2014 IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Manufacturing Automation

Automated Greenhouse
Thangavel Bhuvaneswari, Joshua Tan Hong Yao
Faculty of Engineering and Technology,
Multimedia University, Jalan Ayer Keroh Lama,
75450 Melaka,Malaysia
t.bhuvaneswari@mmu.edu.my

Abstract- Gardening is one of the popular hobbies among the best thing about the green house. It is getting smarter when
people in the midst of busy work culture and urban life style. automation is installed. The user can leave the house to work
Gardening seems to release the stress, healthy spending of the leisure without worry about his plant and about the rough weather
time effectively. But the apartment living has no free space for especially in Malaysia.
gardening. As a result, small scale greenhouse is now the hottest
trend in the century. Greenhouse is a structure that the user used to
The main aim of this paper is to minimize the human care
grow the plants. It is built with a specific need for the type of plant
needed for the plant by automating the green house and
they wish to grow. So the structure varies depending on type of plant
and scale of size. Although it creates a perfect environment for monitor the in-house environment status. The scope of work is
plants, it needs human care to control the optimum status of the house classified into hardware development and programming. The
such as ventilation. Automated greenhouse is to ease people when hardware section includes the designing of the mechanical
they wish to grow plants. It helps to monitor the situation, when they structures and electronic circuits. The software section
are not at home. The main aim of this paper is to minimize the human includes the program design to control the automated
care needed for the plant by automating the green house and monitor mechanism. The program has a function to control (i) the
the in-house environment status. A single unit of the greenhouse
servo motors to push the roof or retract it. (ii) activate the
structure prototype has been constructed and integrated with the
ventilation system when the main system detects the indoor
sensors. The control system is designed with Adriano Uno
temperature is too high for the environment. A LCD display to
microcontroller. Servo motors have been used to push the roof when
there is rain detected. A 12 volt fan is also installed and turns ON show the current temperature of the green house and the
when the temperature is too high. The prototype developed is environment status like hot, normal, fan open, roof close at the
simulated under five different places and the results are analyzed. output.

The main motivations of this design are to help the user to

Keywords---Greenhouse, Automation, Microcontroller, sensors,
temperature, rain. take care of their plant inside a greenhouse, or to reduce the
time needed by the user for checking situation the status of the
1. Introduction greenhouse. With the intelligent features installed, the system

Nowadays, there are more and more people diagnose with will have the ability to react to specific weather. The system

mental illness such as stress disorder. This is the most also will help people in the special farming industry where

common disease occurs to many people working in stressful their growth needed to set at best environment, but less care

environment. It is very important for a person to release his needed since the system is able to react accordingly. Therefore

stress periodically. Some will go to gym, pool and yoga. On they are able to maximize their profit during the harvesting

the other hand, some people will have a hobby to occupy their season. As a small scale point of view, individual user also

free time, free their mind with the entire problem they have can start plant vegetables other than just flowers, which they

momentarily. Gardening is one of the popular hobbies among can be consumed and is hundred percent organic. This will

the people. They have the sense of achievement when they see promote the hobby of gardening, and reduce the price of

their plant growth periodically. For example, when a person organic vegetables in great scale.

come back from work, and smells the aroma of the flower
inside his house, immediately he would felt a sense of A single unit of the greenhouse structure prototype has been

freshness. constructed and integrated with sensors as input to a dedicated

output. Adriano Uno has been chosen as the microcontroller as

It is definitely better than those artificial air refresher, and the control system on the main board. Servo motors have been

hundred percent organic. Recently, the price of an estate house chosen to push the roof when there is rain detected. A 12 volt

is getting higher and higher. So many people are now living in fan is also installed and turns ON when the temperature is too

an apartment or house which has no free space for gardening. high.

