Journal of Agriculture & Life Sciences

Using a Microcontroller to Automate a Green House for Experiments
M. Al-Kofahi, C. Chapman, B. Edison, E. Johnson, M. Harman, N. Zayyad, J. Seybert, C. Watters, R. Emme, T. Sliva, W. Miller

Abstract
In this work, an Arduino Mega 2560 R3 is used to automate the green house of Baker University, Kansas. This includes monitoring and controlling soil moisture and PH, light intensities, and temperature. Growth of plants are monitored by video/ image capture at preset periods, and recorded on a Data Logging Shield equipped with its own memory card. A copy of the logged data is transmitted wirelessly by XBee Pro 60mW Antenna to the base computer at the Biology Department. The system focuses on monitoring and controlling of all parameters of interest and on data collection. It allows for watering the plants using electromechanical solenoid valves controlled by the Arduino board; and allows for controlling light intensities and temperature inside the green house. Complete documentation of algorithms, materials used, methods, programming, and integration of the whole project is reported here in this paper.

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