Digital System Design project

1. IOT based Aquaponic System
Fahima Akter
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
fahimasummer2014@bracu.ac.bd
Nadia Farha Mubin
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
nadia.mubin@bracu.ac.bd
Nadia Farhin Chowdhury
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
nadiafarhinchowdhury@bracu.ac.bd
Saima Zaman
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
BRAC University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
saimazaman1919@bracu.ac.bd
Abstract-: The Internet of Things (IOT) has the capability to
transform the world we live and aquaponic system is a way
where one can grow fish and plants together. The project has
been made keeping the advancement of technology and
increasing number of people as well as environment in mind. The
objective of our project is to calculate the water level and
temperature, as well as to inform the condition of motor of the
pond if it is working or not. In addition, the system notifies the
user in the installed mobile app. The project aims at helping the
people by providing data such as water temperature, water level
distance through sensors which is sent on devices through
internet programmed with NodeMCU microcontroller and Blynk
local server by which one can easily get update of the condition of
pond.
Keywords- IOT, NodeMCu, Temperature sensor, Ultrasonic
sensor, Blynk.
I. INTRODUCTION
In 21 century, we live a life which is dependent on technology.
Ordinary new innovation are made to make our live less
demanding, calm and more agreeable. The main objective of
innovation has been to expand proficiency and lessening
exertion. IOT based aquaponic system which simplify our
daily activities in farming and improve the standard of
agriculture sectors. IOT based aquaponic system allows us to
give more focus on the works which has to be done by our
hand [1].This system is an independent and less costly
method. With the increasing of people as well as environment
in mind, this system will be enhanced for better cultivation
effects.
IOT based aquaponic system is the process where the farmers
and owner will be notified about the condition of the pond [5].
Our system can turn on and off any electrical devices like
motor to supply water if it requires and also update about
temperature and measures the level of water. We have used
Android application to capture and process, as Android
operating system is used in 80% of the smartphones. After
processing the data such as, water temperature and depth level
are provided through sensors, which is sent to mobile
application, on which a person can easily get to know the
condition of the pond. The sensors will extract the analog data
from soil and air. An automatic water pump connected
through a relay has been added to provide water for the pond
or water-body automatically thus reducing the extra work.
When the water level or temperature level change from the
ideal state then it will let the caretaker know through an SMS
via GSM.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Several research efforts have been directed towards IOT base
acquaponic system. For this, the approach of our system is to
have new and innovative ways for determine the water level
and measured temperature. But, these techniques are not
convenient to configure and deploy smart water-quality
sensors that provide remote, continuous, and real-time
information of indicators related to water quality, on a
graphical user interface (GUI).In the past years researchers
have made efforts for creating “An Internet of Things (IOT)-
based aquaponics facility” [].In order to eradicate this issue,
there has been quite a number of attempts to provide such a
system which will be affordable by the poverty-stricken
section of people. Taking advantage of the advancements in
Internet of Things (IOT), embedded systems and cloud
computing has eased the task of evaluating the water quality
by deploying various sensors and actuators around the
aquaponic platform [6]. The parameters are constantly
monitored and kept under control. The system proposed is
based on Modbus TCP communication protocol which is
widely used as a standard within industrial applications. The
use of Modbus and IOT technology has permitted the

