An IoT-Integrated Portable Device for Sustainable Hydroponic Cultivation
Description
A novel device named SmartHydroKit is proposed and implemented in three different hydroponic setups while cultivating different herbaceous medicinal plants. The novelty of the SmartHydroKit lies in its portable, user-friendly, cost-effective, scalable, and energy-efficient design specifically tailored for real-time monitoring of hydroponic cultivation. Unlike traditional soil-based sensors, it continuously monitors key agronomic variables (temperature, humidity, pH, EC, and TDS) using an integrated ESP 32 microcontroller, ensuring optimized resource use, reduced labor, and sustainable plant growth. This device monitors the environmental and agronomic conditions in any hydroponic system, regardless of crop type. Its portability is ensured by a 3-series battery and battery management system (BMS) which enables its usability even in case of power outages and remote locations. The built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity of the device increases its versatility in multiple IoT devices. The kit integrates pH, EC, TDS, DHT11 temperature, and humidity sensors with an ESP32 microcontroller and a ThingSpeak cloud platform for the real-time monitoring of the hydroponic environment. The SmartHydroKit updates all the real-time sensor data in the CSV sheet after every 30 seconds. This data can be accessed and monitored through the ThingSpeak IoT platform when the user logs in to the platform through any end device. The entire setup is wireless and simple to use, contributing to more scalable hydroponic cultivation practices. (The design files will include the figures of the manuscript)