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Cited by 85Smart Agriculture and AIGreenhouse Technology and Climate ControlInnovations in Aquaponics and Hydroponics Systems

A Cloud-Based IoT Platform for Precision Control of Soilless Greenhouse Cultivation

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Sagheer, Alaa, Mohammed, Maged, Riad, Khaled, Alhajhoj, Mohammed·2020·Sensors
DOI 10.3390/s21010223PMC PMC7796151
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Abstract

Food security has become an increasingly important challenge for all countries globally, particularly as the world population continues to grow and arable lands are diminishing due to urbanization. Water scarcity and lack of labor add extra negative influence on traditional agriculture and food production. The problem is getting worse in countries with arid lands and harsh climate, which exacerbates the food gap in these countries. Therefore, smart and practical solutions to promote cultivation and combat food production challenges are highly needed. As a controllable environment, greenhouses are the perfect environment to improve crops’ production and quality in harsh climate regions. Monitoring and controlling greenhouse microclimate is a real problem where growers have to deal with various parameters to ensure the optimal growth of crops. This paper shows our research in which we established a multi-tier cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) platform to enhance the greenhouse microclimate. As a case study, we applied the IoT platform on cucumber cultivation in a soilless medium inside a commercial-sized greenhouse. The established platform connected all sensors, controllers, and actuators placed in the greenhouse to provide long-distance communication to monitor, control, and manage the greenhouse. The implemented platform increased the cucumber yield and enhanced its quality. Moreover, the platform improved water use efficiency and decreased consumption of electrical energy. Based on the positive impact on water use efficiency and enhancement on cucumber fruit yield and quality, the established platform seems quite suitable for the soilless greenhouse cultivation in arid regions.

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  • The sensors used in the study (DHT22 temperature/RH, DX-250 pH, LM35 temperature, VH400 volumetric soil moisture, MQ-135 air quality, and FUT3101 light intensity) were calibrated using the same techniques described in previous studies to ensure their accuracy.

    “The sensors used in this study, i.e., the digital DHT22 temperature and RH sensor, the analog DX-250 pH sensor, the analog LM35 temperature sensor, the analog VH400 volumetric soil moisture content sensor, the analog MQ-135 air quality sensor, and the FUT3101 light intensity sensor module were calibrated using the same techniques described in previous studies [48,60,66] to ensure their accuracy”

    From Design and Evaluation of a Smart Ex Vitro Acclimatization System for Tissue Culture Plantlets (2022) · cites this paper as [66]

    Section 2.4 (Measurements; page unavailable) describes calibrating the VH400 moisture probe against gravimetrically determined water content. Section 2.2 (System Architecture; page unavailable) describes several other sensors, but specifies a DHT11 rather than a DHT22 and LDRs rather than a FUT3101; it also says the LM35 needs no external calibration. The source therefore supports a calibration technique for the VH400, not the claim that the listed sensors were calibrated using the same techniques. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Authors
Sagheer, A., Mohammed, M., Riad, K., & Alhajhoj, M.
Affiliations
  • King Faisal University (SA)
  • Zagazig University (EG)
Corresponding author
Sagheer, Alaa
ORCID
Venue
Sensors
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2020-12-31
Volume
21
Issue
1
Pages
223
ISSN
1424-8220 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/s21010223
PMC
PMC7796151
OpenAlex
W3116326456
Cited by
85
References
46
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 13
FWCI
7.59
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Sensors (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
Deputyship for Research Innovation, Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia (IFT20069)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Smart Agriculture and AI
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Greenhouse Technology and Climate Control
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Aquatic Science › Innovations in Aquaponics and Hydroponics Systems
Keywords
cloud-based IoT platform, greenhouse microclimate control, cucumber cultivation, precision agriculture, water use efficiency, arid regions, food security, greenhouse monitoring and control, energy consumption reduction, fruit yield and quality

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