Declaration

It is declared that this is an original piece of my own work, except where otherwise
acknowledged in text and references. This work has not been submitted in any form for another
degree or diploma at any university or other institution for tertiary education and shall not be
submitted by me in future for obtaining any degree from this or any other University or
institution.

Maqsood Akbar Khan

BME-203045

Raja Saqib Sair

BME-203048

John Haider Naqvi

BME-203015

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 Acknowledgment
First of all, we would like to thank Allah Almighty for gathering us and courage to accomplish
this report, and special thanks to my teacher Sir Bilal Hussain and all other resources that helped
us out in completion of this report; this has helped us to explore more knowledge. The process of
working on this report was very interesting, it helped a lot in understanding the problem
discussed in report and gathering the useful and important about the Automatic Door Opening
system.

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 Certificate of Approval

It is certified that the project titled “Computer Controlled Greenhouse” carried out by Maqsood
Akbar Khan (BME-203045), Raja Saqib Sair (BME-203048), and John Haider Naqvi (BME-
203015) under the supervision of Sir Bilal Hussain, Capital University of Science and
Technology, Islamabad, is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a semester project for the
lab of Precision Engineering and Metrology.

Supervisor:
--------------------------
Bilal Hussain
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
Capital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad

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Abstract:
Automatic greenhouse can provide the optimum conditions for growing plants by using
computer control. Computer can be used to monitor conditions and control a range of
applications (devices) to keep the perfect conditions constant. Crop management depends on
having the right information to make necessary decisions. Real-time monitoring of the
greenhouse environment with sensors and advanced software can greatly improve yields and
economic performance by optimizing plant growth. Automation is carried out using a
humidifier, plant watering can, space heater, and fan. Microclimates that are controlled include
soil humidity, temperature, and humidity. The actuator is connected to the SHT11 sensor and soil
moisture sensor. The sensor is connected to the Arduino Uno so that it can give commands to the
actuator. Then the ESP-01 Wi-Fi module is connected to the Arduino Uno so that the sensor
reading data will be sent to the Thingspeak database to be monitored. The results of this study
are humidity and temperature data before and after automation. The data after automation shows
the values that match the growing requirements of plants, namely air temperature, humidity and
soil moisture. Monitoring of microclimate conditions in the greenhouse can be done through the
Thingview Free application on android which is limited to 8 graphs in real time. Microclimate
control using several actuators in the greenhouse shows that the greenhouse automation system is
already running according to the microclimate conditions required by plants. In this report, we
propose a system that can collect the information related to greenhouse environment and crop
status and control the greenhouse automatically based on the collected information to predict and
act on situations for perfectly controlled climatic conditions. By densely monitoring climatic
conditions, this research report has the purpose of establishing correlation between sensors
signals and reference measurements, analyzing the growth, development of crops and the
environmental variables to which they are exposed, to develop an automated computerized
monitoring system for an intensive greenhouse facility that provides adequate control regardless
of plant type or specie, and using this information to help farmers to increase yield, improve
quality and timeliness of crops. Computer control software of LabWindows/CVI will provide
data acquisition and control, real-time graphical display, dates and time tags the information and
stores it for current or later use. Through long time running and practical using, the system has
been proved that it has many advantages such as high testing precision, accuracy, and clear data
management[1][2].

Index Terms: - computerized monitoring, data acquisition, greenhouse environment,

LabWindows/CVI, real-time monitoring, sensors.

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Table of content:

1. List of Figures……………………………………..………….6
2. List of Tables……………………………...…………………..6
Chapter 1
3. Introduction………………………………..…………………..7
Chapter 2
4. Aim/ Purpose of the project……………………..…….………9
Chapter 3
5. Methodology………………………………..………………...10
Chapter 4
Literature Review……………………………………………..14
6. Result/ Discussion……………………………...……………..14
7. Analysis of research………………………… ………………..18
8. Conclusion…………………………………………………….19
9. References………………………………………………….…20

