International Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering and Technology (IJECET)

Volume 7, Issue 6, November-December 2016, pp. 39–47, Article ID: IJECET_07_06_006

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DESIGNING OF AN EMBEDDED SYSTEM TO

CONTROL THE TEMPERATURE OF POLYHOUSE
G. B. Bhagat
Department of Electronics, K.B.P. Mahavidyalaya, Pandharpur, Maharashtra, India

R. A. Nanaware
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Satara, Maharashtra, India

S. K. Tilekar
PG Department of Electronics, S. M. Mahavidyalaya, Akluj, Maharashtra, India

S. A. Pawar
Department of Electronics, Shri Shivaji Mahavidyalaya, Barshi, Maharashtra, India

ABSTRACT
A temperature is one of the most important parameter for the proper growth and hence yields.
From the survey it is found that most of the crop species has necessary optimum temperature range
of 120C to 240 C for proper growth. According to their optimum temperature the crops are cool
season crops requiring temperature below 180C and warm season crops requiring temperature
above 180C. It is necessary to provide the controlled temperature environment for crops those are
growing in the Polyhouse. Therefore, AVR microcontroller based embedded system is designed to
control the temperature of the Polyhouse environment depending on type of the crop and presented
in this paper.
The present embedded system is designed by using AVR ATmega32 Microcontroller and for the
measurement of temperature the semiconductor sensor LM35 is used. The on chip ADC is
implemented to convert the temperature dependent analog signal into the digital signal. To ensure
the digital readout the smart LCD module is interfaced to microcontroller. The solid state relays
are used to interface the heater and ventilator to control the Polyhouse environmental temperature.
The firmware is developed in embedded C in Code Vision, IDE. The system is calibrated and
standardized to the degree centigrade unit. The results regarding implementation of an embedded
system are interpreted in this paper.
Keywords: Semiconductor sensor, AVR Microcontroller, Polyhouse, Temperature.
Cite this Article: G. B. Bhagat, R. A. Nanaware, S. K. Tilekar and S. A. Pawar, Designing of an
Embedded System to Control the Temperature of Polyhouse, International Journal of Electronics
and Communication Engineering and Technology, 7(6), 2016, pp. 39–47.
http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJECET?Volume=7&Issue=6

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 G. B. Bhagat, R. A. Nanaware, S. K. Tilekar and S. A. Pawar

1. INTRODUCTION
In today’s agriculture technology, the electronic agricultural instrumentation for the measurement and
control of many agricultural parameters plays a vital role. This makes the revolutionary changes in the
field of design and development of microcontroller based embedded devices. From the literature survey it
is found that in case of Polyhouse applications the measurement and control of the parameters such as soil
moisture, humidity, temperature, light intensity, salinity and pH of water, etc. plays a dominant role on the
growth of crop [1]. Further, the modern agriculture technology by using the electronic devices can better
yield any seasonal crop in any season due to controlling environment of Polyhouse. Therefore, designing
of microcontroller based embedded systems for measurement of Polyhouse parameters is more interested
among the most researchers. Among them the temperature is one of the fundamental and important
parameter to be measure and control for the better yield of the crop. Further temperature necessity of
every crop at day time and at night time are different, table 1 [2,9] and in open environment farmers never
furnish this temperature requirement. Therefore, it is proposed to develop an embedded system for
measurement and control of Polyhouse temperature as per need of a crop.

Table 1 The temperature necessary for various crops

Temperature in 0C at
Sr. No. Plant Name
Day time Night time
1 Tomato 23 to 26 17 to 20
2 Potato 19 to 21 10 to 15
3 Cabbage 18 to 20 18 to 20
4 Cauliflower 18 to 20 03 to 12
5 Watermelon 18 to 35 18 to 35
6 Onion 15 to 18 12 to 15
7 grapes 35 to 40 20 to 25
8 Sunflower 14 to 18 05 to 10
9 Pepper 24 to 30 10to 15
10 Rose 18 to 28 14 to 18

The embedded systems based on high performance microcontroller [3] found most reliable for
dedicated applications. In early stage the designers are designing the embedded system based on 8031 and
8051 microcontroller and they have limited on chip resources, hence, the applications based on this
microcontroller are constrained. The microcontrollers from ARM, AVR and PIC family are of advanced
characteristics and readily available. In addition on chip resources such as ADC, DAC are also available in
the semicro controllers. However, the AVR microcontroller families are more suitable for development of
embedded system [4]. Therefore, using AVR ATmega32 microcontroller and temperature sensor LM35, an
embedded system for measurement and controlling of temperature is designed for Polyhouse environment
and presented in this paper.

