WO2023008590A1

WO2023008590A1 - Smart hydroponic system

Info

Publication number: WO2023008590A1
Application number: PCT/KR2021/009612
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ahsan Ahmed MOLLICK
Original assignee: Mollick Ahsan Ahmed
Priority date: 2021-07-26
Filing date: 2021-07-26
Publication date: 2023-02-02

Abstract

A smart hydroponics system including: an environmental condition setter setting a hydroponic growing environmental condition under which a plant grows to reach a target growth rate at each predetermined point in time; a sensor sensing an actual hydroponic growing environmental condition at the preset hydroponic growing environmental condition; a detector producing a captured image of the plant by photographing the plant at each predetermined point in time, extracting a plant image from the captured image, and determining whether the plant has reached the target growth rate on the basis of at least one of a height and a leaf area of the plant; and a controller comparing the sensed hydroponic growing environmental condition with the preset hydroponic growing environmental condition when it is determined that the plant has not reached the target growth rate and giving feedback to the environmental condition setter to meet the preset hydroponic growing environmental condition.

Description

SMART HYDROPONIC SYSTEM

The present disclosure relates to a hydroponic system.

Unless expressly indicated otherwise herein, the contents described under this section are not conventional arts with respect to the claims of the present application, and they are not considered as conventional arts although they are described under this section.

Generally, hydroponics is called "nutriculture", which is a scientific farming technique to grow a variety of plants, crops, etc. by feeding into the plants and crops a culture medium containing all nutrients required for growth of the plants and crops therein. This technique enables the plants to grow without soil.

Using hydroponics, the state and growth of the root can be directly watched, uncontaminated and clean vegetables or plants can be produced, and mass production is commercially possible. In addition, as anyone can easily grow the vegetables or plants at home by means of multipurpose indoor hydroponic growing apparatuses, hydroponics can be utilized in home gardening and to foster emotional cultivation.

However, a person who grows the plants should continuously manage and monitor hydroponic growing environmental conditions, including the condition of water in which plants grow, a level of nourishment, air and water temperature, humidity, light, carbon dioxide, water level, oxygen level, etc.

In this regard, as processes for hydroponic cultivation are complicated, professional knowledge is required and continued management is also necessary, consuming much time. In addition, in case of wrong management, the plants may get sick or die.

Accordingly, there is a growing need for a system capable of monitoring the plants growing hydroponically and developing the hydroponic growing environment.

Accordingly, the present disclosure has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the related art, and an objective of the present disclosure is to provide a smart hydroponics system capable of performing continued management and monitoring of plants growing hydroponically.

Another objective of the present disclosure is to provide a smart hydroponics system capable of growing plants according to environmental conditions successful in actually growing the plants.

A still other objective of the present disclosure is to provide a smart hydroponics system capable of performing continuous monitoring to determine whether the plants have reached target growth rates according to preset environmental conditions and, when the plants have not reached the target growth rates, sensing actual environmental conditions and giving feedback about the difference between the set environmental conditions and the preset environmental conditions.

In order to accomplish the above objectives, a smart hydroponics system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure includes an environmental condition setter configured to set a hydroponic growing environmental condition under which a plant grows to reach a target growth rate at each predetermined point in time; a sensor configured to sense an actual hydroponic growing environmental condition at the preset hydroponic growing environmental condition; a detector configured to produce a captured image of the plant by photographing the plant at each predetermined point in time, extract a plant image from the captured image, and determine whether or not the plant has reached the target growth rate on the basis of at least one of a height and a leaf area of the plant; and a controller configured to compare the sensed actual hydroponic growing environmental condition with the preset hydroponic growing environmental condition when it is determined that the plant has not reached the target growth rate and give a feedback to the environmental condition setter, so as to meet the preset hydroponic growing environmental condition.

According to the present disclosure, as continuous management and monitoring of the plants growing hydroponically so as to meet the above-described need are available, hydroponic cultivation can be conducted without professional knowledge. In addition, as no separate manpower is required by means of automation, there is an effect that the cost can be reduced.

According to the present disclosure, as the plants grow under the environmental conditions which were successful for growing the plants, there is an effect that the good quality plants can be mass produced.

According to the present disclosure, it is possible to continuously monitor the plants to determine whether the plants have reached target growth rates according to the set environmental conditions and, when the plants have not reached the target growth rates, sensing actual environmental conditions and giving feedback about the difference between the set environmental conditions and the ideal environmental conditions. In this regard, as the plants can grow under the same environmental conditions as the set environmental conditions, variables resulting from outside environment can be removed, and there is also an effect that quality deviation between plants can be minimized.