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List of Figures
1. Figure 1. Computer controlled Greenhouse………………………………………….8
2. Figure 2. Diagram showing connections between the different components of the
system of acquisition and delivery of information from the
sensors…………………………..10
3. Figure 3. Scheduling model of the computerized greenhouse environmental monitoring
system……………………………………………………………………………..……..11
4. Figure 4. Flowchart of data retrieval after automation………………………………..12
5. Figure 5. A PID control structure for greenhouse climate control…………………13
6. Figure 6. Placement of sensors and actuators in the greenhouse……………………..14

List of Tables
1. Table 1. Accuracy on Air Humidity Characterization of SHT11 Sensors………….15
2. Table 2. Accuracy on SHT11 sensor characterization………………………………15
3. Table 3. Graph of sensor readings before automation……………………………….16
4. Table 4. Sensor readings after automation……...……………………………………16
5. Table 5. Visualization of data and results based on the Thingview app……………..17
6. Table 6. The temperature data monitored in the greenhouse…………………………18
7. Table 7. The light intensity data monitored in the greenhouse……………………….18
8. Table 8. The humidity data monitored in the greenhouse……………………………18

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Chapter 1
Introduction:
A greenhouse is a specially designed farm structure building to provide a more controllable
environment for better crop production, crop protection, crop seeding and transplanting.
Moreover, the available space of land for cultivating crops has been significantly decreasing,
since more space of land is heavily used for housing and industries in this modern era. In most
tropical countries, the use of greenhouse has been growing for commercially horticulture (i.e.
fruits, fresh flowers and vegetables) production. A greenhouse environment is an incredibly
complex and dynamic environment and strongly influences crop cultivation. The efficiency of
plant production in greenhouses depends significantly on the adjustment of optimum climate
growth conditions to achieve high yield at low expense, good quality and low environmental
load. To achieve these goals several parameters such as air temperature, humidity, light intensity,
and carbon dioxide concentration must be controlled optimally given certain criteria through
heating, lighting, ventilation and carbon dioxide injection. Continuous monitoring and
controlling of these environmental factors gives relevant information pertaining to the individual
effects of the various factors towards obtaining maximum crop production.
Greenhouse environments present unique challenges to good control. Temperature changes occur
rapidly and vary widely depending on solar radiation levels, outside temperatures and humidity
levels, wind speed and direction and the amount of plant material in the greenhouse. Poor light
intensity and high humidity often result in poor fruit set and quality. Proper control of plant
disease is critical in greenhouse environments, where high temperatures and high humidity are
ideal for diseases to develop. Insect and nematode infections, too, can become rampant under the
confined greenhouse conditions. More accurate control can reduce heating fuel and electrical
costs, increase the productivity of workers by enabling them to attend to more valuable tasks,
enabling managers and growers to make better management decisions and spend more time
managing the process. More precise control of temperatures and humidity helps reduce plant
stress and diseases and consequently the need for fungicides and other chemicals, helps produce
healthier plants less susceptible to disease and insect infestation, improved grower information
and management all combine to increase the health and uniformity of plants.
Today, computerized control systems are the standard for modern greenhouses, with continued
improvements as the technology advances. Environment conditions can be maintained by these
computerized control systems, where the system can be operated manually and/or automatically.
The main components of any control system are measurement controller, data processing, data
acquisition, data presentation and recording. In the environment control system, each parameter
must be maintained continuously within a certain range. However, no such models yet exist for

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commercial greenhouse horticulture. In the agricultural sector, especially developing countries,
the application of the environment control technology is still limited, mainly because of its high
cost. Therefore, a sustainable development of environmental monitoring and control system for
intensive greenhouse production is inevitable.
In this report, we propose a system that can collect the information related to greenhouse
environment and crop status and control the greenhouse automatically based on the collected
information to predict and act on situations for perfectly controlled climatic conditions. By
densely monitoring climatic conditions, this research has the purpose of establishing correlation
between sensors signals and reference measurements, analyzing the growth, development of
crops and the environmental variables to which they are exposed, to develop an automated
computerized monitoring system for an intensive greenhouse facility that provides adequate
control regardless of plant type or specie, and using this information to help farmers to increase
yield, improve quality and timeliness of crops. Computer control software will provide data
acquisition and control, real-time graphical display, dates and time tags the information and
stores it for current or later use. Moreover, by continuously monitoring numerous environmental
variables at once, a farmer is able to understand how growth conditions are fluctuating, and react
to those changes in order to maximize efficiency. Using a data printout option, farmers can
produce reports and summaries of environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, light
intensity and carbon dioxide status for a given day, or over a long period of time[2][3].
Three main function use in Greenhouse Controlled;

Sensor: A device which detects or measures a physical property and records, indicates, or
otherwise responds to it.
Sensor needed to collect data;
Light sensor, Moisture sensor, Heat sensor

Controller: A device that directs or regulates something.

