Environment Control with Low-Cost Microcontrollers and Microprocessors: Application for Green Walls

Yair Andrey Rivas-Sánchez, María Fátima Moreno-Pérez and José Roldán-Cañas
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Yair Andrey Rivas-Sánchez: Agronomy Department, University of Cordoba, 14014 Cordoba, Spain
María Fátima Moreno-Pérez: Agronomy Department, University of Cordoba, 14014 Cordoba, Spain
José Roldán-Cañas: Agronomy Department, University of Cordoba, 14014 Cordoba, Spain

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: Green wall irrigation procedures are a particularly important and hard task, given that the quality of the green wall depends on them. There is currently a wide variety of irrigation programmers available, with a range of functions and prices, thereby replacing manual activities and making it easier to maintain green walls. This paper proposes the use of low-cost automated irrigation programmers via a freeware called Arduino. The system is based on air and substrate measurements to ensure optimal plant growth and high water-use efficiency. At certain thresholds, the irrigation system is activated. This not only makes irrigation more convenient but also helps to reduce energy consumption, increases irrigation efficiency and saves time. The data is then sent via Transmission Control Protocol using Internet of Things technology, in this case ThingSpeak. The platform compiles the data and presents them in simple graphical format, thus enabling real-time monitoring from wherever there is Internet access. Together with Arduino, the project incorporates the Raspberry pi system that operates like a database via Hypertext Transfer Protocol Wi-Fi received by a Structured Query Language (MySQL) server using Hypertext Preprocessor. These data are used for the subsequent analysis of green wall performance.

Keywords: smart irrigation; green walls; low-cost; Internet of Things; microcontroller and microprocessor; environmental control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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