Congratulations to karthickiot !

You are the Winner of the TI Plant Booster: Indoor Plant Light Compensator!

Plants feeder IoT device in horticulture

Sunlight is an essential source of energy to plants and crop to grow and to give good yields for agriculturists. Farmers grow crop in horticulture's to protect them from the damaging pests, safe from the small creatures and insects without using the harmful pesticides. But, the main problem is the source of light to the horticulture cultivation in an in-house environment. There, it needs a specific automated controller to control the environmental conditions, to keep the suitable and sustainable conditions for the plants and crop growth. I thank to the Ben Heck’s TI Launchpad Plant Booster 256 Episode showing the possible way to protect the plants and crops through his experiment in in-house conditions. I wonder, when I watched a situation in the movie “THE MARTIAN” how the astronaut grow potato crop on MARS planet soil. Now, I would like to execute the way in a different innovation method to provide the artificial light to plants in the horticulture colony.   

I would like to design an innovative Plants feeder IoT device in horticulture and make use of the TI MSP430 WiFi/Bluetooth Launchpad and the Temperature sensor, Humidity sensor, Pressure sensor, CO2 sensor, soil moisture sensor, Ambient light sensor, Relays, Bi-color RB (Red-Blue) LEDs, Real-time clock, Solenoid valves, Buzzers/alarm, Hex Keypad, Battery management chip, Solar panels.

TI MSP430 WiFi/Bluetooth Launchpad: The master controller which control the actuators like relays, valves, etc. and read the data from sensors like temperature, pressure, humidity, CO2, light, soil moisture sensor, etc. The necessary action can be taken to feed the food to plants in in-house horticulture. WiFi/Bluetooth on-board chip is used to send or receive the data from the Smartphone app to know the status of the environment whether the system is maintain suitable conditions or not can be monitor remotely.

Temperature sensor: Temperature is the major factor which influences the plants growth so temperature measurement is an essential parameter to be known time to time. The temperature measurement can be done with the TI Digital sensor and can communicate to TI Launch pad with I2C mode.

Humidity sensor: This is also another factor which helps for plant growth and the sensor is interfaced to the Launchpad to I2C pins.

Pressure sensor: This environmental parameter is also one of the suitable parameter to be maintained in the in-house. The sensor is interfaced to the TI MSP430 to the GPIO pins in I2C mode.

Soil moisture sensor: Soil moisture sensor is the important parameter to monitor the water content in the soil which will be used by the plants to prepare food and to sustain its life. This sensor is interface to the ADC port of the Launchpad to monitor the soil moisture.

CO2 sensor: Plants need CO2 to prepare food so an amount of CO2 is to be maintained the quantity can be monitor with the sensor which is interface to the Launchpad.

Ambient light sensor: Light is the necessary to prepare food and photosynthesis that to be happen in plants so an ambient light is to me maintained. A Digital ambient sensor can be connected to the GPIO pins of Launchpad.

Relays: Bi-color RB LEDs Light Compensator ON/OFF, water Pump set ON/OFF, Solenoid Valve ON/OFF. The relays are controller from the GPIO pins used for lighting, watering and supplying the food to the crops in-time.

Bi-color RB (Red-Blue) LEDs: Red & Blue color LEDs are used to prepare food for flowering, fruits and for vegetation growth. A common LED as Bi-color RB LED are available in market to make cost effective and low power consumption light compensator for plants.

Real-time clock: The timing is set to control the light intensity, watering, food supplying, etc. A real-time clock gives an idea to supply all the needed food on-time

Solenoid valves: While watering the plants this helps to control the flow rate not to over water the plants and not to under water. These valves can be control through relays by the MSP430 Launchpad.

Buzzers/alarm: Alert the agriculturist when there is an error occurred in the process.

Hex Keypad: Timing is set to water plants, set time for light supply, intensity to be selected, tart and stop process.

Battery management chip: This can be used to draw power from solar panel and store in battery and can be utilized to power the plant feeder device in the horticulture. TI BOOSTER pack is available to plug-it to the MSP430 Launchpad.

Solar panels: To draw power from the sun, this can be used to power the device and the LEDs. As sun gives the free renewable energy it can be utilized to power the LED light and the controlling device.

The present innovative design idea is suitable for the crops being produced in protected growing environments, lights can be tailored to increase produce growth and crop flowering. Bi-color RB LEDs are more effective than white light in facilitating biomass growth in horticulture, helping growers produce larger plants. LEDs and growing indoors allow growers to minimize the distance between the farm and consumers. The system can also help with energy savings, "reducing electricity consumption compared to the previous high-pressure sodium lighting systems, while simultaneously enhancing crop taste and yield.

In my opinion this project idea can be useful in the in-door gardens, nursery, horticulture, in restaurants, etc place where plants can be kept for showcase, distribution for farmers, growing the fruits and flowers. As an experience person in programming the hardware kits like MSP430 Launchpad, Arduino boards and designing the PCB layers for the hardware setup for the automatic controlling devices, the Plants feeder IoT device in horticulture can be easily designed with an advanced options to control and an Smartphone app created using Blynk app is used to monitor the horticulture environmental conditions remotely. It will be a good opportunity to me showcase my project idea like Ben Plant Booster Episode.