Controller devices needed;
 Grow lights to make plants flourish.
 Motor to turn sprinkler on if plants needed water
 Heater to warm the greenhouse.
 Motor to open window vent to cool greenhouse down if it gets too hot.

Actuator: An actuator is a device that produces a motion by converting energy and signals

going into the system.

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 Figure 1. Computer controlled Greenhouse

Chapter 2
Aim/ Purpose of the Project:
 The main aim of this Project is to understand the concept, working and use of sensor,
actuator and controller.
 Also to understand the use of PID in this system.
 How to implement it and how it work.
 Our selection of Computer controlled Greenhouse is because it have easy and direct use
of these devices.

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Chapter 3
Methodology:
Design of greenhouse
Designing a greenhouse in this study is ideally taken for some room. The size determination is
based on the reach that can be reached by the actuator. Making a greenhouse using 4 actuators.
An actuator has its own working range, testing is carried out by activating the actuator and
seeing whether the actuator can reach a predetermined size of the room. A design of the
greenhouse is shown in Figure 1.

Design of electronic devices for monitoring of climatic variables

The control system design used in this study consists of three different systems, the first is the
sensor system, the control system, and the data transmission system. In the sensor system, there
are two types of sensors, namely a temperature and humidity sensor (SHT11) and a soil moisture
sensor (DFRobot Capacitive Soil Moisture Sensor V1.0) shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Diagram showing connections between the different components of the system of
acquisition and delivery of information from the sensors [1].

Calibration and validation of information obtained from sensors

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The placement of these sensors is done by measuring the range of each sensor the same as when
analyzing the greenhouse size.

Creating channel on Thingspeak account

Making a channel on Thingspeak which aims to create a graphic that you want to display on the
website and Android/ PC for monitoring. Monitoring can be done simultaneously on Android
and the website. The flow chart of data retrieval after automation, which starts with sensor
readings, then the data obtained, if it is not suitable, will activate the actuator until the sensor
readings match the needs of the plants as shown in figure 3 and 4.

Figure 3. Scheduling model of the computerized greenhouse environmental monitoring system

[2].

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 Figure 4. Flowchart of data retrieval after automation [1]

In the control system, there is a 5 channel relay module which is connected to the
microcontroller. This relay module is used to connect the microcontroller with several actuators
used, but it is also used as an automatic switch when the temperature and humidity condition
data from the sensor has touched the set point. The actuators used include 1 channel for 2 pairs
of fans for ventilation, 1 channel for 1 room heater fan, 1 channel for 5 heating coils arranged in
parallel, 1 channel for the first water pump and 1 channel for the second water pump. After the
sensor reading data is obtained and controlled by the control system, the temperature and
humidity data will then be displayed on an android mobile interface. In sending data from the
sensor to Android, the microcontroller must be connected to the internet network where in this
study using the ESP8266 Wi-Fi module with type ESP-01. This module can be used as a server,
client or both, but because it is needed to connect a microcontroller to a Wi-Fi network, the ESP-
01 module is activated in client mode [3].

Sensor Used
SHT11 used for temperature and Humidity
DFRobot Capacitive V1.0 for soil moisture
Sometime thermocouple used for temperature instead of SHT11

Controller Used
Arduino Uno

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AT89S52 SCM
Thingspeak database

PID Controller
 If the accurate greenhouse climate model cannot be obtained, an effective way to ensure the
control performance of the greenhouse climate is to develop a kind of model free or data-driven
control approach. In fact, a typical model-free control method used in many control engineering
practices is PID control.  PID control does not depend on any system model, and the controller
has simple structure, so it is easy to implement, and has high reliability and good robustness. As
long as the three PID parameters can be correctly set, the controller can ensure the stability of the
closed system and the desired control performance. Likewise, PID control is also often used to
solve the greenhouse climate control problem.

