Design of Hydroponic System Plant Growing with Automatic Control
Abstract
Rapid urbanization and industrialization cause not only the reduction of agriculturally usable areas, but also a certain degree of modification of traditional cultivation practices. Cultivation of plants with the use of new technologies, characterized by the absence of land use, is experiencing significant development in areas of unconventional agriculture, primarily in areas with a lack of land or unsuitable soil quality. The article discusses the design of an island system for local year-round production of seasonal food using an alternative source of energy. The output is the design of your own hydroponic system with automatic control.
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Introduction
Due to the constant increase in the number of people on our planet, the need for food and water is a fundamental problem for humanity. Another serious problem is the uncontrollable pollution of the planet and the associated loss of quality agricultural land. In many areas of the Earth there is a shortage of drinking water or environment unsuitable for growing plants. For this reason, hydroponic systems can provide a suitable environment for growing food while managing natural resources efficiently. The first large-scale experiments using hydroponic cultivation come from German botanists from the second half of the 19th century. One of the first successes of hydroponics occurred on Wake Island, a rocky atoll in the Pacific Ocean used as a refuelling stop for Pan American Airlines. Hydroponics was used there in the 1930s to grow vegetables for passengers. This method of cultivation was a necessity on Wake Island because there was no suitable land for growing the desired types of plants and the transportation of fresh vegetables by air was prohibitively expensive. In recent decades, NASA has conducted extensive hydroponic research on its Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS). This research, mimicking the Martian environment, uses LED lighting to grow in a different colour spectrum with much less heat.
Conclusion
The biggest benefit of hydroponics is growing plants without using soil. Thanks to this, plants can be grown even in an otherwise unfavourable environment, many times even with extreme conditions. From the point of view of huge saving of area, hydroponics can be used even in urban areas for vertical cultivation. The proposed modular island system represents a selfsufficient local year-round production of seasonal food, as it uses photovoltaic panels with a set of appropriately selected batteries to ensure the necessary operating conditions. The modularity of the container enables the system's exploitability to be increased by increasing the number of connected units without the need for drastic intervention in individual modules. The primary purpose of the article is an attempt to describe the possibilities of applying container plant growing systems even in areas of urban urbanization without the need for significant interventions in the environment. The article is the initial phase of research into the applicability of hydroponic growing systems in unused industrial and commercial spaces within the territory of the Slovak Republic and the surrounding area.