International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 9, No.

8, August 2019

An Automated Hydroponics System Based on Mobile

Application
Kunyanuth Kularbphettong, Udomlux Ampant, and Nutthaphol Kongrodj

 and can often be rounded up to reduce costs.

Abstract—Thai government is attempting to enhance Nowadays, agriculture has become more and more
agricultural productivity by launching campaign “Thailand effective in sustainable development. Thailand 4.0 focuses on
4.0” to educate farmers and raise incomes and improves the the economy driven to seek innovation of technology to help
living standard of farmers. Thailand 4.0" should be changed to
make a major shift from traditional agriculture to modern
propel for the economy with Thailand 4.0. In addition,
agriculture by focusing on Smart Farming. . Hydroponics has technology has become an important part of modern
become popular to grow plant without soil and many studies agriculture. Internet of Things is currently a novel trend of
were shown that plants grown with hydroculture are high technology that connects and communicates electronic
quality and consume fewer resources than traditional growing devices and tools such as computers, cell phones, cars,
methods. The purposes of the research are to design and develop refrigerators, televisions and so on with each other through
the automation controlling and monitoring plant growth
hydroponics system and evaluate the effect of using this the Internet. In the future, consumers will be more familiar
prototype. This system is able to control significant with the technology that makes it possible to control things
environmental factors that affect plant growth including from anywhere, such as home temperature control, turn on the
temperature, humidity, and water. The application system is lights, and order watering the plants.
automatically mixed the selected solution to obtain the desired Therefore, the automated hydroponics system based on
value and also collects information about the amount of solution
mobile application and IOT was developed to facilitate the
mixed at the time of planting and it can be used to estimate the
cost of growing vegetables and calculate the profitability of each cultivation and the system can adjust and control important
vegetable to make the decision to grow. This study demonstrates environmental factors that affect plant growth including
the successful application of plants grown with hydroculture to temperature, humidity, and water. The organization of this
improve in pH sensor stability and the system works well in the paper is as follows. Section II presented some related works
automated mode. on IOT used in agriculture. Section III describes the research
methodologies of the proposed system. The system design is
Index Terms—Automation control, monitoring, Internet of
elaborated in Section IV and Section V shown the
things, mobile application, and Hydroponics.
experimental results. The conclusion and future work are
given in Section VI.
I. INTRODUCTION
Hydroponics system is a growing plant system that does not
II. LITERATURE REVIEWS
use soil but uses water with nutrients to save space planting
and not contaminated with chemicals in the soil. Hydroponics The research is based on academic principles as well as
has a number of innovative techniques and it is not limited to contributes to the researcher's ideas and this section shown the
plant with water culture like nutrient film technique, deep related works applied to this project. Nowadays, the Internet
flow technique, dynamic root floating technique and etc. Also, of Things, or IOT, is widely used in agriculture and there are
soilless culture can be divided into two major groups: water much of researches that bring technology to assist in
culture and substrate culture. It is high yielding and faster to agriculture and show the results in comfort and productivity.
plant than in the soil and the plant is fully high nutrient value The Gro-Pro hydroponic system controls automatically
and it also controls the quality of output. through android smart phone. It works well to operate four
Hydroponics has long been accepted in foreign countries different sensors for growing plants [1]. The Titan
and it is cultivated as a commercial product, such as the Smartponics system handled through the web interface to
United States, Netherlands and Japan. In Thailand, it is more control parameters by incorporating with IOT and sensors and
popular and focuses on expensive vegetables because the cost the results displayed that the plants cultivated in control
of growing plant is quite high. However, vegetables, system grown better than the outside system [2].
cultivated with hydroponics system, are short term of harvest Arduino Uno Microcontroller was used to implement
nutritional water flow system and the result shown that the
Manuscript received January 13, 2019; revised May 19, 2019. This work sensor can well detect and handle the water level in
was supported by Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. hydroponic tubes [3]. According to Mark Griffiths [4], a
Kunyanuth Kularbphettong and Nutthaphol KongrodjSecodj are with Hydroponics Control System manages and monitors the
Computer Science Program, Faculty of Science and Technology, Suan
Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand (e-mail: [email protected], crucial nutrient requirements by using Arduino 2560 board
[email protected]). and the system works well in overall functions including the
Udomlux Ampant is with Information System Program, College of pH, EC, air and water levels. The android based smart phone
Innovative Technology and Engineering, Dhurakij Pundit University.
Thailand (e-mail: [email protected]). is designed to get data from sensor nodes and send to