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 Figure 5.A PID control structure for greenhouse climate control [5].
Each PID controller is driven by one output to generate one control signal, four PID controllers
must be introduced for the considered greenhouse to produce heating, fogging, CO 2 injection and
ventilation control signals, respectively. Obviously, the conventional PID control scheme cannot
be directly used to the system with four inputs and three outputs. Therefore, the considered
system must be transformed into an equivalent system with four outputs y^, and each output can
be driven by one PID controller, as illustrated in figure above.

Chapter 4
Literature Review

Result and Discussion:

For result discussion I will take example of producing chili plant in Greenhouse.

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Design and calibration of electronic devices for monitoring of climatic variables
The placement of sensors and actuators is the result of the sensor and actuator affordability
testing that was carried out in the previous section. After all the steps are done correctly, the next
step is to simulate the tool which will be divided into two stages, the first is data collection
before automation and the second after automation. The overall sketch of the greenhouse
showing the results of the placement of the existing sensors and actuators is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 6. Placement of sensors and actuators in the greenhouse [2].

Research results
The results of characterization of the humidity accuracy of the SHT11 sensor showed results
above 98%. The reference humidity (NaCl) is 75% and the SHT11 reading data shows data that
is not much different, namely having the largest difference of 1.29% and the smallest difference
of 0.11%. From the accuracy data shown in Figure 6 shows that the air humidity sensor used has
shown data that resembles the reference humidity so that SHT11 can be used without having to

be reset.
Table 1. Accuracy on Air Humidity Characterization of SHT11 Sensors [2].

SHT11 temperature characterization was carried out by measuring the temperature drop in a
halogen lamp which was left on for 10 minutes and then every 3 minutes the temperature drop
was recorded 5 times. Based on figure 7. Shows the temperature graph for the SHT11 sensor

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with a laser thermometer (GM320) and the Heles UX389 multimeter shows the same graph drop
with a slight difference. The largest temperature deviation was in the 6th minute of 0.97 ° C and
the lowest deviation was in the 3rd minute of 0.15 ° C from the overall read value, the average
temperature deviation was 0.44 ° C. The minimum temperature deviation allowed by the WMO
is ± 0.5ºC so that an average deviation of 0.44ºC indicates that SHT11 is very good if used
immediately without having to make adjustments. In general, SHT11 is a sensor that has been
factory calibrated and when it is used for a certain period of time it will definitely experience a
reading mismatch but automatically SHT11 will return to its initial calibrated condition. Apart
from deviations, the SHT11 temperature accuracy results are also obtained with reference to the
GM320 laser thermometer showing values above 95 % whereas with reference to the multimeter
Heles UX389 shows a value above 93%.[4]

Table 2. Accuracy on SHT11 sensor characterization [2].

Data prior to automation for 24 hours, there are data on soil moisture, air temperature and
humidity which is shown in Figure 8.Soil humidity is stable in the 50-60% range, the highest air
temperature graph is at 13.40 to 14.3 at 30 ºC and the lowest temperature is at 05.20 to 06.20 of
25ºC. The maximum air humidity is shown at 21.10 to 07.20, which is around 87% and 88%,
while the lowest air humidity value is at 13.50 to 14.30, namely 66% to 68%.

Table 3. Graph of sensor readings before automation [2].

For a greenhouse after automation, it can be seen in the graph in Figure 9. The temperature and
humidity of the greenhouse when automation is carried out using a humidifier, plant watering
can, heater and fan. The graph shows that the temperature and humidity are in a stable position,

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while the soil moisture still looks unstable but the value is above the set point. The air
temperature shows a stable value in the temperature range of 26 ºC to 30 ºC which is the
minimum and maximum system limit, in other words the control system runs according to the
temperature requirements of the chili plants. Air humidity on the graph looks stable by
maintaining the humidity needed for the growth of chili plants, namely at 64% to 78%.

Table 4. Sensor readings after automation [2].