Further, the device according to the present invention is compatible with any kind of soilless farming technology.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a smart hydroponics system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an environmental condition setter according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating an exemplary embodiment of an environmental condition setter of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a view illustrating a configuration of a sensor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a view illustrating a configuration of a detector according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a view illustrating that feedback from the controller is given to the environmental condition setter.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a smart hydroponics method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of illustrating a method of determining whether or not a plant has reached the target growth rate according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that in assigning reference numerals to elements illustrated in the drawings, like reference numerals are used to identify like elements even though they are illustrated in different drawings.

It should be understood that the terminology used herein could be interpreted as described below. The singular forms used herein are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Also, as the terms "first", "second", etc. are used herein in an attempt to distinguish one element from another element, the protection scope of invention should not be limited by these terms. It should be further understood that the terms "comprise", "have", etc. when used in this specification, do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or combinations thereof.

As used herein, it should be understood that the term "at least one" include any and all combinations that may be suggested from one or more associated items. For example, such terms as "at least one of a first item, a second item, and a third item" implies "the first item", "the second item", and "the third item" respectively, and all possible combinations of at least two of "the first item", "the second item", and "the third item"

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

A smart hydroponics system according to the present disclosure develops optimal environmental conditions, thereby enabling producing a plant which will grow by the target growth rate as desired.

For the sake of convenience, it will be described that the smart hydroponics system of the present disclosure is applicable to hydroponic cultivation.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a smart hydroponics system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the smart hydroponics system 1 according to the present disclosure includes an environment condition setter 100, a sensor 200, a detector 300, and a controller 400. The environmental condition setter 100 according to the present disclosure sets hydroponic growing environmental conditions. Specifically, the environmental condition setter 100 sets the hydroponic growing environmental conditions under which the plants can reach target growth rates thereof at each predetermined point in time. Here, the hydroponic environmental conditions may include temperature, humidity, amount of nutrient solution, component ratio of the nutrient solution, dissolved oxygen amount in the nutrient solution, quantity of light, PH of the nutrient solution, EC (electrical conductivity) of the nutrient solution, etc.

For example, a hydroponic growing environmental condition may mean an environmental condition under which a height of a plant and a leaf area of the plant up to a first point in time are a first height and a first area respectively. In addition, a hydroponic growing environmental condition may mean an environmental condition under which a height of the plant and a leaf area of the plant between a first point in time and a second point in time are a second height and a second area respectively.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the environmental condition setter 100 may collect a plurality of hydroponic growing conditions by choosing hydroponic growing environmental conditions of a plant of interest from an SNS (social network service) server via which a plurality of users input their environmental conditions which were set for hydroponic cultivation. In this case, the environmental condition setter 100 sets a hydroponic growing environmental condition corresponding to each point in time among the plurality of hydroponic growing environmental conditions so that the plant can reach the target growth rate thereof.

Hereinbelow, the environmental condition setter 100 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an environmental condition setter according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the environmental condition setter 100 includes a water environment developer 110, an illumination adjuster 110, an air adjuster 130, and a humidity adjuster 140.

The water environment developer 110 according to the present disclosure develops water environment under which a plant is submerged in water according to the hydroponic growing environmental condition. Here, the plant is disposed in a housing therefor and is cultivated in a state that the root of the plant or a part of the plant is submerged in water. Accordingly, the water environment developer 110 develops water environment under which the plant can grow by adjusting oxygen or nutrients contained in water.

To that end, the water environment developer 110 may include a nutrient solution producer 112, a water pump 113, and an oxygen pump 114.

The nutrient solution producer 112 mixes water with nutrients required for growth of the plant to generate a nutrient solution. The water pump 113 feeds the nutrient solution produced by the nutrient solution producer 112 into the housing for the plant and circulates the nutrient solution in the housing. The oxygen pump 14 feeds oxygen into the nutrient solution so as to allow an amount of the dissolved oxygen in the nutrient solution to be maintained in a fixed amount.

In this case, when a hydroponic growing environmental condition is set to a nutrient solution of a first composition, which is circulated twice a day and has the dissolved oxygen of 5, the nutrient solution producer 112 produces a nutrient solution of a first composition, the water pump 113 circulates the nutrient solution twice a day, and the oxygen pump 114 feeds oxygen into the nutrient solution thereby allowing the amount of the dissolved oxygen in the nutrient solution to be 5.

The water environment developer 110 including the nutrient solution producer 112, the water pump 113, and the oxygen pump 114 may be configured as illustrated in FIG. 3.