As a result, small scale green house is now the hottest trend in The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 describes the
the century. They do not need a large space, and need not have literature review and in section 3 methodology is explained
a yard to plant. All it requires is a small space indoor or with illustrations and in section 4 results are tabulated and
outdoor; the rest is all taken care by the system. This is the

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 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Manufacturing Automation

analyzed for various temperature conditions. Section 5 moisture that are continuously modified and controlled in
concludes with future recommendation of the design. order to optimize them to achieve maximum plant growth and
yield.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW

The Colorado state university has outlined the factors that will
affect the plant growth. One of the most important factors that Ref [5] proposed the greenhouse auto control system based on
they proposed is temperature. Temperature consideration wireless sensor network. It collects the environment
directly affects the outcome of a plant growth [1]. information in the greenhouse. To create an optimal
environment, the climate and environmental parameters need
The factors like elevation and drainage can affect plants when to be controlled. An automated system for greenhouse using
they influence the surrounding temperature. Eventually the Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) tool like
places to locate the greenhouse take these factors into Lab view is described in ref [6] by S.H.Sadati, A.M.Sahari. In
consideration, although temperature is the only main variable Ref [7] Masayu Binti Hussein proposed an automatic
to take as the input. The research shows that a 300 foot greenhouse watering system. Sensors such as temperature
(around 90 meters) in elevation accounts for approximately sensor and soil moisture detector are used to control the
1°F (-I]oC) drop in temperature. In other words, the higher watering system in a greenhouse.
the elevation gets, the cooler temperature will be. It is clear
from the graph, rate of temp declination with elevation shown In urban environments, roof gardens are most popular.
in Fig.1 Generally, plants have the ability to reduce the overall heat
absorption of the buildings. This in turn reduces energy
Rate of temp decline with elevation consumption. The solar radiation absorbed by the buildings in
the city and roads are the main cause of heat build-up in cities.
00,0
50,0 �.�------
�21 110.0 ....
..- ------------ The heat absorbed by the buildings re-radiates. Plant surfaces,
i lO.O as a result of transpiration, do not rise more than 4-5 °C above
:;. 2U.O the ambient and are sometimes cooler [8]. In Ref [9] the study
f '0.0 •
•��c:.;:--:-::-••.----=--..•••�,.,
� o.o � •• , •
performed by the University of Cardiff showed that this
-10.0 Q.Q :iOO 0 l.OOO. Q lSCO Q 1()QQ 0 2S(AQ WQ Q 3.S00 Q .",00.0
ambient temperature then translates into a cooling of the
environment in the range of 3.6°C and I1.3°C, depending on
the geographical location on earth. The differences in
Fig 1: Temperature vs. Elevatiou [1] temperature between roofs with gardens and without gardens
are studied in ref [10]. Roof gardens could reduce heat
Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of surface
absorbed by the buildings to a great extent.
and sub-surface water. Most of the agricultural soil needs
drainage to improve production or to manage water supplies.
Another new gardening concept suitable for urban life style is
The rate of drainage is different during the day and night. The
vertical garden. In Ref [11], the recent innovations in high­
type of soil also will affect the rate. For example, during night
rise architecture in search of solutions to vulnerable effects of
time, cool air drains to low spots. Valley floors may be more
climate change in Australia has been discussed. The Vertical
than 10°F (-12°C) cooler than garden on hillsides above the
Architecture Studio (VAST) illustrated by selected projects for
valley floor. As a result, there are certain plants that farmer
a prototypical vertical garden city is beneficial and differs
will never plant it on the lower terrain.
significantly from other urban forms.

Influence of Heat on Crop Growth

Malaysia is a tropical country, where it receives lot of rain 3. DESIGN METHODOLOGY

especially during the monsoon period. Unpredictable weather
The inputs to the system are the rain detection module and the
causing over watered crop will reduce the rate of survivability
temperature sensor. As the weather changes, the sensor inputs
of the plant. Hence the research of rainfall becomes a very
will be fed to the micro controller to be processed and trigger
important task [2]. Ref [3] has been manufacturing greenhouse
automation systems since 1985. They designed and develop the action along with a LCD display as shown in Fig.2.

products to help greenhouse growers to maximize crop yields,

help manage energy costs, and help with water and fertilizer
conservation.
Sushama Arjun Kolhe, S. A. Annadate in ref [4], implemented
Greenhouse automation ARM7 controller. It provides the most
proper conditions of plant growth.
When rain drop or water drop is sensed, the microcontroller
will trigger the servo to take action to close the roof top. When
the high temperature is detected, the microcontroller will
trigger the fan to tum ON. The display mechanism has a back
light LCD display unit to show the current temperature of the
The Automation system greenhouse and the status of the room (hot, normal, or rain).

based on the embedded system is used for the control of the

values of temperature, humidity, light intensity and soil

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 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Manufacturing Automation

to convert 7.5V to 5V to operate. L7805CV voltage regulator

( I CmpC,.MUO'C ) is used in the design.

