A Design of an Automated Fertigation System using IoT

This project aims to design an automated fertigation system using Internet of Things (IoT) for managing crops to improve the moisture and quality of soil by timely application of both water and fertiliser with the option to manually override the operation by the usage of IoT application in case of climate and weather change. Chili plants is selected as the crops that is used in the project because it is a popular agriculture product grown in Malaysia due to the ideal and suitable climate. The usage of IoT is often discarded in the agricultural industry so the study and application of IoT can contributes and have huge potential in this field. The automated fertigation system using IoT is designed to be affordable and aims to reduce manpower and redundant work when on field. The system includes the usage of Sonoff smart switch IoT smart devices and also the application of a venturi system to inject fertilizer into the outgoing water supply. The IoT aspect of the design allows users to control the operation of the valve and water pump remotely via their mobile phone in case certain weather conditions such as rainy or drought season happens or human intervention is needed in certain circumstances. A functional test is carried out based on the proposed design of the IoT system and the experimental result of the setup is validated to achieve the desired results. Integration of IoT into the fertigation setup is considered successful after the system is monitored for a few days after installation. The project findings revealed that the functionality of the hardware which is the venturi system and the link between IoT system and users is considered successful. The user is able to set a schedule or timer for the fertigation by controlling the solenoid and the changes to the temperature of the chili plant are detected and sent to the user’s mobile phone via the eWeLink application. In essence, the system reliability of IoT and the application of the venturi system have been proven to help in maintaining the physical state of the chili plant.