The illumination adjuster 120 adjusts quantity of the light of a first space in which the plant grows. For example, the illumination adjuster 120 may emit the light by means of a bulb, an incandescent light, a fluorescent light, etc. thereby being capable of adjusting the quantity of light.

In this case, when a hydroponic growing environmental conditional is set to the quantity of light of a first LUX for 4 hours or more a day, the illumination adjuster 120 may emit light for 4 hours and with an intensity of 1 LUX on the basis of one day.

The illumination adjuster 120 may be disposed over the top of the housing in which the plant is housed, and be formed with a plurality of lamps. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 3, the illumination adjuster 120 may be disposed over the top of the housing, and be formed with a plurality of lamps.

The air adjuster 130 adjusts air of the first space in which the plant grows. For example, the air adjuster 130 may include a circulation fan which exchanges the air of the first space with external air. In this case, the circulation fan may circulate air inside the first space each time as predetermined.

For example, when a hydroponic growing environmental condition is set to morning and afternoon ventilations twice a day, the circulation fan may perform the ventilation in the morning and in the afternoon.

The humidity adjuster 140 adjusts humidity of the first space in which the plant grows. To that end, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the humidity adjuster 140 includes a humidifier 142, a cooling fan 143, and a dehumidifier 144.

The humidifier 142 discharges vapor into the first space so as to increase humidity of the first space. The cooling fan 143 circulates the discharged vapor. The dehumidifier 144 removes humidity out of the first space so as to lower humidity of the first space.

For example, the humidity adjuster 140 including the humidifier 142 and the cooling fan 143 may be configured as illustrated in FIG. 3.

For example, where a hydroponic growing environmental condition is set to a first humidity, when the humidity of the first space is lower than the first humidity, the humidifier 142 discharges vapor into the first space and the cooling fan 143 circulates the vapor thereby allowing the humidity of the first space to match the first humidity. In addition, when the humidity of the first space is higher than the first humidity, the dehumidifier 144 removes humidity out of the first space thereby allowing the humidity of the first space to match the first humidity.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the humidifier 142 and the cooling fan 142 may operate simultaneously. For example, the cooling fan 143 operates when the humidifier 142 discharges vapor into the first space, thereby allowing the vapor to be circulated in the first space.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the sensor 200 senses an actual hydroponic growing environmental condition at the set hydroponic growing environmental condition set by the environmental condition setter 100. This is to check whether or not there is any difference between the set value and the actually sensed value.

For example, although a first hydroponic growing environmental condition is set by the environmental condition setter 100, the value sensed by the sensor 200 may be sensed as a second hydroponic growing environmental condition due to outside environment, performance of the respective devices, etc., differently from the set value.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the sensor 200 may include an atmosphere temperature sensor, a water temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a barometric pressure sensor, a dissolved oxygen (DO) sensor, an illuminance sensor, a water level sensor, a PH sensor, and an electrical conductivity (EC) sensor. The atmosphere temperature sensor senses atmosphere temperature of the first space. The water temperature sensor senses the temperature of water in which the plant is submerged. The humidifier senses humidity of the first space. The barometric pressure sensor senses barometric pressure of the first space. The DO sensor senses an amount of dissolved oxygen in water in which the plant is submerged. The illuminance sensor senses quantity of light of the first space. The water level sensor senses height of water in which the plant is submerged. The PH sensor senses PH of water in which the plant is submerged. The EC sensor senses electrical conductivity of water in which the plant is submerged.

Meanwhile, the detector 300 determines whether or not a plant has reached a target growth rate thereof. Specifically, the detector 300 may produce a captured image by photographing the plant at each point in time, and determine whether the plant has reached the target growth rate on the basis of at least one of a plant height and a leaf area of the plant by extracting a plant image from the captured image.

To that end, the detector 300 may include an imaging unit 310, an image preprocessor 320, an extractor 330, a plant height calculator 340, a leaf area calculator 350, and a determiner 360 as illustrated in FIG. 5.

The imaging unit 310 photographs the plant at each point in time and produces a captured image. Specifically, the imaging unit 310 photographs the plant at each point in time to which the target growth rate is set and produces a captured image. For example, when there are a first target growth rate at a first point in time and a second target growth rate at a second point in time, the imaging unit 310 photographs the plant at the respective points in time to which the target growth rate is set and produces a captured image.

The image preprocessor 320 preprocesses the captured image produced by the imaging unit 320. Specifically, the preprocessor 320 converts the captured image into a gray scale.