( Hal" Wale," ) (iii) LCD Display

The LCD display used in this design is a 16 x 2, blue backlight

[ ICD
) display. The display serves as a visual indicator of the current
temperature from the LM35 temperature sensor module. The
display is programmed to show both the status as well as the
Fig 2: Block Diagram of Proposed Design temperature that is measured at the exact moment. This
display is compact, easy to interface and at the same time
(i) Sensors
provides the user a convenient method of reading compared
with reading of complicated scaled gauges of any other
LM35 Thermistor and Rain sensor (SN-Rain-MOD) module
conventional meters.
are used as inputs. LM35 [12] can be used to measure
temperature with an electrical output proportional to the
(iv) Servo motors
temperature (in 0C). For LM35 shown in Fig.3, the scale factor
is O.01VrC meaning the nominal output voltage is 250mV at
The high-torque Towerpro SG5010 standard servo can rotate
25°C and 1.000V at 100°C. The most important characteristic
approximately 180° (90° in each direction). It is suitable to
of the LM35 is that it has low self-heating capability. The
push the roof to the maximum distance that allows the roof
output of temperature sensor is sensed by using a voltmeter.
open itself.
The output voltage is converted to temperature by a simple
conversion method. The general equation used to convert from
At the original position, the servo is at 0° that creates the knife
the output voltage to temperature is:
push the roof to the max distance from the center creating an
Temperature (0C) = Vout * 100 °CN ------------------------- (1) open space at the top of the roof as shown in FigS Once the
first drop water is detected, the servo will rotate 180° counter
clock to minimize the knife distance. The gravity will pull
down the roof and close the gap between two roofs. The servo
will remain until the rain has stopped, then it will extend the
knife and push the roof to original position.

Fig 3: LM 35 Thermistor

The Rain sensor module shown in FigA uses the FR-04 high­
quality double-sided materials, King Size 5.0 * 4.0CM, and
with the surface of the nickel plating treatment, against
Fig 5: Greenhouse simulation on rain
oxidative, conductivity, superior performance and longevity.
Sensitivity can be adjusted via potentiometer. (v) Fan

Fan is another output that reacts when the temperature is too

high. Any DC Fan is allowed to install in the design as long as
it can be powered by a 12V power source.

(vi) Implementation

The implementation of the design is includes the structural

design. When designing the structure, several conditions have
Fig 4: Rain sensor module to be taken into account, mainly, cost and ease of use.
Materials such as aluminium and steel are strong and solid,
(ii) Voltage Regulator however aluminium is easier to get at low cost. Straw board is
used to construct the wall of the greenhouse simulate the
In order to activate a microcontroller and its associated
enclosed surface.
circuitry, a reliable and stable voltage is very crucial. The
main board circuit requires a 5V power supply. However, the
The microcontroller can be used as a standalone unit and also
battery used is 7.5V. Therefore, a voltage regulator is needed
be interfaced with other sensors or connected to a computer
depending on the complexity of the system design.

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 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Manufacturing Automation

Programming of the Arduino Nano microcontroller is done temperature of the room is taken as sample. The greenhouse is
using the Arduino 1.0.5 IDE. Programming of the controller tum on and starts checking the temperature of the surrounding.
does not require a separate programmer and can be done The result is compared with the actual LCD display
directly via USB in the Arduino IDE environment [13]. The temperature for accuracy. The picture shown in Fig.8 is the
programming language used is called Processing. Processing temperature at the balcony after a small rain, on cloudy day.
is highly similar to C with some difference. The two main
libraries used in this design are: Servo - for controlling servo
motors. Improved LCD library fixes LCD initialization bugs
in official Arduino LCD library.

The system input from two sensor modules, the rain sensor
and the temperature sensor. At the start of the programme,
initialization is made and the sensor module is power up.

Using the digitalRead ( ) function read the status of pin D3,

the status of the rain sensor is continuously monitored. In the
case that normal, rainless day is detected; the conditions of pin
D3 is "Low" and do nothing. When rain drop or water drop is
sensed, pin D3 is set to "High". In this situation, a signal
'Rain' is transmitted and displayed in the LCD, and trigger the Fig 7: 3D View of Greenhouse
servo to take action to close the roof top. This action will
repeat infinitely until the temperature sensor no longer sense
31° and above.

In normal operating condition where there is no rain and no

overheat, the correct temperature reading is transmitted
directly to the display. At the same time, the temperature is
constantly compared with the threshold set for the rain and
high temperature condition. When the high temperature is
detected, "Hot" is displayed in the LCD.

The flowchart of the automated greenhouse design is shown

Fig. 6.The 3D view of the green house is shown in Fig.7 Fig 8: Outdoor temperature (Balcony) on Rainy day
respectively.
The prototype is placed in 5 places, normal room (indoor),
enclosed room (indoor), living room (indoor), balcony
(outdoor), and yard (outdoor) to carry out the testing, to
simulate different condition on growing. Another variable that
needed to be included is the weather of the atmosphere. In
Malaysia or tropical country, there are many kind of weather
phenomenal may occur. Four major weather conditions are
considered in the design. They are sunny day, rainy day,
cloudy day and sunny rainy day. The four weather conditions
at five places are tested and results are recorded. Predicted
actions are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Action on Condition

Weather Sunny Rain Sunny Cloudy

(

Rain
Fig 6: Flowchart of the System
Condition T<32°C 27°C T<32°C 27<T
4. Experimental Results and Discussion
<T<32°C <32°C
After successful interfacing with the sensors and the
Fan On On/OFF On On/OFF
microcontroller, the performance of the device is tested by
placing the greenhouse at an environment where the Roof Open Close Close Open
temperature is known. By using a thermometer, the

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 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Manufacturing Automation

Table 2: Condition: Cloudy, No rain Table 5: Condition: Sunny and Rain

Onboard Peak Average Final To

original temp temp temp target
Onboard Peak Average Final To
Temp °C °C °C temp
original temp temp temp target
°C °C
temp °C °C °C °C temp
Normal 28.34 28.34 28.34 28.91 <32
°C
room
Normal 28.50 28.50 28.50 28.50 <32
room Enclosed 29.45 30.33 29.89 29.73 <32
room
Enclosed 30.25 30.25 30.25 30.25 <32
room Living 29.67 31.21 30.44 30.94 <32
room
Living 29.13 30.33 29.50 29.79 <32
room Balcony 29.04 31.44 30.24 30.58 <32

Balcony 30.56 36.13 33.06 34.28 +2.28 Yard 29.19 31.79 30.49 30.69 <32
open
Yard 30.32 40.04 36.83 39.78 +7.78

Table 3: Condition: Sunny, No rain

Onboard Peak Average Final To 40

original temp temp °C temp target
temp °C °C °C tempoC
35 �normal
Normal 29.77 30.77 30.27 30.22 <32
_enclose room
room
30
31.34 31.34 31.34 31.92 <32 -.-living room

Enclosed �balcony
room 25
Living 30.67 31.56 31.12 31.34 <32 �yard open
room
20
Balcony 32.67 36.45 34.56 34.85 +2.85
15 min 30 min 45 min 60 min
Yard 30.45 42.77 36.61 40.20 +8.20
Fig 9: Temperature (0C) vs. Time on Cloudy, No rain Day
Table 4: Condition: Rain

45
Onboard Peak Average Final To
�Normal
original temp temp temp target
40 room
tempoC °C °C °C temp
°C _Enclose
35
Normal 27.39 28.22 27.81 27.91 <32 room
room
30 -'-Living
room
Enclosed 28.28 29.04 28.66 28.48 <32
room 25
�Balcony
15 30 45 60
Living 29.33 30.68 30.01 30.45 <32 min min min min
room

Balcony 29.67 31.55 30.61 30.69 <32 Fig 10: Temperature (0C) vs. Time on Sunny, No rain Day
Yard 29.85 31.87 30.86 29.77 <32

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 2014 IEEE International Symposium on Robotics and Manufacturing Automation

