Integration of Low-Cost Digital Tools for Preservation of a Sustainable Agriculture System

Abstract

This work presents an electronic sensing approach composed of a pair of Physical–Chemical and Imaging modules to preserve an aquaponic system. These modules offer constant measurements of the physical–chemical characteristics within the fish tank and the grow bed, and an indication of the health of the growing plants through image processing techniques. This proposal is implemented in a low-cost computer, receiving measurements from five sensors, including a camera, and processing the signals using open-source libraries and software. Periodic measurements of the temperature, water level, light, and pH within the system are collected and shared to a cloud platform that allows their display in a dashboard, accessible through a web page. The health of the vegetables growing in the system is estimated by analyzing visible and infrared spectra, applying feature extraction, and computing vegetation indices. This work provides a low-cost solution for preserving sustainable urban farming systems, suitable for new farming communities.