The extractor 330 extracts a plant image by inputting the captured image converted by the image preprocessor 320 into the classifying model. Here, the classifying model may be learned as a first learning image including the plant.

The plant height calculator 340 calculates a height of the plant by inputting the plant image extracted by the extractor 330 into a plant height measuring model. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the plant height measuring model may be learned as a second learning image in which a low end reference point and a high end reference point of the plants are set. Accordingly, the plant height measuring model enables calculating a plant height between the low end reference point and the high end reference point of a plant.

The leaf area calculator 350 calculates a leaf area of the plant by inputting the plant image into the leaf area measuring model. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the leaf area measuring model may be learned as a third learning image in which leaf area ranges of the plant are set. Accordingly, the leaf area measuring model enables calculating an area corresponding to a set area range.

The determiner 360 determines whether or not a plant has reached a target growth rate thereof at a predetermined point in time. Specifically, the determiner 360 compares a target height at a predetermined point in time with a plant height calculated by the plant height calculator 340 and determines whether the plant has reached the target height. When the calculated height is smaller than the target height, the determiner 360 determines that the plant has not reached the target growth rate. When the calculated height is higher than the target height, the determiner 360 determines that the plant has reached the target growth rate.

In addition, the determiner 360 compares a target area at a predetermined point in time with the area calculated by the leaf area calculator 350 and determines whether or not the plant has reached the target area. When the calculated area is smaller than the target area, the determiner determines that the plant has not reached the target growth rate. When the calculated area is higher than the target area, the determiner 360 determines that the plant has reached the target growth rate.

When the plant has not reached the target growth rate, the controller 400 compares the actual hydroponic growing environmental condition sensed by the sensor 200 with the hydroponic growing environmental condition set by the environmental condition developer 100 and gives feedback so as to meet the set hydroponic growing environmental condition.

For example, the controller 400 compares the components of an actual nutrient solution, among the actual hydroponic growing environmental conditions, with the components of a preset nutrient solution. When the components of the actual nutrient solution are out of the predetermined reference range thereof, the controller 400 controls the nutrient solution producer 112 so as to match the components of the set nutrient solution.

For example, the controller 400 compares actual quantity of light, among the among the actual hydroponic growing environmental conditions, with the set quantity of light. When the actual quantity of light is out of the predetermined reference range thereof, the controller 400 controls the illumination adjuster so as to allow the actual quantity of light to reach the set quantity of light.

According to the present disclosure, the controller 400 may give feedback to the environmental condition setter 100 as illustrated in FIG. 6. As described above, the controller 400 provides input of the feedback as much as an error in measurement so that a plant failing to reach the target growth rate thereof can reach the target growth rate thereof.

Where the actual hydroponic growing environmental condition is not developed with the set value therefor due to performance of the respective devices or surrounding environment, etc., it is possible to allow the plant to reach the target growth rate thereof as the controller 400 according to the present disclosure gives feedback for the set hydroponic growing environmental condition.

According to this, the present disclosure enables minimizing quality deviation of the plant by controlling growth of the plant uniformly and producing the plant under optimal conditions whereby mass production of the high quality plant is available.

On the basis of location information of a region in which hydroponic cultivation is conducted, the smart hydroponics system 1 according to the present disclosure is capable of controlling the hydroponic growing environment according to outside weather conditions by collecting weather information of the region.

To that end, the smart hydroponics system 1 according to the present disclosure may further include a location information collector and a weather information collector. The location information collector collects location information of the first space in which the plant grows. Here, the location information collector may enable collecting the location information by means of the GPS (global positioning system).

The weather information collector collects from a server of the Korea Meteorological Administration weather information of a concerned region according to location information.

In case of following this exemplary embodiment, the controller 400 may control the environmental condition setter 100 according to weather information outside the first space.

For example, the controller 400 may adjust the air adjuster 130 and the humidity adjuster 140 according to temperature and humidity contained in the weather information. The controller 400 may compare the temperature and humidity contained in the weather information with a target temperature and a target humidity and turn off the air adjuster 130 and the humidity adjuster 140 when they fall within the reference ranges thereof.

In case of following this exemplary embodiment, the present disclosure enables performing hydroponic cultivation with minimizing power consumption, which can lead to cost reduction. In addition, as the environmental condition setter 100 is controlled by the controller 400 so as to reflect the hydroponic growing environmental conditions which vary according to the external weather conditions, there is an effect to increase the probability of reaching the target growth rate of a concerned plant.

