Intelligent Greenhouse Climate Monitoring & Control

Due to inefficiencies in current methods for monitoring the climate within greenhouses, significant amounts of financial losses occur. In addition, continuous monitoring of the climate within the greenhouse enables higher product efficiency and quality as well as lower energy and labor costs.

Using state-of-the-art wireless sensor networks technology, Kodalfa offers an easy-to-setup, user-friendly and affordable climate monitoring service for greenhouses. Using Kodalfa Greenhouse Monitoring (KGM), greenhouse managers can access temperature, humidity and light information through their cell phones or computers on the Internet. They can set alerts to be notified when undesired limits are reached (e.g. send text message to a cell phone when temperature falls below 10°C). KGM also lets users generate reports including historical measurements and recommendations. These reports can be used to asses the past productivity and quality as well as to define future planting strategies.

Kodalfa Greenhouse Monitoring Helps;

• Preventing product losses through early warnings


• Reducing energy and labor costs through better utilization of resources


• Improving efficiency and quality by providing an opportunity for planning


• Shortening time to market by providing best climate condition for specific process

Concept

Kodalfa Greenhouse Monitoring (KGM) is an on-line climate monitoring service. Greenhouse owners may subscribe to this service rather than purchasing an expensive automation system which generally do not allow remote access. KGM sensors easily placed in a greenhouse dynamically form a wireless sensor network and start collecting temperature, humidity and light information. Measurements are then sent to Kodalfa's central server through a cellular network. KGM application analyses the data and notifies the greenhouse manager through text messages (SMS) or email, if setup to do so. When there are unexpected changes in temperature, humidity or light which may cause potential diseases, warning messages can be sent to specified users. Users can login to the KGM's web site for browsing past and current measurements, setting alerts, and generating reports. The conceptual diagram of KGM is depicted in figure below.

Kodalfa Greenhouse Monitoring Conceptual Diagram

What Makes KGM Different?

• Scalibility: KGM sensors form a dynamic, self-healing network. They recognize the sensors in their neighborhood and communicate with each other in a multi-hop fashion. Therefore, the size and the area coverage of the sensor network can grow very easily. This is especially critical, as the size of a smallest greenhouse built today is around 30,000 m2.

• Accuracy of the Measurements: Since more sensors can be placed in the greenhouse dynamically and cost-effectively, the decisions can be based on data collected from multiple sensors. This way dependency on any single sensor is dramatically reduced. Multiple sensors create redundancy and avoid single point of failure. Given how costly it is to lose products because of false measurements, this is quite important.

• Microclimate Monitoring: A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. As more sensors can be placed in the greenhouse with Kodalfa's technology, small plant groups can be monitored in a micro-climate environment. Thanks to this capability, greenhouse owners can decide where to best place their plant groups within the greenhouse.

• Battery-Operated Long Life Cycle: Kodalfa's power efficent algorithms and embedded low-power wireless communication chip enable battery operated sensors to last long time. (Generally more than a year.)

• Easy Installation & Flexibility: As the sensor nodes and the software running on them enable the formation of an ad-hoc network, devices can be easily placed in the greenhouse to start the operation. Thanks to this feature, sensor devices can be placed on locations where no wiring is feasible or even possible.

• Low Cost: Thanks to the rapidly advancing technology, wireless sensors are becoming less and less costly. Given the high costs of wiring and installation, this system is an affordable solution for greenhouse climate monitoring. Especially for those greenhouses which don't have pre-installed automation systems, this solution is a perfect fit.

Features

• User-friendly Web Interface


• Conditional Control


• Customizable (Add new sensors, set alerts, write your own logic controls etc.)


• Remote Access over Internet, Cellular Phones & Handheld Devices


• Overview of all sensor information on a map


• Flexible structure to support various sensor platforms

For sales information, please contact us at sales@kodalfa.com