Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect
Procediaonline
Available Computer Science 00 (2021) 000–000
at www.sciencedirect.com
Procedia Computer Science 00 (2021) 000–000 www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
ScienceDirect
Procedia Computer Science 191 (2021) 493–498

International Workshop on Edge IA-IoT for Smart Agriculture (SA2IOT)

International Workshop
Auguston Edge
9-12, IA-IoT
2021, for Smart
Leuven, Agriculture (SA2IOT)
Belgium
August 9-12, 2021, Leuven, Belgium
Architecture design of monitoring and controlling of IoT-based
Architecture design of monitoring and controlling of IoT-based
aquaponics system powered by solar energy.
aquaponics system powered by solar energy.
Taji Khaoula*, Rachida Ait Abdelouahid, Ibtissame Ezzahoui,Abdelaziz Marzak
Taji Khaoula*, Rachida Ait Abdelouahid, Ibtissame Ezzahoui,Abdelaziz Marzak
Hassan II University of Casablanca-Faculty of Sciences Ben M’sik, Laboratory of Information of Technology and Modeling, Cdt Driss El Harti,
Hassan II University of Casablanca-Faculty of Sciences
BP 7955Ben
Sidi
M’sik,
Othman
Laboratory
Casablanca,
of Information
Morocco of Technology and Modeling, Cdt Driss El Harti,
BP 7955 Sidi Othman Casablanca, Morocco

Abstract
Abstract
The demand for food is persistently increasing; the world is facing cannot be addressed with the land's additional natural
The demand
resources and for food is persistently
exploitation. Currently, the increasing; the industry
agricultural world isisfacing cannotlargest
the world's be addressed
water userwith
andthe land's additional
consumes about 70%natural
of the
resources
water and exploitation.
in different processes.Currently,
In this food theand
agricultural industry
environmental is the
crisis, the world's largestfor
new methods water user and
growing consumes
plants about 70%domain
in the agricultural of the
water
are in different
various; one ofprocesses. In thisisfood
these methods and environmental
aquaponics crisis, the new
which is a sustainable methods
agriculture for growing
system plants intwo
that combines thenames:
agricultural domain
Aquaculture,
are various;
which is theone of these
farming of methods
fish and isHydroponic
aquaponics which
which is athe sustainable
cultivation agriculture
of plantssystem that using
(Off-soil) combines
watertwo names: with
enriched Aquaculture,
mineral
which is the
materials. farming of
Aquaponics fish as
comes and Hydroponic
a solution which farming
to enhance is the cultivation of plants
and agriculture (Off-soil)The
productivity. using water towards
attention enrichedthewith mineral
aquaponics
materials.
system is Aquaponics
increasing duecomesto as
its ahigh
solution to enhance
efficiency, farming and
availability, andagriculture productivity.
fewer resources The attention
consumption. towards
However, the isaquaponics
there intensive
system is increasing
automation, monitoring,dueandto control
its highrequirement
efficiency,foravailability, and fewersystem.
a smart aquaponics resources consumption.
To enhance However,ofthere
the productivity is intensive
aquaponics, it is
automation, monitoring,
required to utilize and control
IoT-based requirement
technologies for a smart
and artificial aquaponics
intelligence (AI) system. To enhance
algorithms. The main theaim
productivity of aquaponics,
of this paper it is
at hand consists
required to utilize
of proposing a newIoT-based technologies
contribution based on and artificialofintelligence
the Internet Things (IoT) (AI)solution
algorithms. The main
that could aimand
control of this paperwater
monitor at hand consists
quality and
of proposing a parameters
environmental new contribution
by using based
the on the Internet
maximum of Things (IoT)
of sensors(water solution
level, waterthat could control
temperature, and monitor
electrical water quality
conductivity, CO2, Tauxand
environmental parameters by
Ammonia Nitrogen(TAN), using
etc.), theactuators
and maximum of sensors(water
(water pump, etc.,) level, water temperature,
in aquaponics electrical
farming. This paperconductivity,
provides an CO2, Taux
innovative
Ammonia Nitrogen(TAN),
solution based etc.), and
on an interoperable, actuators
secure, (water
scalable, pump, etc.,)
low-cost, in aquaponics flexible,
fully self-powered, farming.reliable
This paper providesIoT
and generic anarchitecture
innovative
solution
that meetsbased on an interoperable,
the requirements secure, scalable, low-cost, fully self-powered, flexible, reliable and generic IoT architecture
of aquaponics.
that meets the requirements of aquaponics.
© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
©
© 2021
2021 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published by by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open accessPublished
article under Elsevier
the CC B.V.
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
This is an open
Peer-review access article under
under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility
responsibilityof ofthe
theConference
ConferenceProgram
ProgramChairs.
Chair.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Conference Program Chairs.
Keywords: Interoperable, Aquaponics, Hydroponic, Aquaculture, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI);
Keywords: Interoperable, Aquaponics, Hydroponic, Aquaculture, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI);