doi: 10.18178/ijiet.2019.9.8.1264 548

 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 9, No. 8, August 2019

centralized computing synchronized with the WSN [5]. MCU is an Arduino board built in Wi-Fi module and it is used
In addition, the use of IOT in animal product supply chain to work with all sensors of the system and to send information
by integrated RFID and network database technology can that the sensor received into the database via Wi-Fi. MCU is
effectively improve the supply chain situation [6] and IOT for the heart of IoT systems to process data and run software
Agricultural Environment Monitoring, the prototype stacks interfaced to a wireless device for connectivity.
collected the field environment information to investigate and Ambient Light Sensor Module detects the light density and
real-time collect information to monitor the field [7]. reflects the analog voltage signal back to Arduino controller.
Therefore, The Internet of Things has extremely widen the
opportunity to enhance agricultural products with the use of
cheap, easy-to-install sensors and an abundance of insightful
data they offer [8].
The increasing demand of using IOT has intertwined in our
lives and IOT software development is fast-paced and the
detail of implement the purposed system will be further
elaborated in the next section.

III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

In the development of this system, related theory and the
principles of system design were involved to meet the
requirements of users. Research methodologies were
including as follows: Fig. 3. a) Solenoid valve, b) Ambient light sensor, c) MCU.

A. Hardware
B. Software and Application Design
Arduino, started in the year 2005 in Italy, is the open source
The proposed IOT software architecture stems from
microcontroller board that is easy to access and develop a
satisfactory performance to support functionalities and
program. In this project, Arduino WeMos D1 is used to
resource heterogeneity and there are several software and
connect sensor device, WIFI and database and the Fig. 2 was
application design as following this:
shown the WeMos D1 as shown in Fig. 1 a). Developers can
 Arduino IDE is an open-source application that is easy to
code a free program to connect electronic devices USB cable,
code programs to Arduino board and it runs on Windows,
websites, and run an application over the Internet.
Mac OS X and Linux [10]. The Arduino board is easy for
connecting various accessories and lets user to connect the
electronic circuit from the outside and the input and output
pin of the board.
 Edge Computing is a new trend that it may be replacing
the traditional cloud architecture and, unlike traditional
cloud infrastructures, edge computing pushes the burden
of processing data to peripheral devices in the network.
Fig. 1. a) Arduino WeMos D1, b) Relay Module. This reduces the amount of information required to be sent
Relay Module is the electrical switch of mains voltage to from Edge to the cloud.
turn on or off or let the current go through or not [9] and it is
used to connect with Arduino board as shown in Fig. 1 b).
Ultrasonic Sensor Module used to detect the height of
water and to determine the flow of nutrition as shown in Fig. 2
a). The pH sensor is an electronically chemical fission device
to measure the pH of the water by using acid-based
measurement and the suitable pH level is between 5.5 and 7.

Fig. 4. Message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT).

 Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) is

Fig. 2. a) Ultrasonic sensor module, b) the pH sensor. lightweight messaging protocol for M2M communication
with remote locations where a "small code footprint" is
Solenoid valve is used to keep the liquid or gas to flow until required or the network bandwidth is limited [11]. This
release and allow liquid or gas to pass through. Node and protocol is designed for use with small electronics based

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on publisher/subscriber. Also, MQTT is suitable to be

used with a sensor device that has a small processor on a
remote network with low power consumption and very
limited bandwidth. MQTT is a Client-Server architecture
with hub-and-spoke topology and the destination sensor
acts as a client that creates a TCP connection to a server
called Broker, which is responsible for transmitting data
between messages that are both Publisher and Subscriber
as shown in Fig 4.

Fig. 6. System overview.

