Philippine E-Journals

Solar Powered Aquaponics Vertical Planting with Controlled Mechanism for Feeding and Cleaning using Android Application

Veronica A. Limson | Eloisa Edlyn V. Nuñez | Apple O. Grace Pagunsan

 

Abstract:

Among the main concerns in inefficient agricultural methodology involves critical food safety from weather instability, environmental degradation caused by waste from conventional farming, wasteful energy usage, and climate change. As a response to these, this paper introduced an Android Application for self-sustainable Solar Powered Aquaponics Vertical Planting with Controlled Mechanism for Feeding and Cleaning. This research was conducted to allow the user to remotely monitor both aquaculture (growing fish in a controlled environment) and hydroponics (growing plants without soil) system the system involves acquiring of real time data detected by the dissolved oxygen sensor, pH meter and temperature sensor. It also included the monitoring of the pH level and temperature of the recirculating water of the system through the use of respective sensors which are connected to the Arduino mega microcontroller, the sensor node of the system. If the acquired data is not within the threshold range, the correcting devices, air pump and water pump are automatically triggered by the system to correct this and achieve its normal status. The data collected by these sensors are gathered by the Arduino mega microcontroller and are sent to the web database through lot gateway. These data are also sent to an Android Aquaponics application which is capable of monitoring the parameters observed in an Aquaponics system. The application allows the user to view the real-time value off the parameters involved and choose whether to control the parameter regulators automatically or manually. The aquaponics system runs autonomously which reduces the human intervention required to produce healthy fish and plants. The proponents tested the system’s functionality by evaluating the sensor data log that provides the values gathered by the sensors and the turn on times of the parameter regulators. From these data, it can be observed that whenever the values obtained by the sensors fall outside or below the threshold range, the parameter regulators turn on, indicating that the system is working. As a recommendation, the proponents encouraged future researchers to deploy additional sensors that can monitor other parameters required by other plants and fish. Also, a camera can be deployed in the system to enable users to view the aquaponics through an Android application.