2. THE DESIGNING OF SYSTEM

The development of measurement and controlling of temperature for Polyhouse applications is based on
AVR microcontroller. The hardware required to develop this system are temperature sensors LM35, light
sensor LDR, Thumb Wheel Switch (TWS), signal conditioners and data acquisition system, LCD display
module, control unit, heater and ventilator unit, power supply circuit, etc. successfully designed and

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 Designing of an E
Embedded System to Control the Temperature off Polyhouse

implemented to develop the systtem. The block diagram of hardware desiggned for the said system is
presented in figure 1 and the figuree 2 depicts designed schematics of circuit of eembedded system.
The precision temperature, physicaal parameter, measure and control is an imporrtant for healthy growth of
crops inside the Polyhouses. Thereefore, a precision, monolithic integrated-circuuit temperature sensor,
LM35, is deployed for the present system for sensing the temperature of Polyho ouse, which furnishes output
voltage linearly proportional to thee temperature in degree Celsius scale. This temperature sensor has
temperature coefficient in mV/oC anda has advantages over the temperature senssors having temperature
coefficient in mV/ oK as complexitty of scale conversion is reduced [5]. Furthermmore, it doesn’t require any
external calibration for trimming [6] and suitable for environmental temperaturre measurement as it has
very low self-heating, less than 0.11 oC in air. The LM35 is excited with +5 V poower supply and the

LCD Unit Heeater

Tempperature
Sennsor
AVR Coontrol
ATmega32 U
Unit
Light Sensor

Plant Veentilator
Power supply
selection

Figure 1 The blocck diagram of the temperature measurement and control

c system.
temperature dependent voltage is extracted
e and given to the ADC7 pin, of the AVR
A microcontroller for
further signal conditioning and proocessing.
This temperature dependent analog signal is applied to channel 7 of the on-chip ADC of AVR
microcontroller. This ADC has featured
f with 8 input channels and fixed 100 bit resolution. The 10-bit
temperature dependent digital data is converted into the 8-bit temperature datta by dividing it by 4 as the
microcontroller is 8 bit. This real temperature data is displayed on the smart 16X2
1 LCD module which is
interfaced to the microcontroller. The
T 8-bit data lines are interfaced to the Port C (PC0-PC7) and necessary
control lines are interfaced to the Port
P B (PB0-PB2) of the microcontroller.

Figure 2 The circuit schematic of the system.

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 G. B. Bhagat, R. A. Nanaware, S. K. Tilekar and S. A. Pawar

The present system is designed for controlling the temperature of Polyhouse for different ten crops.
Therefore, as discussed earlier each crop has necessary specific temperature range for day and night mode.
The specific crop is selected by incorporating the Thumbwheel Switch (TWS). The TWS BCD signal
encoded for ten crops is tabularized in the table 2. This TWS is single digit and simple BCD type. It is
interfaced to the Port D (PD4-PD7) of the microcontroller for selection of crop and hence its respective
temperature range. Furthermore, to switch automatically in between day and night mode of the respective
crop Light Dependent Register (LDR) is deployed [7]. The LDR is the cheap light detecting semiconductor
sensor [8] The LDR is wired around the operational amplifier to generate output high level for day mode
and output low level for night mode. The LM324 operational amplifier is used and operated in non-
inverting comparator configuration. This output signal of the comparator is interfaced to the Port D (PD0)
of the microcontroller for necessary action.

Table 2 The encoding of thumbwheel switch for selection of various crops

Thumbwheel switch number and its

Encoded crop
equivalent BCD signal
0 (0000) Tomato
1 (0001) Potato
2 (0010) Cabbage
3 (0011) Cauliflower
4 (0100) Watermelon
5 (0101) Onion
6 (0110) Grapes
7 (0111) Sunflower
8 (1000) Pepper
9 (1001) Rose