Section 1: to control the discharge of water, when system

gets the value from the temperature and humidity sensors, the
spayed water will be released in case of the temperature
Fig. 5. The process of prototype model [12]. higher than the indicated value.
Section 2: to control light level, the turn on - turn off the
 Prototype model is a systems development approach to
LED from the board received the value from the light sensor
develop system by creating a prototype in order to allow
and when the intensity of light is lower than the set value, the
users to shape the system and to clearly reduce the error
system will operate relay module to turn on the LED until the
occurring requirement specification process as display Fig.
intensity is equal or greater than the set value.
5 [12].
Section 3: the pH control is started when the pH value is
 Firebase is designed to be API and Cloud Storage for real
higher than the set value and the system will release the pH
time Application and it supports multiple platforms,
solution until the pH value is lower than the set value.
including IOS App, Android App, and Web App.
Section 4: to control the water level, the water level sensor
Currently, Firebase Real-time Database is a popular
will notify the vale to the system and when the water level is
database service for mobile app development, web, games
lower than the indicated value , the application will release
and IoT because the advantage is able to sync data for all
water into the vegetable plot until the water level is equal or
clients in real time, to store data as a NoSQL JSON. Moreover,
higher a set value. The system gets the sensor data and records
it has the structure of schema less and supports offline
every hour, collected from 07.00 to 18.00. Also, the prototype
functionality.
can access and control through both mobile and web based
application.
IV. SYSTEM DESIGN
This research is implemented the automated hydroponics V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
system based on IOT and smart phone to support planting
The results of this research are divided by the research
hydroponic vegetables. The system can be measured and
objectives into 2 parts: testing the automated hydroponics
displayed information through mobile phone to manage and
vegetable system and evaluating user’s satisfaction of this
control over the related sensor devices like temperature,
prototype.
pressure of water supply system. The system overview is
displayed as Fig. 5. The experimental set is allowed on the A. Testing the Automated Hydroponics Vegetable System
acquisition of land by setting temperature 30-35 degrees, soil In the experiment, to evaluate and test the proposed project
moisture 50-60 percent, and the intensity of light at 2–5. The used, all devices that are based on the standard Message
application will record data received from the related sensors Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) and each device sent
every 10 minutes. Furthermore, the prototype gets the data into the system, including the receiving data
information from the database every 1 minute and plants (subscribe). we compared the three parts including: the light
grown in normal conditions. value, the quality of the product and the level of water and
The system includes 4 sections to control and manage the when compared with the light value, vegetables grown in the
automatic hydroponics application. Arduino boards are used control system with orange light (20000-40000 lux) are better
to control the various functions of the system, including growing than the vegetables grown with regular approach.
temperature and humidity sensors, light sensors, the pH Also, the result was shown that the amount plant grown in
sensor, and the water level sensor. The proposed system greenhouse with harvest was 35% and the growth plants were
covers the process from sending data measured sensor devices, 15%. Germination from seed was rate at 20% and the seeds do
not grow at 65%. While the sampling of seeds was grown in
receiving data from an intermediary data storage and sending
normal conditions, the number of plants grown was at 18%
data to the host computer. Then, the system will analyze the
and the growth plants were 10%. Germination from seed was
sent value and relay module acts as a switch to turn on-turn off
rate at 25% and the seeds do not grow at 67%. In addition,
the related module.

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 International Journal of Information and Education Technology, Vol. 9, No. 8, August 2019

salad vegetables in the control system take about 50 days Integrity Test were good as shown in Fig. 7.
while compared with the regular method.
TABLE IV: SECURITY TEST
B. Evaluating User’s Satisfaction of This Prototype Security Test Performance
Black-Box Testing is the software testing developed on the x̄ S.D. meaning
basis of the program or system's functionality. There are 5 1. The suitability of the information 4.1 0.72 Good
aspects of satisfaction to evaluate the performance of the presented.
application as follows [13]: 2. The system has a system security 3.9 0.85 Good
1) The Functional Requirement Test is to assess the Average 4 0.58 Good
effectiveness of the system to meet the needs of the user.
2) The Functional Test is to measure how the function of
system works.
3) The Usability Test is a systematic assessment of how easy
to use the system.
4) The Security Test is a systematic assessment of the
security of data in the system
5) The Integrity Test is a complete assessment of the
integrity of the system.

