With growing pressure on traditional farming methods to produce sufficient food for the population, Hydroponic systems (where crops are grown in a water-based nutrient solution instead of soil) presents one promising solution. However, one challenge is to achieve consistent crop yield and quality while optimizing staff efficiency and resource usage.
The BRT Systems IoTPortal is an ideal solution that leverages advanced IoT technology which can be applied to hydroponic farming environments to bring benefits such as Improved Yields, Cost Savings and Greater Efficiency.
With its self-contained growing environment, Hydroponics is well placed to use automation to help overcome challenges that stand in the way. By monitoring and controlling all key parameters in one unified system, intervening early and allocating manpower on a need to basis, as well as visualizing and facilitating data analysis for ongoing improvement, the IoTPortal from BRT Systems helps ensure optimal conditions for the crops.
Deviation of the nutrient mix and the surrounding environment from the optimal conditions for the crop reduces quality and yield, which can also be affected by deterioration and unexpected failure of equipment such as pumps. Effective monitoring helps avoid these but is labour-intensive and not cost effective, leading to compromises.
Addressing deviations in conditions often requires manual intervention, requiring staff to go on-site. Delayed responses pose a risk of further deterioration with catastrophic results. Built-in monitoring and control systems within equipment often work in isolation and focus on maintaining one or two parameters and farmers miss out on the significant benefits of a holistic system.
To meet food production needs and to thrive as a business, the farm must be able to adapt and expand in a timely manner to fluctuating market conditions such as volume demand and crop type. Lack of flexibility in equipment and staffing limitations can limit the ability to do this.
Automation can help reduce staff workload and improve efficiency. However, most automation systems are isolated and non-interoperable and require complex programming skills which farmers and farm operators may lack. This builds reliance on the automation systems provider and optimising a grow process becomes a slow, expensive hit and miss activity.
Valuable opportunities to continually optimize and refine grow recipes are often lost due to challenges in collecting and analysing historical data. In addition, hidden costs such as energy and water usage can impact profitability even if the farm is producing consistently good quality crops.
The IoTPortal provides a comprehensive monitoring and control system that ensures optimal conditions for the crops.
| Category | Product | Description |
| Gateway | IoTPortal Gateway | Manages the LDSBus and acts as a bridge between the sensors/actuators and the IoTPortal Cloud Platform |
| Sensors | LDSBus 4in1 Sensor | Environmental sensing (Light, Temperature, Humidity, Motion) |
| LDSBus CO2 Sensor (not shown) | Environmental sensing (CO2, Light, Temperature, Humidity) | |
| Adapters | LDSBus pH Sensor Adapter | Nutrient Solution pH (via external probe) |
| LDSBus EC Sensor Adapter | Nutrient Solution Electrical Conductivity (via external probe) | |
| LDSBus Thermocouple Sensor Adapter | Nutrient Solution Temperature (via external probe) | |
| LDSBus DO Sensor Adapter | Nutrient Solution Dissolved Oxygen levels (via external probe) | |
| LDSBus Modbus/SDI-12 Adapter | Connect Modbus devices such as energy meters via LDSBus | |
| Actuators | 2CH Relay (not shown) | 2-channel changeover relay for switching circulation pumps, dosing pumps, valves and grow lights etc. |
| 2CH Relay + iSENSE | 2-channel changeover relay for switching circulation pumps, dosing pumps, valves and grow lights etc. Features current measurement on each channel | |
| Accessories | Quad T-Junction | Connect sensors, adapters, and actuators easily to the LDSBus in a daisy-chain arrangement (up to 4 devices per Quad T-Junction) |
Manages the LDSBus and acts as a bridge between the sensors/actuators and the IoTPortal Cloud Platform
LDSBus pH Sensor Adapter – Nutrient Solution pH (via external probe)
LDSBus EC Sensor Adapter – Nutrient Solution Electrical Conductivity (via external probe)
LDSBus Thermocouple Sensor Adapter – Nutrient Solution Temperature (via external probe)
LDSBus DO Sensor Adapter – Nutrient Solution Dissolved Oxygen levels (via external probe)
LDSBus Modbus/SDI-12 Adapter – Connect Modbus devices such as energy meters via LDSBus
2CH Relay (not shown) – 2-channel changeover relay for switching circulation pumps, dosing pumps, valves and grow lights etc.
2CH Relay + iSENSE – 2-channel changeover relay for switching circulation pumps, dosing pumps, valves and grow lights etc. Features current measurement on each channel
Quad T-Junction – Connect sensors, adapters, and actuators easily to the LDSBus in a daisy-chain arrangement (up to 4 devices per Quad T-Junction)
Some of the Key Features and Benefits include:
IoTPortal offers continuous real-time monitoring of large numbers of key parameters including nutrient levels, light, temperature, energy usage and more. BRTSys have a range of liquid and environmental sensors which are ideal for Hydroponics. Configurable alerts can notify staff via Email, SMS and Push Alerts if parameters deviate beyond set limits.