33 The current design is focused on a small environment.

�Normal
32 room Therefore, the design is compact and user friendly. Using the
same approach, the design can further be improved to be used
31
-Enclose in the industry scale. This can be done by changing the
30 room equipment of the ventilation to a powerful fan or increase the
29 quantity of fan. If the crops required temperature similar to the
-A-Living
28 Cameron Highland, then an air condition also can be installed.
room
Also the power source has to change into a much higher range.
27
�Balcony The design can also controlled by the wireless network.
26 Sensors for humidity check can be included.
25
�Yard References
15 min 30 min 45 min 60 min

Fig 11: Temperature (0C) vs. Time on Rain Day [I] David Whiting, Scott Johnson, CMG GardenNotes #143 Plant
Growth Factors: Temperature, Colorado state University
Extension. http://www.ext.colostate.edulmg/gardennotesI143.pdf
[2] C. L. Wong, R. Venneker, S. Uhlenbrook, A B. M. Jamil,and
Y. Zhou, "Variability of rainfall in Peninsular Malaysia",Hydro
33
and Bart Sci.Diss., 6, 5471-5503, 2009 www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci­
32 discuss.net/6/547112009/doi:10.5194Ihessd-6-5471-2009
�Normal room [3] http://climatecontrol.com/
31 [4] Sushama Arjun Kolhe, S. A Annadate, "Implementation of Green
_ Enclose room House Automation using ARM7 Controller", International Journal
30
of Computer Applications (0975 - 888),Volume 47- No.20, June
29 -&- Living room 2012
[5] BeomJin Kang, DaeHeon Park, KyungRyung Cho, ChangSun
28 -Balcony Shin, SungEon Cho, JangWoo Park, "A Study on the Greenhouse
Auto Control System Based on Wireless Sensor
27
�Yard Network", SECTECH, 2008, Security Technology, International

26 Conference on, Security Technology, International Conference on

15 min 30 min 45 min 60 min
Fig 12: Temperature (0C) vs. Time on Sunny and Rain
It is observed that under different weather conditions shown in
table 2, 3, 4 and 5, the efficiency of the greenhouse is varying
since the natural phenomenal is the dominant. From the graphs
shown in Fig.9, 10, 11 and 12 it is clear that, if the greenhouse
is located indoor, the temperature is more or less the same
although the outdoor temperature can change dramatically.
Another observation made during the experiment is the effect
of supply voltage on the quality temperature detection. When
the battery supply of the module runs low, it is observed that
data received is incorrect. Therefore the battery or power
supply used should be checked regularly to ensure that
sufficient power is supplied to the system to
uniformly.
2008, pp. 41-44, doi:10.1109/SecTech.2008.60
[6] S.H. Sadati , AM.Sahari, "Design and Simulation of an automated
system for greenhouse using LabVIEW" American-Eurasian
J.Agric and Environ Sci, 3(2):279-284,2008 ISSN 1818-6769.
[7] Masaya Binti Hussein, "Automatic greenhouse Watering system
using Microcontroller", thesis University Malaysia Pahang, 1999.
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/99/1/cd2648.pdf
[8] Ong,B,"Green plot ratio: an ecological measure for architecture
and urban planning",Landscape and Urban Planning, 63(4) pp 197-
211, 2003.
[9] Catherine Brahic "Cooling percentages by Green roofs", New
Scientist. September 28, 2007.
[10] Liu, K." Energy Efficiency and Environmental benefits of rooftop
gardens",Construction Canada, v. 44 ,no. 2, p. 17, 20-23, March
2002.
[11] ABEL,C,"The Vertical Garden City: Towards a New Urban
Topology", CTBUH Journal Issue 2, 2010.
[12] LM35 Precision Centigrade Temperature Sensors data Sheet.
http://www.datasheetcatalog.comldatasheets pdflUMI3IS/IM3S.s
html
[13] http://www.arduino.cc/
perform

5. Conclusion

The prototype has successfully demonstrated its capability to

sense temperature as well as the rain with slight deviation. The
prototype also managed to implement the data gathered by the
sensor and sent signal to the servo and fan to take action when
the threshold was reached. So this design allows the user to
grow a plant with no worry of being exposed to excess rain
water or abnormal weather condition. The entire thresholds are
set to protect the plant.

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