2. development a smart aquaponic system for Industrial Internet
of Things (IOT) [4]. The reasons behind this popularity are its
easy functionality & low moderate cost [2] There are also
some other gesture based on smart Monitoring and Control
System for Aquaponics based on OpenWrt, IOT powered
portable acquaponic system etc. The true goal of this paper is
to deliver a system that can be used in betterment of aquaponic
system which will be easy functional and affordable that
handle by the farmer and owner. A developing country like
Bangladesh, farmers are hardly familiar uses of advance
technology and system. Which is why, a low-cost system is
required to be made in order to make it available for all
section of people.
III. PROPOSED MODEL
Figure 1. Block diagram of the proposed system
. The above prototype of the system shows how the sensors
and motor can be placed in a pond. The components and
server used to build the system are given below:
● Blynk local server
● Blynk App
● NodeMcu
● Solder less breadboard
● DS18B20 waterproof temperature sensor
● 4.7k ohm resister
● HC-SR04 sonar sensor
● 12V power adapter
● Step-down module
● Jumper Cables
● 1 channel 5v Relay Module
The model is proposed keeping in mind that; with the
advancement of technology the agriculture and fish culture
system of our country can be upgraded. The system reduces
the dependency of manual monitoring process. As a result, an
owner is able to monitor the system even from outside of their
territory having just an internet connection on mobile-phone.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP AND RESULT ANALYSIS
A. Implementation
The proposed system is controlled directly from mobile phone
of the user through internet connection. The Blynk app gives
the user flexibility to run the project whenever needed by just
pressing a play button. However, the system and the user must
be connected with internet no matter if the connection type is
different or not. If the NodeMcu is not connected with internet
for some reason, the blynk app notifies the user by showing
the device offline. The system can also be run by time
intervals where the user would not need to run the project by
himself where the updates will be shown and saved in the app
automatically. At first, the program is set with initial values of
the required temperature of the pond and the desired water-
level of the pond. After the initial process, when the app and
nodemcu both are connected to internet the values taken by
temperature sensor and water-level sensor and the condition of
the motor is send to the app via local blynk server. The
waterproof temperature sensor input is converted into Celsius
format by the following equation:
Temp in Celsius= [V_out(mv) -500]/10;
Here, the Vout is in millivolts and it takes input voltage of 5V.
Similarly, the sonar sensor measures the water level of the
pond using another equation:
Distance = duration*0.034/2;
Here, the duration is the total travel time of ultrasound emitted
by the sonar sensor and multiplied by 0.0340 (the speed of
sound in air in 1000). The result is divided by two as it is the
time to go and coming back to the sensor. Finally, when the
two readings are done from the temperature and sonar sensor
it is send to the app. Besides, the water-level output is also
compared with the required level, if the new water level is
below the required level it triggers the relay module which is
acting as switch to activate the motor used to pump water in
pond from external water tank. The motor runs from external
12V power source. During the water pumping process, the
sonar sensor remains in active state and takes reading
continuously to check if the water level reached to the
required level or not. When the level is reached the relay is
triggered again to turn off the power of the motor to stop water
pumping. Thus, the whole function of the system is run.

3. Figure 8. Hardware implementation.
B. Result Analysis
The system is operated by internet which is why the system as
well as the user or owner must have internet connection. As, it
is an aquaponic system, its’ main function is to monitor the
temperature and water level in the pond primarily. According
to the water-level it will perform an action to pump water in
the pond if necessary. The prototype system included a box as
sample pond which had depth of 13cm. The desired water
level in the sample pond declared at 8cm. If the water level
decreases and measured under 8cm the relay switch triggers
the motor to pump water and continues until the level is
low in the table :
Table 1. Experimental Data
Observation
no.
Measured
temperature
(degree °C)
Measured
water-
level
(cm)
Performed
action(motor)
(level>8=> On
Level<8=>Off)
1 27 °C 13 Motor-ON
(empty sample
pond)
2 27.5 °C 6 Motor-off
3 29 °C 9 Motor-On
4 33 °C 10 Motor-On
5 33°C 3 Motor-off
6 25 °C 5 Motor-off
7 26 °C 9 Motor-On
8 24 °C 8 Motor-off
V. CONCLUSION
The proposed system can continuously monitor and
control water level, temperature intensity that automatically
send early warnings in form of SMS, and push notification;
and rectify system abnormality without human interference.
Future work includes (1) adding a dissolved oxygen sensor
and a nitrate sensor to detect oxygen level and nitrate
concentration level in the water respectively, (2)
incorporating solar panels to harness solar energy to power
the actuators, and (3) providing live video streaming of the
aquaponics system using the mobile application. With a large-
scale implementation, the proposed system can significantly
reduce labor and operating costs, while increasing livestock
production and profitability, which contributes towards
sustainable and livable cities.
REFERENCES
[1] 1. “An Internet of Things (IOT)-based aquaponics facility” paper
published in 2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference
(GHTC)
[2] 2. https://www.milkwood.net/2014/01/20/aquaponics-a-brief-history/
[3] 3. ‘Smart Aquaponics System for Industrial Internet of Things (IOT)’
International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Systems and
Informatics
[4] 4. http://www.instructables.com/id/Automatically-water-your-small-
indoor-plant-using-/
[5] 5. instructables.com/id/Automatically-water-your-small-indoor-plant-
using-/
[6] 6. ‘Smart Aquaponic with Monitoring and Control System Based On
IOT’ The Second International Conference on Informatics and
Computing (ICIC 2017), At Aston Hotel, Papua_Indonesia.
[7] 7. Shafeena T., “Smart aquaponics system: challenges and
opportunities,” European Journal of Advances in Engineering and
Technology, vol. 3(2), pp. 52–55, 2016.
[8]
http://www.content/plugins/ijetcse/file/upload/docx/694Environmental-
[9] https://www.leaffin.com/optimum-temperature-aquaponics/