TABLE I: FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENT TEST

Performance
Functional Requirement Test
̄x S.D. meaning
1. The Hydroponics Systems returns 4.75 0.44 Very Good Fig. 7. The results of black box testing.
accuracy of results
2. The System can work completely 4.6 0.68 Very Good
3. The system provides information 4.3 0.92 Good VI. CONCLUSION
on Hydroponics vegetable systems In this research, the researcher aims to make a convenience
to easy understand. and productivity to users who need to plant hydroponic
Average 4.55 0.45 Very Good vegetable by using IOT and mobile phone to automatically
control and monitor the automatic hydroponics vegetable
TABLE II: FUNCTIONAL TEST
system. The system can check and refill the nutrient by
Performance
Functional Test self-regulating and displays the graphic user interface to easy
x̄ S.D. meaning
manage and control it. However, the system is divided into
1. The correct result is scoped in the 4.3 0.80 Good
two parts: the automatic part, the manual part, which allows
boundaries set.
the user to control the measurement of light, temperature and
2. The system has a good 4.3 0.80 Good
humidity. In addition, the results that were tested with the user
management system
were satisfactory and the application is convenient and the
Average 4.30 0.75 Good
productivity also increases obviously. For future research, the
TABLE III: USABILITY TEST system will develop to have more useful and versatile related
Performance devices and data mining techniques will be applied to analyze
Usability Test and predict information about quantity, quality and time
x̄ S.D. meaning
1. Users understand how to use the 4.45 0.51 Good aspects.
system
2. The system shows clearly the 4.45 0.69 Good ACKNOWLEDGMENT
information We would like to thank Suan Sunandha Rajabhat
3. The system displays the suitable 4.35 0.81 Good University to support financial subsidy throughout this
graphical user interface. project.
Average 4.41 0.39 Good
REFERENCES
TABLE IV: INTEGRITY TEST
[1] M. D’Anna. Automated hydroponic greenhouse. [Online]. Available:
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Integrity Test
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average of Functional Requirement Test is very good and the system,” Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Thesis, Autumn 2014.
average of Functional Test, Usability Test, Security Test and

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[5] S. Tembekar and A. Saxena, “Monitoring wireless sensor network Kunyanuth Kularbphettong is assistant professor
using android based smart phone application,” IOSR Journal of of computer science program, Faculty of Science and
Computer Engineering (IOSR-JCE), vol. 16, issue 2, pp. 53-57, 2014. Technology, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University.
[6] M. S. H. Talpur et al., “Relevance of internet of things in animal stocks Thailand. She received the Ph.D in information
chain management in Pakistan’s perspectives,” International Journal technology from King Mongkut's University of
of Information and Education Technology, vol. 2, no. 1, February Technology North Bangkok, Thailand. Her research
2012. interests are IOT, data mining, machine learning,
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monitoring based on internet of things,” presented at 2014 Fifth
International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Udomlux Ampant is senior lecturer of information
Engineering Applications, 15-16 June 2014 system program, College of Innovative Technology
[8] P. R. Lakshmi and D. S. Mahalakshmi, “IOT based crop field and Engineering, Dhurakij Pundit University.
monitoring and irrigation automation,” presented at International Thailand. She graduated the master of business
Conference on International System and Control, 2016. administration (marketing) Dhurakij Pundit
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https://randomnerdtutorials.com/guide-for-relay-module-with-arduino technology machine learning and software
/ applications. She has published more than 5 papers in
[10] Arduino Web Editor. [Online]. Available: the fields of machine learning, educational technology and software
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[11] MQTT. [Online]. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MQTT
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Available: program, Faculty of Science and Technology, Suan
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model received the bachelor degree in computer science and
[13] K. Kularbphettong and N. Limphoemsuk, “The effective of learning by his research interests in IOT and software
augmented reality on Android platform,” LNICST, vol. 180, pp. applications.
111–118, 2017.

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