Relay work increases humidity when the sensor reading is> = 64% and the result is that after the
pump starts, the humidity becomes 68%. Soil moisture control using a pump 2. The set point of
soil moisture which is set in the system is 50% while the soil condition is wet and displays an
average humidity value of 87.65%. Soil conditions that are too wet are indeed not good for
plants, the data obtained can occur because in a greenhouse there are only a few circulation holes
for water to exit the system so that the decrease in soil moisture takes a long time. The dominant
heating relay works from 02.00 to 09.00 which means that the humidity from midnight to
morning shows the most humid levels. By operating the heater at high humidity, the humidity
level in the greenhouse can be maintained at a value below 78%. This heating relay is not only
used to control humidity but also air temperature where the minimum set point is 26ºC. From the
data readings from the air temperature sensor which touched 26 ° C, it occurred at 06.29 to 07.40
and on the graph it can be seen that as long as the temperature is at its lowest point of 26 ° C the
heater continues to be active until the air temperature returns to 28 ° C. Fan relay where at 11.56
to 02.00 the air temperature increases. The fan runs during the day when the temperature starts to
rise above the system's maximum set point of 30ºC. During the day the fan works according to
the conditions and manages to reduce the temperature to the upper limit of the set point. Besides
during the day the fan also turns on at night, this is because at night the humidity will rise and

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automatically activate the heater which also raises the air temperature, when the air temperature
rises because of the heater, the fan will be active to reduce the air temperature. Microclimate
monitoring through Android and microclimate control are integrated into one system. Monitoring
of microclimate conditions in a greenhouse can be done through the Thingspeak website or
through the Thingview Free application on Android which is limited to 8 graphics in real time.
The visualization of data and results based on the Thingview app is shown in Figure 10.[4]

Table 5. Visualization of data and results based on the Thingview app [3]

Analysis of Research:

Table 6. The temperature data monitored in the greenhouse [4].

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 Table 7. The light intensity data monitored in the greenhouse [4].

Table 8. The humidity data monitored in the greenhouse [4].

Conclusion:
In this study, a design of automatic greenhouse environmental monitoring and control system
based on LabWindows/CVI is presented. The system has been proved that it has many
advantages such as high testing precision, accuracy, and clear data management.
On the basis of present study, the following conclusions can be made:
• The system can monitor automatically the data of temperature, humidity, illumination and
carbon dioxide in real-time and continuously every 5 seconds. The results indicate the periodic
variation of these parameters depending on the daily weather condition.
• The system can provide early warning in case of malfunction, especially suitable for intensive
greenhouse farms. The results can be used as forecasting model for predicting the trend of
environmental parameters and the plant responses for optimum plant growth in the long-term in
greenhouse applications.

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 • The control system is capable of automatically transferring data to the local PC hard drive for
long-term data storage. It also performs automatic backup of settings and data once per day for
all changed parameters for restoration of settings in case of data acquisition board replacement.
• The application of the proposed system is wide by its simplified operational requirements and
user friendly interface and hence low maintenance cost. However, the sensors need to frequent
cleaning to prolong the useful span.
• The actuators can be set to automatic starting to the parameter values in order to reduce labor
cost and efficient energy consumption.

References:
[1] Kudang B. Seminar, Henry Suhardiyanto, Socdodo Hardjoamidjojo, Tamrin, “A supervisory
Control System for Greenhouse,” Regional Computer Science Postgraduate Conference
(ReCSPC), 2006.
[2] B. A. Kimball, “Influence of elevated carbon dioxide on crop yield,” in Kimball, B. A. and
H. Z. Enock (eds), Carbon dioxide Enrichment of Greenhouse Crops. Ch. 8, vol. 2, Physiology,
Yield and Economics. Boca Raton, 1986, FL: CRC Press.
[3] Anuj Kumar, Abhishek Singh, I. P. Singh, and S. K. Sud, “Prototype greenhouse
environment monitoring system,” Proc. International Multiconference of Engineers and
Computer Scientists Vol. II, IMECS 2010, March 17-19, 2010, Hong Kong.

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 [4] Aleksandra Dimitrijevic and Milan Djevic, “Controlling a greenhouse production processes
and environment,” Tome IV, 2006, Fascole 3, Hunedoara. [5] Mahmoud Omid, “A computer-
Bas

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