal to the number of the active growing chambers.

3.2.2. ZigBee parent node

Data collection was performed periodically by ZigBee parent node, once every 10 minutes. In

this project, the specification was for the parent node to handle 20 nodes at one time, given the

size and workload of growing chambers inside a single greenhouse. This ZigBee parent node isconfigured with a microcontroller to facilitate message coding, and then connected to a GSM

module to send the coded message via GSM network to the awaiting database server. An

enclosure covers the node as it has been shown in figure 5d, along with the power supply unitand actuator control box.

3.2.3. Text messaging via GSM module

Text messages have a limitation in transmitted messages, as in only 160 characters allowed foreach delivery. Therefore, a simple character parity was designed, using slashes to differentiate

each data obtained from respective sensors. The same method was used in giving directions to

the actuator from server.


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1. Because it uses ultrasonic vibration to transform nutrients into mist, the heat that was

caused by the vibration was also spread inside the growing chamber, thus increasing theoverall temperature of the growing chamber. This phenomenon has caused the optimum

temperature of the growing chamber could not be reached, therefore stunting optimum

bulbs growth.

2.

Even though mistmakers were utilized to produce smaller water droplets, the resultingwater droplets was too small to be caught by the roots. Furthermore, because of the

minuscule size of the droplets, they were able to transcend the boundaries that were made

using clotted cottons. This allowed the nutrients to reach the leaves, which provenharmful because of the acidic nature of the nutrient solution.

Based on such results, researchers of Balitsa decided that they will revert back to pump

utilization for the purpose of nutrients distribution inside the growing chamber, because the yield

and quality of resulting G0 bulbs have higher priorities than efficiency issues.

4. Conclusions

From the performed research, we can conclude several items as follow:

1. Wireless sensor and actuator network using ZigBee protocol to control and monitor G0potato growing chamber was able to increase cultivation adaptability and productivity, in

which Balitsa researchers can modify growth parameters easily, and monitor growing

chamber condition remotely.2. Several adjustments need to be made to increase control and monitoring systems

effectiveness and efficiency, including implementation of new communication method,

reinstatement of pump to replace mistmakers, and an upgrade in data transmissionscheme using ZigBee protocol.

3. Planned future works including a refrigeration system to cool down nutrient/ water

treatment system, therefore maintaining optimum growth temperature inside the growingchamber.4. Wireless sensor and actuator network for the purpose of greenhouse monitoring and

controlling can be improved by implementing 6LoWPAN in the future, thus increasing

the capability, reliability, and availability of the network.

Acknowledgments

This research was done in collaboration with Vegetable Research Center (Balitsa) of Lembang, a

research center of Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture.

References and Notes

1. Vatikiotis, Michael R.J.Indonesian Politics under Suharto: the Rise and Fall of the New

Order; Routledge: London, United Kingdom, 1999; Chapter 2.2. Warr, Peter. Food Policy and Poverty in Indonesia: a General Equilibrium Analysis;

Australian National University, Australia, 2005. Available online:

https://crawford.anu.edu.au/acde/prc/pdf/WarrFoodPolicy.pdf(accessed on 4 January2013).


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3. Haryati, Y.; Aji, J.M.M.Indonesian Rice Supply Performance in the Trade Liberalization

Era, 2005. Available online:http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv.php?pid=UQ:8429&dsID=IRCBali_Paper.pdf

(accessed on 6 January 2014).

4. Rada, Nicholas; Fuglie, Keith; Buccola, Steve.Indonesian Agricultural Research,

Agricultural Incentives, and Productivity Growth, 2010. Available online:http://www.farmfoundation.org/news/articlefiles/1725-Rada.pdf(accessed on 10 January

2014).

5. Nuchsin, P.Irrigation Management to Increase Agriculture Production (IndonesianExperience). Available online:

http://www.comcec.org/UserFiles/File/WorkingGroups/Agriculture/Presentations%20mad

e%20during%20the%20Meeting/%C3%9CLKE/Indonesia.pdf(accessed on 2 January2014).

6. Sulthoni, M.A.; Laksono, P.; Ishiura, D.; Amemiya, S.; Umejima, M. Key Parameters for

Developing Agricultural Electronics Service in Indonesia, Proceedings of ICEID 2013,

awaiting publication.

7.

Blackmore, S. Precision Farming: An Overview, Agricultural Engineer, 49, 1994; pp 86-88.

8. Radite P.A.S, Irman Idris, Hidayat Pawitan, Sigit Prabawa, Pendekatan Precision FarmingMemanfaatkan Teknologi Sensor untuk Peningkatan Produktivitas Pertanian di Indonesia,

RUSNAS Seminar, State Ministry of Research and Technology, Republic of Indonesia,

2006.9. Mancuso, M., Bustaffa, F.,A Wireless Sensor Network for Monitoring Environmental

Variables in a Tomato Greenhouse. IEEE International Workshop on Factory

Communication Systems, 2006; pp 107-110.10. Abielmona, R. Sensor Networks : Research Challenges in Practical Implementation,

Physical characteristic, and Aplication, School of Information Technology andEngineering, Ottawa, 2003.

2014 by the authors; licensee Asia Pacific Advanced Network. This article is an open-accessarticle distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

Lab Prototype of Wireless Monitoring and Control for Seed Potatoes Growing Chamber

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