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +212-691-711-985;

*Corresponding
E-mail address:author.
taji.khaoula95@gmail.com
Tel.: +212-691-711-985;
E-mail address: taji.khaoula95@gmail.com

1877-0509 © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

This is an open
1877-0509 © 2021
access
Thearticle
Authors.
under
Published
the CC BY-NC-ND
by Elsevier B.V.
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review
This is an open
under
access
responsibility
article under
of the CC
Conference
BY-NC-NDProgram
license
Chairs.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility of the Conference Program Chairs.

1877-0509 © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Peer-review under responsibility of the Conference Program Chair.
10.1016/j.procs.2021.07.063
2 Khaoula Taji/ Procedia Computer Science 00 (2021) 000–000

494 Taji Khaoula et al. / Procedia Computer Science 191 (2021) 493–498

1. Introduction

Aquaponics is a food production method that is a combination of aquaculture (growing aquatic animals including
fish, snails, crayfish, or prawns in a special water tank) and hydroponics (growing plants with the help of water but
without soil). In this method the high nutrients containing water is fed to hydroponic culture plants, containing
bacteria for the conversion of animals excrete waste into nutrients [1]. The type of food that will grow, complexity,
and growth rate depend on the nature of aquaculture.

There are various benefits of using the aquaponics system as compare to the conventional plants growing
mechanism e.g. it faster-growing process, require no soil, it can grow at any location and require comparatively less
space, seasonal change does not affect plant growth, little and or no requirement of herbicides and pesticides, plants
remain protected against different diseases [2-3].
Aquaculture is the technique of breeding aquatic plants and animals using several methodologies, experiences,
and techniques. There is continuous monitoring of biological, chemical, physical that not only predict the negative
condition of aquaculture but also avoid the degradation that can cause the failure of the production process. The
variables that can monitor in this system are temperature, oxygen, pH, ammonia etc., that have vital importance to
control an aquaculture process [7]. Different technologies that can provide support in this system and several well-
organized sensors, the wireless networks that work on the monitoring region can collect, transmit the process the
information to the controlling system. This system is getting importance over time [8].
Similarly, there are different controlling parameters in the hydroponic system as well that are consist of water
level, nutrient container, intensity of artificial light, pH adjustment solution, ionic conductivity, etc.
The value of all these parameters must be monitored and controlled with the help of the Internet of Things (IoT),
also these parameters must be correlated, processed and analyzed with the help of artificial intelligence (AI),
machine learning, deep learning for effective handling. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. Some
related works are summarized in section 2. Our proposed architecture and implementation of the prototype are
presented in section 3. And finally the last section consists to present the conclusion and perspectives of our work.

2. Related Works

The emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) has reached the agricultural process in form of hydroponic and
aquaponics systems. Monitoring and control of pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, flow rate, the light
intensity, the ammonia level, nitrite, nitrate, can be performed using IoT. So, there is an extensive literature study
that is available to implement IoT in hydroponic and aquaponic systems.
The research proposed by (Haryanto and al., 2018) [13] have presented a smart aquaponics system design that
could control and monitor essential aquaponics parameters: degree of acidity, water level, water temperature, and
fish feed that are viewed with the internet-based mobile application. The authors (Baraa Abd Al-Zahraa and al.,
2019)[14] have designed an IoT based aquaponics monitoring system that measures and controls parameters like
oxygen level, Ph level, temperature, etc., by recording various parameters in real-time settings. NodeMcu is used in
this architecture to collect data from the sensors (pH, temperature, Oxygen and ammonia levels) and deliver them to
a web server.(K. Pasha and al, 2018)[15] Have designed a monitoring, controlling system for the IoT based
aquaponic system via a web interface. This research measures and displays three parameters, which are pH value,
temperature and water level. The proposed work uses Web Socket protocol to transfer information, provides secure
connections to the server, and keeps the system running in real-time. (Roysing Barosa and al., 2019) [16] have
designed a smart system called Plantabo Aevum for an aquaponics system.This design uses the Internet of Things to
monitor and control the environment continuously. IoT part comprises microcontrollers and microprocessors to
process data generated by connected objects (sensors, actuators).
 Khaoula Taji/ Procedia Computer Science 00 (2021) 000–000 3

Taji Khaoula et al. / Procedia Computer Science 191 (2021) 493–498 495

3. Our Proposition

3.1. System Overview

The IoT-based aquaponics system consists of a traditional aquaponics system with sensors and
microcontroller to collect sensor data and to automate the operations of the system. In this system NodeMCU is
the microcontroller which collects sensor data from the fish tank and the hydroponics grow bed. It controls the
pump through a relay to pump the nutrient rich water from the fish tank to the grow bed. The filtered clean
water from the grow bed is drained through a bell-siphon back into the fishes.

