MONITORING AND CONTROLLING OF VERTICAL FARMING SYSTEM

USING INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT)

3
1
Moh. Jalik Ardli Wibowo, Renny Eka Putri, Andasuryani
2

Departement of Biosystem and Agricultural Engineering

Andalas University, Indonesia

INTRODUCTION
The growth of the human population continues to increase every year, the number of urban people will be greater than rural communities in the future, this results in the
lack of agricultural land in urban areas. In response to this, it is necessary to have a vertical farming system that can be applied in urban areas. Vertical farming is an
agricultural activity that uses terraced or vertical planting methods so as to save land use. The purpose of this study was to design a vertical farming prototype and control
system to regulate irrigation and artificial lighting based on the Internet of Things on water spinach plants. The control system uses a YL-69 groundwater level sensor and a
BH1750 light intensity sensor then Wemos / NodeMCU ESP 8266 as a wifi module equipped with Arduino nano as a microcontroller and displayed in the Blynk App
application as its IoT platform. The results of sensor calibration are used to compare the actual value with the sensor value, the calibration of 6 moisture content sensors is
done by comparing the sensor readings with the gravimetric test in the laboratory, the R2 values are 0.9895, 0.9897, 0.9898, 0.9899 respectively. , 0.9892 and 0.9894, then
the results of the calibration of the light intensity sensor obtained R2 values, namely 0.9997 and 0.9995, respectively. Then for the accuracy of sensor readings that were
observed for 20 days, the average value of linear regression R2 from the readings of the soil water content sensor and gravimetric test was 0.8448 then the light intensity
sensor and light meter obtained an average value of R2 0.9946. If the value of R2 is getting closer to 1 then the reading is accurate or close to the true value. The results of
plant observations carried out for 20 days obtained an average plant height of 23.801 cm for system plants and 22.95 cm for control plants and an average number of leaves
of 8 leaves for control plants and 7 leaves for system plants. The irrigation system that is built can drain 0.51 L (Liter) of water for one irrigation. From the research results,
the system built is more efficient than conventional systems.

AIM RESULT
1. Designing a vertical farming system prototype equipped with drip irrigation
and internet of things-based lighting on water spinach (Ipomoea reptans poir)
2. Designing a drip irrigation control system and internet of things based
lighting on water spinach (Ipomoea reptans poir)
3. Testing the performance of the drip irrigation control system and internet of
things based lighting on kale (Ipomoea reptans poir)
The benefit of this research is that it makes it easier for plant owners to
monitor conditions and control irrigation systems and perform artificial
lighting on plants online.

METHOD
The method used in this research is an experimental method. This research
was carried out in several stages as follows:

CONCLUSIONS

1. The Internet of Things-based automatic drip irrigation system can

perform irrigation based on groundwater conditions, then the resulting
lighting system is able to turn on / off according to a determined
schedule automatically;
2. The reading of the water content sensor is close to the real value
with an average linear regression value of R2 0.8448 and the light
intensity sensor of 0.9946, and the irrigation system is live when the
water content is at 25%;
3. Monitoring and control of the vertical farming system can be done
using a smartphone connected to the internet so that monitoring can
be done online;

Figure 1. Several stages that was use for this method such us designing
vertical farming prototype, light & drip control systems, and Blynk
application as the IoT Platform by using the help of Wemos D1 ESP8266
REFERENCE
Anonymous. 2011. Watering With Soil Moisture Sensors. Baseline Inc.
Agus, Putu. 2018. Design of Automatic Irrigation Systems with
Resistive Sensors Based on Soil Water Content in Rukola Plants
(Eruca sativa). Agricultural Engineering Study Program. Faculty of
Agricultural Technology. UNUD. Bali.
Ardiansyah and Sumarni. 2018. Variations of Light Interception and
Estimation Model of Red Spinach (Amaranthus gangeticus) Biomass
in the Plant-Factory System. Journal of Agricultural Engineering
(JTEP). Vol. 6: No 3 - 6. December 2018.