To keep the temperature of the Polyhouse within the range of respective crop, the heater and cooler are
also interfaced to the microcontroller at Port B, PB4 and PB3, respectively. The heater and cooler are
working on 230V AC main supply, so they are operated by employing the solid state relays, RL1 and RL2.
Both the relays are operated by 5V DC supply. The transistors Q1 and Q2, BC548, are configured as solid
state switch for actuating the heater and cooler. When PB4 line is at high level heater is ON and when it is
at low level heater is OFF. Similarly When PB3 line is at high level cooler is ON and when it is at low
level cooler is OFF. The switching action of the heater and cooler is executed by the microcontroller
comparing the Polyhouse temperature with cut-off limits of the respective crops at day and night mode.
The hardware and software are two inherent things to run the embedded system as per design
considerations. In the previous paragraph the necessary hardware development is illustrated. Therefore, the
firmware is consequently designed in embedded C using Code Vision, the Integrated Development
Environment (IDE) and its algorithm main flow chart and day & night temperature control subroutine flow
chart are depicted in figure 3.On successfully building the project, ‘.h’ file is generated and burned into the
target device AVR ATmega32 microcontroller ensuring the synthesized embedded system for controlling
the temperature of Polyhouse.

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 Designing of an Embedded System to Control the Temperature of Polyhouse

Start

Read the analog temperature data,

Call ADC function, Average the data

Convert data into equivalent 0C,

Calibration of the Signal into
Temperature in oC
Start

Initialization of Header file No

Is temperature
≥ range?
Declaration of ADC function, calibration
function, Day control function, Night Yes
control function, Delay Function, various Make coolers ON and heaters OFF.
LCD functions and declaration of global
Return
Define temperature ranges for plants
Select the plant
No
Is temperature
No ≤ range?
Is Day mode
Yes
Yes Make coolers OFF and heaters ON.
Call day temperature control function
Return

Call night temperature control function Make coolers OFF and heaters OFF .

Return

Figure 3 The flow chart of main firmware and day & night temperature control subroutine for present system.

3. EXPERIMENTAL
The present system is developed and tested for controlling of temperature of the Polyhouse. A temperature
test bed, Figure 4, is developed in the laboratory and used for testing along with standard temperature
meter and results are discussed.
The temperature is an important parameter for the Polyhouse as the crops are cultivated in temperature
controlled environment. Hence, by deploying LM 35 the temperature of the Polyhouse is measured and
controlled to desired value. While designing the instrumentation, the calibration of system to its
engineering unit has a prime important. The LM 35 exhibits linear characteristics with 10mV/0C as the
scale factor and it is calibrated to the temperature scale by adopting calibration procedure. The standard
temperature bath is employed and the sensor of the present system along with the standard digital
temperature meter, Forntier make ST- 9283 is exposed to the temperature range from 100 C to 450C. The
temperature (T) dependent EMF (VT ) shown by the system under the investigation are recorded and

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 G. B. Bhagat, R. A. Nanaware, S. K. Tilekar and S. A. Pawar

Figure 4 The prototype of the developed system.

plotted. The plot of VT in mV against applied temperature in 0C is depicted in the figure 5. The least square
method of curve fitting is employed for the precise linearization of the developed system and empirical
relation is procedured, which is

Y = 1.0466 X - 0.7341 1

Where, X is the temperature dependent EMF in mV and Y is temperature of the standard bath in 0 C.
This relation 1 is executed in the firmwareto convert the temperature observations in 0C scale. Hence, the
present system under the investigation is calibrated and standardized to temperature in 0 C. For validation
the present system is implemented along with the standard digital thermometer and observations are
recorded for heating as well as cooling for 28 0 C to 43 0C range and plotted.
50
45
Applied Temperature in 0C

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 10 20 30 40 50
Observed EMF in mV

Figure 5 The graph of observed emf VT against applied temperature on digital thermometer Forntier make ST- 9283
in 0 C.
The plot of applied temperature and temperature recorded by the present system for heating mode and
cooling mode is shown in figure 6. The temperature shown by the present system and that of observed by
the digital thermometers are closely matched, which supports the reliability in the system design.

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 Designing of an Embedded System to Control the Temperature of Polyhouse

45

Applied temperature in 0C
40 Heating mode

Cooling mode
35

30

25

20
20 25 30 35 40 45
Observed temperature on system in 0 C

Figure 6 The graph of observed temperature on the present system and standard digital meters.

4. MONITORING THE TEMPERATURE OF POLYHOUSE

The system is designed for monitoring the temperature of the Polyhouse environment in degree centigrade
precisely. Now it is deployed to monitor the temperature of the prototype Polyhouse in the laboratory for
two fixed temperature in day mode for more than one hour. Firstly it is monitored above the room
temperature, 27.8 0C, at 33 0C and on next day below the room temperature, 28.1 0 C, at 220C. The
instantaneous temperature observations given by the system under the investigation are recoded and
plotted against time shown in figure 7.a and 7.b. The graph depicted in figure 7.a and 7.b are of
temperature against time in which temperature is precisely controlled above the room temperature at 33 0C
and below the room temperature at 22 0C respectively. To fix the temperature of the environment the
instantaneous status of the auto controlled heater and cooler are also depicted in the figure 7.a and 7.b
respectively.