IoTPortal’s Events feature allows automated responses to be easily configured, reducing manual intervention and reacting quickly to deviations. Multi-condition rules based on sensor values, time of day etc. can be used to control devices such as pumps and lights via output actuators. Device current consumption can be monitored to check for correct operation via the LDSBus 2CH Relay + iSENSE.
BRTSys sensors/actuators connect to the IoTPortal Gateway via the Long-Distance Sensor Bus (LDSBus). This daisy-chained bus was designed for easy reconfiguration and expansion, providing both power and data over CAT5e Ethernet cables at distances up to 200m. Multiple gateways can be easily added for further expansion, acting as a single unified system for easy management.
Monitor and manage your farm from anywhere with our intuitive Smartphone App and Web Application. Data from all gateways is stored and processed on the IoTPortal Cloud service allowing seamless on-site and remote access. Configure and monitor the system entirely via the user-friendly interface, with no programming required, and grant specific access privileges for different groups of users.
The sensor data, covering all key parameters which impact crop growth, can be downloaded and analysed. Analysis of growing conditions and costs in comparison to the crop quality and yield allows ongoing improvements to be made for future crop cycles.
Some of the Key Features and Benefits include:
IoTPortal offers continuous real-time monitoring of large numbers of key parameters including nutrient levels, light, temperature, energy usage and more. BRTSys have a range of liquid and environmental sensors which are ideal for Hydroponics. Configurable alerts can notify staff via Email, SMS and Push Alerts if parameters deviate beyond set limits.
IoTPortal’s automation feature supports the entire hydroponics grow cycle beginning from when young plants are first planted into the grow trays, right up to harvest. Nutrient mixing, maintenance of air, leaf and water temperature, control of grow lamps, humidity control, detection of leakage or pump failure, monitoring of energy and water usage can all be performed from one simple and intuitive user interface. The entire progress of daily automation activations can be tracked through alerts, emails and SMS.
A single IoTPortal gateway can support between 1 to 320 sensors or actuator channels and with a 200m long bus, an area as large as 12 football fields can be covered by a single gateway. As power is provided by the gateway to the sensors and actuators, power supply provisioning becomes a non-issue. If more than 320 sensors are required, additional gateways may be added to meet the required scale. This scalability allows the farm to quickly and easily adapt to volume demands. Furthermore, the flexibility to connect different types of sensors and actuators allows the farm to easily diversify to crop types which are most in demand, with their associated grow recipes (including key nutrient mix, lighting and climate parameters).
Monitor and manage your farm from anywhere with our intuitive Smartphone App and Web Application. Visualize and analyse the influence and interplay of environmental factors, critical air, water and nutrient parameters that affect the grow process. With no programming required, farmers can directly use the IoTPortal Zero-Code automation environment to setup multiple grow recipes to match crop types. The DIY approach reduces training, programming and outsourcing costs while increasing work efficiency. What took days and weeks to setup can now be accomplished in minutes with the IoTPortal.
The IoTPortal stores all the sensor and actuator data for visualisation and analysis but sensitive data such as input costs, and output crop yield by weight, electricity and water costs are kept within the farmers’ systems. For a complete analysis, the IoTPortal provides integration with Microsoft PowerBI™ and Microsoft Fabric™ and for simpler analysis connections to GoogleDocs and Microsoft Excel are provided. Both past and live data may be analysed.
As current farming methods struggle to meet the significant increases in demand for food production, Hydroponics offers a promising solution, provided that consistent yields and quality can be attained. With its self-contained growing environment, Hydroponics is well placed to use automation to help overcome challenges that stand in the way.
By monitoring and controlling all key parameters in one unified system, as well as facilitating data analysis for ongoing improvement, the IoTPortal from BRT Systems can help farmers achieve:
IoTPortal helps optimize growing conditions for higher and more consistent yields, and higher-quality crops. Studies have shown that hydroponic systems can yield up to 30% more than traditional soil-based farming if conditions are optimized.
IoTPortal helps reduce labour costs and minimize resource wastage, leading to significant cost reductions, with flexibility allowing the business to adapt and grow easily.
IoTPortal reduces the need for manual monitoring, improving staff utilization, and reacts automatically to maintain optimal conditions. On-site and remote monitoring combined with alerts ensure that any issues in the farm are quickly identified and resolved.
BRT Systems Pte Ltd (BRTSys) provides cutting-edge IoT solutions that drive operational excellence and deliver significant cost-value benefits with two families of solutions: IoTPortal and PanL