Figure 1: IoT Aquaponics System Overview.

3.2. System Overview

Our proposition is based on a design of an interoperable, secure, scalable, flexible, low cost, flexible and
generic IoT architecture to ensure an environment adapted to the well-being of fish and plants. Therefore, it is
necessary to ensure that the environmental parameters are in appropriate conditions for plants and fish to be
alive. The proposed IoT aquaponics system is based on a layered architecture consisting of four layers: Physical
layer, Gateway layer, Middleware layer and Application layer.

Figure 2: Proposed Architecture for aquaponics system.

4 Khaoula Taji/ Procedia Computer Science 00 (2021) 000–000

496 Taji Khaoula et al. / Procedia Computer Science 191 (2021) 493–498

• Physical Layer: The physical layer consists of sensors and control devices that are used in the system.
Data is collected through the sensors and the water pump is controlled through the control relay.
• Gateway Layer: The gateway layer consists of NodeMCU microcontroller which connects to the
devices in the physical layer, collects the data and sends control signal to the relay. The collected sensor
data is periodically published to the cloud through MQTT. The connectivity to the cloud is secured
through client certificate, which provides authentication and encryption.
• Middleware Layer: The middleware layer consists of the MQTT broker which Provides publish and
subscribe semantics. This cloud based broker connects the physical layer to the users. This layer
includes the entire physical infrastructure required to run the broker.
• Application Layer: The application layer provides the user interface. It subscribes to the MQTT topics
to fetch the sensor data and alarm data from the MQTT broker and provides monitoring and analytics
capability to the user.

3.3. Hardware

The hardware component is at the heart of our proposed prototype which comprises various elements.
In the following paragraph, we will describe the main components that we proposed to achieve our proposition.
1) Central Control System: this category includes the supporting devices for making the circuit design fully
functional. The components included here are; Node MCU, Solar Panel and battery 3V.
• NodeMCU: is an open-source development board based on ESP8266 that integrates GPIO, PWM, I 2C,
1-Wire and ADC interfaces. It has a Wi-Fi interface to connect to the internet. This microcontroller is
powered by 3V battery system.
• Solar Panel: These are the sheets specifically designed for absorbing sunlight (converting heat energy
into electrical energy). It serves as a main input power source for our system.
• Battery: this rechargeable device (powered by a solar panel) powers a microcontroller and sensors.
• Grove Base Shield module: is an interface board for easily, quickly and seamlessly connecting Grove
sensors and actuators to a microcontroller.
2) Sensors: collect and acquire data (ph, electrical conductivity, temperature, sunlight, etc.) from environment
and water to evaluate the environmental conditions of fishes and plants.
Grove Sensor: has a wide range of applications. It is a modular system (open design) offering easy connections for
the inputs and outputs of the microcontroller. All of these types of sensors mentioned above are Grove sensors.
• PH Sensor: The PH of the aquaponics tank is measured using the Grove - PH Sensor probe. It is used in
our project to monitor the potential of hydrogen in the nutrient solution.
• Sunlight Sensor: The sunlight sensor used in this project is a multi-channel digital light sensor, which
has the ability to detect UV-light, visible light and infrared light. This device is based on SI1145 sensor
from SiLabs, which is Grove port compatible using I2C interface.
• Water-level Sensor: The water level of the aquaponics tank is measured using the Grove water-level
sensor. The sensor is completely waterproof and uses capacitive pads to detect water level up to 10cm
with an accuracy of 5mm. It uses I2C interface to communicate with the microcontroller.
• Water Temperature Sensor: The temperature of the fish tank is measured using a one-wire water-
proof temperature sensor. The chip inside this sensor is DS18B20 which is Grove port compatible. This
sensor measures a wide temperature range from -55 C to +125 C. Usable with 3.0-5.0V systems.
• EC Sensor: The electrical conductivity (EC) of the aquaponics tank is measured using the Grove EC
sensor, which is an analog electrical conductivity meter that is used to measure the ability of the water in
the aquaponics culture to conduct electric current. The sensor measures EC from 0 to 2000 S/cm.
• Soil Moisture Sensor: The Grove - Capacitive Moisture Sensor is a soil moisture sensor based on
capacitance changes and is corrosion resistant. This sensor can measure relative humidity and
temperature of the media base used to grow the plants.
 Khaoula Taji/ Procedia Computer Science 00 (2021) 000–000 5

