Overview
My proposed project idea is to create a hydroponic setup that uses AI to monitor,
maintain (to an extent), and automate tasks that would otherwise be labor-intensive
requiring additional staff or resources. The project would not initially be
solar-powered although this would be the main goal after successful trials in the
automation of the hydroponic environment and would ultimately be run on Stand-alone
renewable energy. With the increase in temperatures, pests, and frequency of droughts,
new ideas or technologies must be applied to grow food not only to put less stress on
the environment but to reduce our need for traditional farming methods.
Motivation
The motivation behind this idea is to reduce the strain on the environment, the need to
import foreign produce, and becoming less reliant on pesticides. Hydroponic creates
better growing conditions, fewer pests and diseases, and of course higher yields.
Hydroponics can be grown indoors and you can scale vertically to reduce the overall
footprint when compared to traditional farming. I believe going this route and
replanting farmland with trees and other beneficial plants will have a long-term impact
on the continuous rise in temperatures and to do this we need to use multiple
technologies to achieve the desired outcome.
Description
Hydroponics has the ability to change the way we not only see food but also may provide
us with better produce with less wastage due to damaging pests and diseases.
The following are several types of growing techniques that hydroponics uses:
- Nutrient Film Technique (NFT)
- Deep Water Culture (DWC)
- Wick system
- Ebb and Flow
- Drip System
- Aeroponics
- The Kratky Method
The two main and most cost-effective methods are NFT and DWC and the following detail each
method making them commercially viable.
• NFT
- Technique involves a shallow stream of water with a constant flow past the roots of
the plant.
- Generally uses piping with a slight grade to allow the water to flow downhill.
- Piping holds the grow trays which typically contain the growing medium.
- A reservoir.
- Pump
- The use of tubing/piping in the form of a return system as well as distribution
• DWC
- Simple design and ease of setup
- Use of indoor ponds
- Foam rafts that hold the plants
- Grow trays with usually Rockwool or other similar grow medium
- Water is oxygenated through air pumps or recirculation
To grow in any hydroponic setup you must understand NPK ratios, pH levels, and water
temperature for a start. The pH in the system should be kept between 5.0-6.0 as drops
below 5.0 may result in several deficiencies or even levels of toxicity. NPK
(Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium) ratio as an example 8-11-7 is 8% nitrogen, 11 %
phosphorus, 7% potassium, and the remaining solution is made up of micronutrients.
Plants like a certain balance of these nutrients and may work well for one plant and not
as great for the next, finding a balance is key. Systems should also ensure the solution
is oxygenated whether naturally through water exchange or air pumps as this is one
factor that drives root growth.
There are also other factors to consider such as lighting and airflow, if you are not
using a greenhouse, you need special lighting to reproduce the light spectrum and fans
to keep airflow over the plants which also helps to aid in making the plants stronger
and keeping things such as mold and fungal growth at bay.
Although startup costs may be high, the type of crops you would like to produce
ultimately influence the hydroponic method and have the potential to grow year-round
increasing your production rate. If we use tomatoes for example, traditional farming may
use as much as 300 liters of water to produce 1kg of tomatoes whereas under ideal
conditions in an advanced closed greenhouse is as little as 4 liters is needed to
produce 1kg of tomatoes.
Another advantage is certain methods such as NPT enable growing to go vertically
increasing the yield per meter ratio without the need for a massive investment in land.
The goal is to produce as much as possible and leave as little of a footprint on the
environment around us, while also providing the produce needed to sustain our economy
and communities.
Tools and Technologies
Several tools/equipment are needed in order for this to work, pumps, aerators, ponds,
piping/tubing are some of the basic ones. The technology that I would like to
introduce are sensors, an open-source software to manage/organize the data collected
by the sensors(light, pH, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, AI algorithms to calculate the most
efficient lighting patterns if LED’s are used in the setup, monitor pH levels, and
keeping the NPK ratio at its optimum depending on the crop being produced.
The use of open-source software such as Mycodo which runs on hardware such as
Raspberry Pi, Mycodo collects data from sensors and may be configured in a way to
take commands from Linux or Python with the potential to semi-automate the
hydroponic setup.
Skills Required
The skills required for an initial setup are not too complicated, but the more
automation and AI that goes into the project would take quite a bit of knowledge and
skill to accomplish the end goal. This would take quite a bit of research to see how
each type of produce responds to light configurations, flow, nutrient levels, and is
compiled into optimum growth with the average harvest rate for a start, this then
could be compiled in Python to monitor and automate systems. I would need some
programming background, more technical knowledge of sensors, otherwise, I would need
to expand beyond my skills and find someone more qualified to assist me in my
project.
Small scale I would use Mycodo as my software and Raspberry Pi as the hardware
besides the obvious sensors etc. The longer the project or the rate in which I would
achieve a success rate would then push me into looking for potential investors to
get the project into the next stages and introduce a more advanced system regarding
hardware and software.
Outcome
If the project was successful as well as viable I would seek to find investors to
continue the project on a bigger scale. The original problem may not be completely
solved although what would be accomplished are the following:
- Higher produce yields
- Considerably less water consumption
- Smaller land footprint
- Faster seed to harvest
- Year-round production
- Minimal pests and diseases leading to less wastage
This may also open the door to creating proprietary software using all the data
collected if I found that the open-source software did not cover all the areas
needed for the continuation of the project.
