Optimizable Hydroponic Plant Incubator : Building a hydroponic plant incubator with a highly optimizable environment

Abstract: This report investigates how to build a compact, optimizable and at the same time user friendly hydroponic systemfor growing plants as efficiently as possible. Hydroponics grows plants using water with dissolved nutrients instead of soil, allowing faster and more efficient growth.The focus has been on the implementation and the usability of such a system, centering around monitoring and to some degree controlling important parameters for growth such as humidity, air temperature, nutrition concentration and light intensity, colour and exposure time. The plant is enclosed in a confined space with artificial lighting which allows thorough control of the light environment. In order to achieve the desired level of control over the growth parameters, several sensors along with a microcontroller were used. A touch screen with a custom built graphical user interface was also connected to allow the user to control and monitor important aspects of growth conditions. The conclusion drawn from this project is that there is ahigh order of optimizability within the boundaries of this project. The measured factors are easily read on an intuitive, easily navigated touch screen for direct feedback. Regarding the lights’ effect on plant growth, the conclusionis drawn that plants grow well with many types of lights, but more time is needed to thoroughly investigate different light exposure times, colour and intensity.