Figure 7 a The graph of observed temperature on the present system against the time for 33 0C.
Finally, AVR ATmega32 microcontroller based embedded system is developed and tested successfully
for precise measurement and controlling of the Polyhouse temperature. The observations are presented in
figure 7. On inspection of these data it is found that the temperature of the Polyhouse is precisely
controlled by the system.

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 G. B. Bhagat, R. A. Nanaware, S. K. Tilekar and S. A. Pawar

Figure 7 b The graph of observed temperature on the present system against the time for 22 0C.

5. CONCLUSION
Emphasizing embedded technology, a system is designed about AVR ATmega32 microcontroller to
monitor and control the environmental temperature of Polyhouse. The system is calibrated for temperature
in 0 C by deploying empirical relations. The results shown by the system under investigation to control the
temperature of Polyhouse are precise which reveal the preciseness in the development in the system.

REFERENCE
[1] A. M. Kadam, S. V. Nikam, S. K. Tilekar and B. P. Ladgaonkar, “Designing of ARM Microcontroller
Based Embedded System to measure Soil Parameters of Polyhouse”, Proceeding of UGC Sponsored
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[2] K. Franklin and P. Wigge, “Temperature and Plant Development”, Wiley-Blackwell (2013) ISBN: 978-
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[3] G. A. Pereira and C. E. Gugnasca, “Application of Lon Works Technology Distributed Control in
Polyhouses”, Proceeding of EFITA/WCCA Joint Congress on IT in Agriculture, Portugal, (2005) 1349-
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[4] Datasheet of AVR ATmega32.

[5] Datasheet of LM35 Precision Centigrade Temperature Sensors by Texas instruments, Literature
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[6] X. Yao, D. Sang and Y. Jiang, “Application and research on granary temperature monitoring system”,
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instrumentation system”, Power Engineering and Optimization Conference (PEOCO), 2013 IEEE 7th
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[8] D. F. Silva and D. A. Avalos, “Light Dependent Resistance as a Sensor in Spectroscopy Setups Using
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 Designing of an E
Embedded System to Control the Temperature off Polyhouse

[9] S. R. Adams , K. E. Cockshull

C and C. R. J. Cave, “Effect of Tem mperature on the Growth and
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Ghanshyam B. Bh hagat completed his M. Sc. from Shivaji University, Kolhapur. The area
of research is Embbedded technology. Presently, he is perusing his
h Ph. D. in PG Department
of Electronics, Shaankarrao Mohite College, Akluj, Dist. Solapur and working as Assistant
Professor at KBP Mahavidyalaya, Pandharpur, Dist. Solapuur (India). He presented 05
research papers in International and National level conferencess. He published 02 papers in
International and National
N Journal. He completed 1 research proojects.

R. A. Nanaware completed his M. Sc. from Shivaji University, Kolhapur. The area of
research is Embeddded technology and software development. Presently, he is working as
Engineer atBharatt Sanchar Nigam Limited, Satara (India).HHe published 1 0 papers in
International and National
N Journal.

Shivaprsad K. Tilekar completed his M. Phil. and Ph.D. from Solapur University, Solapur
(India). The area off research is Embedded technology, VLSI design and technology, Mixed
signal SoC design. Presently, he is working as Associate Professsor at Shankarrao Mohite
College, Akluj, andd Dist. Solapur. He awarded with best paper ppresentation award at
Research Festival and
a conferences, two times. He presented 65 research papers in
International & Na tional level conferences. He published 12 pappers in International Journal.
He completed 2 research projects. He worked as resource personn and delivered the invited
presentation in Natiional level conferences.
S hivaji A. Pawarr completed his M. Phil. and Ph.D. from Shhivaji University, Kolhapur.
Presently, he is woorking as Professor and Head at Sh ivaji Coollege, Barshi, Dist. Solapur
(I ndia). He presented 38 research papers in National level coonferences. He publishe d 22
papers in Internatioonal and National Journal. He completed 2 research
r projects. Under his
guidance two Ph.D D. scholars are working. The area of researcch is Ferroelectric, Sensors,
Instrumentation annd super capacitors.

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