Taji Khaoula et al. / Procedia Computer Science 191 (2021) 493–498 497

• Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Sensor: The Grove - Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) sensor is used to
measure the water quality of the aquaculture. The sensor can measure from 0 to 1000ppm. The sensor
outputs an analog signal which is measured by the microcontroller.
• CO2, Temperature and Humidity Sensor: The Sensirion SCD30 is a 3-in-1 sensor that can measure
CO2, temperature and humidity. This sensor is a Non-Dispersive Infrared (NDIR) carbon dioxide sensor
with high precision and wide measurement accuracy of 30 ppm between 400ppm to 10,000ppm. This
sensor uses I2C interface to communicate with the microcontroller.
• Ion Sensor for Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite: The ammonium ion concentration in the fish tank is
measured through the ammonia ion sensor which can sense between 0.09mg/L to 9000mg/L. Nitrite is
the intermediate form in the nitrification process which is toxic form fishes. The Nitrite Ion sensor can
measure in the range of 2.5mg/L to 1000mg/L. Nitrate is the final form of nitrogen in the nitrification
process. The Nitrate Ion sensor can measure in the range of 0.6mg/L to 31,000mg/L.
3) Actuators:
Various environmental parameters are efficiently controlled via actuators for controlling various factors (light,
humidity, electrical conductivity, ammonia, CO2, temperature) that impacts plants and fishes growth.
• Relay: is an electromechanical switch, which performs ON and OFF operations without any human
interaction.
• Water pump: This DC 3-6 V Mini Micro Submersible Water Pump is a low cost, small size
Submersible Pump Motor which can be operated from a 2.5 ~ 6V power supply.

3.4. Software design

The NodeMCU will run the main embedded software application which will collect the data from the sensors
through Grove connectors. The collected data is processed and uploaded to the cloud. An alarm will be generated
when the controller detects out of bound data. We are based on some criteria to design the software aspect of our
architecture which are:
Modularity/Flexibility: the design of architecture made up of elements that can be assembled and then separately
modified, added or even removed without impacting the other elements functioning. This proposed architecture is
composed to four layers. Connectivity: The aquaponics system will use MQTT protocol to connect to the
Cloud. MQTT is a publish/subscribe protocol that allows clients to publish and subscribe to a broker. Clients
connect to this broker, which then mediates communication. Security: Using WebSocket, we established a
persistent connection between a device and an MQTT broker. The WebSocket connection will be secured
through Transport Layer Security (TLS) through client x509 digital certificates. The client x509 certificate will be
issued to each device in a secure out-of-band mechanism and will be stored in a secure memory on the
NodeMCU. Scalability: Cloud solutions can allow us to add resources such as storage. All the collected data is
then sent to the cloud, where we can read and access it. Energy Harvesty: especially for long-term, low-
consumption, self-contained electronic systems.The low power consumption of the system has resulted in the
possibility of powering it by solar power. Interoperability: MQTT protocol that employs JavaScript
Object Notation (JSON) to solve interoperability are considered here. The current aquaponics system is
interoperable with any of the MQTT brokers that support MQTT over Websockets. We can employ any
installation using MQTT protocol and integrate it in existing home systems such as Home Assistant, OpenHAB,
etc. [18].

4. Conclusion and Perspectives

This paper has designed a new IoT-based aquaponics system that is interoperable, secure, scalable, low-cost,
fully automated and flexible that combines aquaculture with conventional hydroponics to ensure an adapted
environment to the well-being of fishes, bacteria and plants. Monitoring was implemented to detect pH, light,
temperature water, water level, Ammonia, electrical conductivity, etc., in an aquaponics system using Grove
6 Khaoula Taji/ Procedia Computer Science 00 (2021) 000–000

498 Taji Khaoula et al. / Procedia Computer Science 191 (2021) 493–498

sensors. Grove Breakout Board is used to connect all the sensors to NodeMCU. Thanks to the proposed system, we
can employ any installation using MQTT protocol and integrate it in existing home systems such as Home Assistant,
OpenHAB. We plan in our future works to provide software part of our prototype system with a high level of
security, scalability and interoperability and we discuss the results of data generated, Also, several artificial
intelligence methods will be implemented to optimize the critical parameters in aquaponics, namely water quality,
pH, air temperature, humidity, CO2, etc., and predict the state of the system’s health to improve its productivity
under better conditions.

