Intelligent Monitoring and Control of Vertical Farms for Metropolitan Areas

Abstract

With the increasing population, it has become arduous to supply the ever-rising food demands with traditional agricultural practices. Due to the lack of arable land, smart urban farming would prove a boost to the food supply. Smart urban farming technologies like vertical farms are being researched as an alternative to standard soil-based techniques. With the use of intelligent vertical farming setups in urban areas, the burden on traditional farming can be toned down, and since the food is cultivated near to the consumer, food miles are greatly minimized thus curtailing carbon emissions. Intelligent monitoring and controlled systems ensure the most efficient environment for plant growth and reduce the power consumption of such automated systems. IoT nodes also enable the logging of real-time data with the use of cloud technologies which can be further used in understanding the plant requirements and maximizing the yield. Nowadays, people are more conscious about their food intake and prefer pesticide-free organic foods. Although unlike in rural areas, people in metropolitan cities do not have enough space to cultivate vegetables in their houses. The proposed system described in this paper circumvents these drawbacks. It uses IoT for providing intelligent monitoring and control systems for a scalable Vertical Farm setup which is specifically designed for metro cities like Mumbai where space constraints and power cuts are a major issue. With this setup, people can grow fresh vegetables in their houses with very little space and human intervention requirements.