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International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(4.16) (2018) 308-312
International Journal of Engineering & Technology
Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET
Research paper
Fuzzy Ponics: a Fuzzy Based System to Control Temperature,
Relative Humidity, Electrical Conductivity and PH of
Hydroponics
Armie E. Pakzad
1
*, Abbas Ali Pakzad
2
1
Electronics and Communications Engineering Dept., De La Salle University Manila, Philippines
2
School of Computer Studies, Arellano University Jose Abad Santos Campus, Pasay City, Philippines
*Corresponding author E-mail: armie.pakzad@dlsu.edu.ph
Abstract
Hydroponics is a process in which plants grow in a nutrient solution instead of soil. It is a controlled environment agriculture (CEA),
which needs intensive controlling of the greenhouse environmental condition such as temperature and relative humidity (RH) along with
electrical conductivity (EC) and pH of nutrient solution. A successful Hydroponics System (HS) depends on the way the greenhouse is
maintained in terms of the environmental condition and the plant’s nutrient uptake. This paper presents FuzzyPonics, a system which
focuses on the application of fuzzy logic algorithm to automatically control the temperature and RH of the greenhouse, alongside EC and
pH of the nutrient solution. The identified input parameters were classified accordingly, relative to predefined linguistic outputs and solu-
tions. Sugeno-style of Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) and triangular membership functions were used. The results were simulated using
the rule viewer of Matlab Fuzzy Logic Toolbox for six FIS and the proponents were able to get favorable results, which only showed that
a fuzzy logic controller is a powerful tool to control the environmental condition and the nutrient solution’s pH and EC of a hydroponics
system.
Keywords: Controlled Environment Hydroponics; Electrical Conductivity and pH; Fuzzy Logic; Hydroponics Temperature; Relative Humidity.
1. Introduction
A number of researches in developing automated systems for agri-
cultural application have been done. One of the well-liked topics
in research related to agriculture is the development of automated
soilless farming system. Hydroponics system (HS) or the so
called soilless culture (SC) which allows crops to grow in a nutri-
ent solution, earned its popularity for decades [6] due to its flexi-
bility on growing wide variety of crops especially in a controlled
environment [10], [8]. Since HS is considered as controlled envi-
ronment agriculture (CEA), it is very important to maintain the
environmental condition as well as the nutrients taken by the
plants. With this, an automatic system that will monitor and con-
trol the foregoing parameters should be considered. Different
approaches have been proposed for making an automated HS [1],
[2], [4], [5], [6], [7], [9], [10]. Fuzzy logic is one of the advanced
algorithms which has been applied in some papers [2], [6]. How-
ever, some authors’ concentrated on the adjustment of pH and EC
of the nutrient solution only [1], [2], [4], [5], [6] while others fo-
cused on controlling humidity and temperature [7]. This paper
presents FuzzyPonics, a fuzzy logic design that will monitor and
adjust the four important parameters in controlled environment
Hydroponics namely, temperature, RH, pH and EC.
2. Literature review
This section presents concepts on hydroponics and the significant
researches related to this study.
2.1. Hydroponics
HS is a process in which plants grow in a nutrient solution [1], [2].
Some growers use media which includes perlite, vermiculate,
brick shards and wood fiber. Several techniques can be used to
implement this practice such as EBB and Flow, Nutrient Film
Technique (NFT) and Dynamic Root Flowing Technique (DRFT)
to name a few [6], [2], [1]. In HS, plants grow faster because
nutrients are delivered directly to the roots of the plants, thus pro-
moting higher productivity in a short span of time [4], [5]. Com-
pared to soil gardening, HS has less water consumption and plants
are grown in a sterile environment, hence there is a lower chance
of contamination. Moreover, it requires less space for growing
and seasonal crops can be produced all year round [7].
2.2. Controlled environment agriculture
HS is a CEA where temperature and humidity are one of the pri-
mary factors to be considered for a successful crop production [9].
Different types of plants require diverse temperature and relative
humidity ranges. Warm season crops like tomatoes, peppers, egg-
plants, beans, squash, melons and herbs grow best in the ideal
range of 70°F - 80°F during daytime and 60°F - 70°F at night time.
Cool season crops like broccoli, cabbage, lettuces, endive, peas,
spinach, green onions, on the other hand can have optimum
growth in 60°F - 70°F day temperature and 50°F - 60°F at night
[3]. The use of oscillating fans and lighting equipment aids in the
adjustment of the temperature whenever it falls out of the ideal
range. Relative humidity (RH) is also an important aspect that