The System:

Our idea is to design a system which will measure and control both the air and soil temperature within a greenhouse as well as an automated sprinkler system. The system will have preset profiles for the different kinds of plants that will be grown in the greenhouse which will be selected by the user. Each profile will contain the recommended temperatures and regulate the greenhouse according to them. The soil in the greenhouse will be heated by a hot water radiator system underneath the soil. There will also be light bulbs that can be adjusted to the recommended amount of light for that specific plant. However in light of the fact that we only have access to temperature and sound sensing devices the scope of the project will then be limited to controlling and monitoring temperature.

Deployed Hardware:

Temperature sensing

§  4 gumstix nodes with Bluetooth connections

§  20 temperature sensors (some embedded into soil, Some in the air)

§  Waterproof cases to protect sensors embedded into soil

Decision making:

§  Base station: PC with Bluetooth connections

Deployed Software:

Database

A database that contains a few example plants which store the required information:

§  Plant name

§  Plant Type

§  Ideal Water consumption

§  Ideal Soil Temp

§  Ideal Air Temp

§  Ideal Light intensity

“Undeployed” hardware (beyond the scope of the project):

§  Hot water radiator system

§  Sprinkler system

§  Window motors

§  Light bulbs

User interface:

The GUI will have two parts:

§  User input - allowing the owner or user of the system to create profiles suited to their plants  to be stored in the database            

§  Feedback - Graphs displaying the data which the sensors are recording for easy comprehension

Monitoring system Base station Software

Event Scheduler: Each Plant will have its own profile which consists of events once the temperature exceeds the desired amount specified in the event handler the event is triggered. For example in the interface below, the fans increase rpm to lower the temperature : Event creation: Event creation will resemble the example (below) in which the user specifies the source which the data will be coming from, the range which the event will span (in the case of the greenhouse how many degrees it will span) , what the event is (in the example  when the temperature reaches 58 degrees centigrade the fans increase to 80 percent of possible rpm) Sensor Networks: 20 temperature sensors will be connected via Bluetooth to 4 gumstix loaded with python code which will retrieve temperature values at specified intervals. For example: