Greenhouse Conditioning using Internet of Things and Solar Panel
Abstract
The conditioning in a greenhouse is one of the efforts in the development of biotechnology-based plant products, thus enabling the growth of a plant to be controlled. In the current era of the industrial revolution 4.0, control technology leads to the use of information and communication technology. Internet of Things based devices can be used to build control systems. One of the most popular IoT devices today is the ESP8266, a microcontroller module that can connect to WiFi and TCP / IP. In the other side, the abundant sunlight is a potential use as an alternative sources of electrical energy to conditioning of greenhouse. In this research, the development of the solar energy as source of power of electrical energy in greenhouses and contolled using internet of thing is the main problem.
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Introduction
As a country with a tropical climate, Indonesia has a fairly high fertility rate. But fertility is not enough, it is necessary to develop agriculture by utilizing biotechnology, especially in order to increase agricultural production. The use of biotechnology is also needed, because with the increasingly rapid developments in the industrial sector, the area of agricultural land in Indonesia is also getting smaller. The shrinking of agricultural land is also caused by the large number of land changes to residential areas.
One of the biotechnologies that have developed quite rapidly is the use of a greenhouse. A greenhouse is a building made of glass or polyethylene which plays an important role in protecting the survival of plants. The gases contained in the greenhouse, such as carbon dioxide and methane and water vapors are conditioned in a balanced condition, so that they can withstand the sun'sheat energy which affects the conditions or temperature therein.
Greenhouse also has weather engineering capabilities, which include temperature, watering duration and air circulation (Alwi, 2011). Sometimes unpredictable weather changes and limited land have led to the choice of greenhouse technology as an alternative solution to these problems (Abbas et al, 2015).
Conditioning in the greenhouse is also an effort to develop plant products through biotechnology so that the growth of a plant can be controlled to accelerate plant growth. However, so far, control in greenhouses is generally still done manually or in traditional ways, so that the effectiveness of growth in plants is lacking. Therefore, an automatic control system is needed in the greenhouse to make it easier to use the greenhouse.
In the current era of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, control technology (automatic control) leads to the use of ICT (information and communication technology). The control system is connected to the internet so that observation data storage, control decisions, and monitoring can be carried out through cloud computing. This allows the owner / operator to access the control system via a mobile device such as a smartphone, tablet or laptop.
Is an IoT (Internet of Things) based device that can be used to build an ICT-based control system? One of the most popular IoT devices today is the ESP8266, a microcontroller module that can connect to Wi-Fiand TCP / IPconnections. As a microcontroller, this device has a processor, memory, input / output lines, and can be programmed according to the needs of the application.
In addition, the existing greenhouses still use conventional sources of electricity (PLN), which sources come from coal, fuel oil, natural gas, and others. Dependence on conventional energy sources of course has a bad impact, such as the increasing demand for energy is not accompanied by availability in nature. So that efforts to use renewable energy from alternative energy sources need to be pursued. Indonesia is a country that is exposed to the sun all year round, so the potential for solar energy is enormous as an alternative energy. Therefore, the development of the potential for solar energy as an alternative energy source must be done properly.
Conditioning a greenhouse that is in accordance with what is expected will be able to increase agricultural productivity and it is hoped that plants will continue to produce throughout the year without depending on the season. Automatic control will also make it easier for farmers to apply the availability of water, nutrients and light intensity needed by plants and is expected to be able to control plants from various kinds of pest and disease attacks.
The availability of abundant sunlight is a potential use of alternative sources of electrical energy. Therefore, the development of the potential for solar energy as a solar power plant which is a provider of electrical energy in greenhouses needs to be investigated. So it is hoped that the Greenhouse can have its own energy supply without depending on electrical energy.
Conclusion
In this research, the temperature and humidity control systems in greenhouses with energy from solar panels have been discussed and can be controlled by Internet of Things. The system can provide an ideal environment with controllable temperature and humidity that allows plants to experience perfect growth. This research focuses on the control system structure, hardware, software design, and system control strategy. The control system has a simple hardware structure, is cost-effective, easy to use and maintain, and provides good temperature and humidity stability.