References

[1] Reyes Yanes, A.R., P.Martinez, and R.Ahmad. (2020). “Towards automated aquaponics: A review on monitoring, IoT, and smart systems.”
Journal of Cleaner Production, p.121571
[2] W, Ke and Z.Xiong. (2008) “Measuring electric energy efficiency in Portuguese households: a tool for energy policy.” In 2nd International
Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering (pp. 4704-4708)
[3] M.Y., Liu, Xi. X.Y, S.F.Wang, Y. Xu and W.L.Song. (2012) “Research on differences of component and quantity of organic acids in the root
exudates among the three green manures.”', in In World Automation Congress 2012 (pp. 1-4).
[4] T., Kaewwiset and T. Yooyativong.(2017) “Estimation of electrical conductivity and pH in hydroponic nutrient mixing system using Linear
Regression algorithm”, in International Conference on Digital Arts, Media and Technology (ICDAMT) (pp. 1-5)
[5] J., Muro, I. Irigoyen , P. Samitier, P. Mazuela , M.C. Salas ,J. and M. Urrestarazu (2004) “Wood fiber as growing medium in hydroponic
crop”, in International Symposium on Soilless Culture and Hydroponics 697 (pp. 179-185)
[6] Gupta, G.P.(2004). “Text Book of Plant Diseases. Discovery Publishing House ”
[7] Ferreira, N.C., C. Bonetti and W.Q. Seiffert.(2011). “Hydrological and water quality indices as management tools in marine shrimp culture”,
Aquaculture, 318(3-4), pp.425-433.
[8] S., Chuanzhen. (2015) “Applications of wireless sensor network in the field of production and distribution”, in 8th International Conference
on Intelligent Computation Technology and Automation (ICICTA) (pp. 225-227). IEEE.
[9] Gosavi, J.V.(2017) “Water monitoring system for hydroponics agriculture.”, in International Journal for Research in Applied Science and
Engineering Technology, 5(7), pp.234-238
[10] C., Peuchpanngarm , C.Srinitiworawong, P.Samerjai, W. and T.Sunetnanta, T.(2016) “DIY sensor-based automatic control mobile
application for hydroponics”, in Fifth ICT International Student Project Conference (ICT-ISPC) (pp. 57-60). IEEE.
[11] Musa, P.,and Sugeru.H. and Mufza.H.F.( 2019) “An intelligent applied Fuzzy Logic to prediction the Parts per Million (PPM) as hydroponic
nutrition on the based Internet of Things (IoT)”, in Fourth International Conference on Informatics and Computing (ICIC) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.
[12] Gertphol, S., Chulaka, P. and Sugeru.H. and Changmai.T.( 2018) “Predictive models for lettuce quality from internet of things-based
hydroponic farm”, in 22nd International Computer Science and Engineering Conference (ICSEC) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
[13] Abd Al-Zahraa Naser, Baraa, Aajam Laith Saleem, Ali Hilal Ali, Salam Alabassi and Maher A.R. Sadiq Al-Baghdadi. (2019) “Design an[13]
Abd Al-Zahraa Naser, Baraa, Aajam Laith Saleem, Ali Hilal Ali, Salam Alabassi and Maher A.R. Sadiq Al-Baghdadi. (2019) “Design and
construction of smart IoT-based aquaponics powered by PV cells.” International Journal of Energy and Environment (IJEE), Volume 10,
Issue 3, 2019, pp.127-134.
[14] Haryanto, Ulum .M., Ibadillah.A.F., Alfita.R., Aji.K. and Rizkyandi.R. (2018) “Smart aquaponic system based Internet of Things (IoT).”
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1211 (2019) 012047, doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1211/1/01204
[15] Pasha, A., K, Mulyana.E., Hidayat.C., Ramdhani. M. A., Kurahman.O.T. and O. T., Adhipradana.M.(2018) “System Design of Controlling
and Monitoring on Aquaponic Based on Internet of Things”, in 4th International Conference on Wireless and Telematics (ICWT).
https://doi:10.1109/icwt.2018.8527802, IEEE.
[16] Barosa, R., Hassen.S. I. S. and Nagowah. L. (2019) “System Design of Controlling and Monitoring on Aquaponic Based on Internet of
Things”, in 4th International Conference on Wireless and Telematics (ICWT). https://doi:10.1109/icwt.2018.8527802, IEEE.
[17] Wei, Y., Li.W., An.D., Li.D., Jiao.Y.and and Wei.Q.,(2019) “Equipment and intelligent control system in aquaponics: A review”, IEEE
Access, 7, pp.169306-169326.