Prototype of a Low-Cost Electronic Platform for Real Time Greenhouse Environment Monitoring: An Agriculture 4.0 Perspective

Abstract

The Internet of Things has a high impact on upgrade and transformation of the traditional greenhouse agricultural techniques. It is necessary to control the environmental factors for obtaining the optimum growth conditions for the crop and extend the production season to get the optimum yield. These aspects are fundamental for Agriculture 4.0, that uses technology not simply for the sake of innovation but to improve and address the real needs of consumers. In this paper, a prototype of a low-cost electronic platform for real time greenhouse environment monitoring has been designed, developed and built. The prototype has been developed with the purpose of firmware and software prototyping, in order to make the most of device performances. The electronic board is composed by a Main Board, a Green House Core, a Wi-Fi Module, a RS485 Module, an Analog-to-Digital Converter Module and a USB Module. The system permits to collect data by external sensors, elaborate and send them to external devices as laptop, smartphone and internet gateway, using both wired and wireless connection. These data concern to main greenhouse environmental parameters, such as air temperature, humidity, solar radiation, air velocity and CO2 concentration. A Web application has been implemented to allow users a consultation of greenhouse environmental state in a simple and fast way.

Precision Techniques and Agriculture 4.0 Technologies to Promote Sustainability in the Coffee Sector: State of the Art, Challenges and Future Trends

“…In this sense, the demands of social development are transforming the primary sector, which is adopting new techniques and technologies that transform agricultural production [50], [51]. The large-scale mechanization has generated several changes in the agricultural sector [52].…”

“…Although many authors present PA and A4.0 with the same meaning, the concept of A4.0 emerged from the concept of industry 4.0 in 2011 and has greater breadth. A4.0 refers to the technological adoption to create a value chain that integrates the organization, customers and other stakeholders [50]. In this sense, A4.0 refers to the use of information and communication technologies such as Big Data and Analytics and ML to explore the variability of data and use it to deal with changes in the agricultural scenario [57].…”

A Bibliometric Network Analysis of Recent Publications on Digital Agriculture to Depict Strategic Themes and Evolution Structure

“…In this perspective, A4.0 goes beyond local and specific analyses to include all agricultural processes. Studies related to A4.0 address the development of decision support systems to integrate all members of the production chain [ 1 ], responsible innovation [ 47 ], real-time integration of IoT for agriculture [ 48 ], and the potential of A4.0 to address major societal issues associated with environmental sustainability (e.g., carbon emissions and exploitation of natural resources), social (e.g., impact on labor and food security) and economic sustainability (e.g., productivity, costs and agriculture as a subsistence economy) [ 11 , 32 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ], among others.…”

The Digital Agricultural Revolution: A Bibliometric Analysis Literature Review

“…On the contrary, farmers will use the minimum quantities of resources that the plants require. VRT [39] enables for precise and targeted spraying of substances with a centimeter accuracy [40], [41].…”