The smart hydroponics system 1 according to the present disclosure may be associated with a control system 500. The control system 500 monitors data generated in the smart hydroponics system 1 including preset hydroponic growing conditions, sensed actual hydroponic growing environment conditions, a target growth rate of a plant, etc. in real time.

The control system 500 may include a SNS (social network service) server which receives the hydroponic growing environmental conditions as set by the users who directly conduct the hydroponic cultivation while hydroponic cultivation.

In addition, the control system 500 may monitor the smart hydroponics system 1 through an application by distributing the application to user terminals. Here, the user terminals may include a mobile device, a PC (personal computer), a tablet computer, etc. It has been described that the application is distributed by the control system 500 by way of example. The application may be distributed via a program, an agent, etc. Also, the control system 500 may provide a webpage to which access is available through the Internet.

Hereinbelow, a smart hydroponics method according to the present disclosure will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 7. Any content overlapping with the above-described description may be omitted below.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a smart hydroponics method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

The smart hydroponics system sets hydroponic growing environmental conditions S700. Specifically, the smart hydroponics system sets hydroponic growing environmental conditions under which a plant should reach a target growth rate thereof by each predetermined point in time. Here, the hydroponic growing environment conditions may include temperature, humidity, amount of a nutrient solution, component ratio of the nutrient solution, amount of dissolved oxygen in the nutrient solution, quantity of light, PH and EC of the nutrient solution, etc.

The smart hydroponics system senses an actual hydroponic growing environmental condition at the set hydroponic growing environmental condition S710, which is to check whether there is any difference between the set value with the actually sensed value.

In the meantime, the smart hydroponics system determines whether the plant has reached the target growth rate thereof S720. Specifically, the smart hydroponics system may produce a captured image by photographing a plant at each point in time and determine whether or not the plant has reached the growth rate by extracting a plant image from the captured image, on the basis of at least one of a plant height and a leaf area of the plant.

With reference to FIG. 8, it will be described how the smart hydroponics system determines whether or not the plant has reached the target growth rate thereof.

The smart hydroponics system produces a captured image by photographing a plant at each point in time S800. Specifically, an imaging unit 310 photographs the plant at each point in time to which a target growth rate thereof is set, thereby producing a captured image. For example, where there are a first target growth rate at a first point in time and a second target growth rate at a second point in time, the imaging unit 310 produces the captured images at the first point in time and the second point in time.

The smart hydroponics system preprocesses the captured image produced by the imaging unit S810. Specifically, the preprocessor 320 convers the captured image into a gray scale.

The smart hydroponics system extracts a plant image by inputting the captured image into a classifying model S820. Here, the classifying model may be learned as a first learning image including the plant therein.

The smart hydroponics system calculates a plant height by inputting the extracted plant image into a plant height measuring model S830. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the plant height measuring model may be learned as a second learning image in which a low end reference point and a high end reference point of the plant are set. Accordingly, the plant height measuring model enables calculating a plant height between the low end reference point and the high end reference point of the plant.

The smart hydroponics system calculates a leaf area of the plant by inputting the plant image into an leaf area measuring model S840. In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the leaf area measuring model may be learned as a third learning image in which the leaf area ranges of the plant are set. Accordingly, the leaf area measuring model enables calculating the leaf area corresponding to the set leaf area range.

The smart hydroponics system determines whether the plant has reached the target growth rate thereof according to the calculated plant height and the calculated leaf area at a predetermined point in time S850. Specifically, the smart hydroponics system compares the target height with the calculated height and on this basis determines whether or not the plant has reached the target height. When the calculated height is smaller than the target height, the smart hydroponics system determines that the plant has not reached the target growth rate. When the calculated height is higher than the target height, the smart hydroponics system determines that the plant has reached the target growth rate.

In addition, the smart hydroponics system compares the target leaf area at a predetermined point in time with the calculated leaf area. When the calculated leaf area is smaller than the target leaf area, the smart hydroponics system determines that the plant has not reached the target growth rate. When the calculated leaf area is higher than the target leaf area, the smart hydroponics system determines that the plant has reached the target growth rate.

Referring back to FIG. 7, when the plant has not reached the target growth rate thereof, the smart hydroponics system compares the actual hydroponic growing environmental condition with the set hydroponic growing environmental condition and feeds back into the set hydroponic growing environmental condition S730.

For example, the smart hydroponics system compares the components of an actual nutrient solution, among the actual hydroponic growing governmental conditions, with the components of a set nutrient solution. In this regard, when the components of the actual nutrient solution are out of the predetermined reference range, the smart hydroponics system controls the nutrient solution producer to match the components of the set nutrient solution.

For example, the smart hydroponics system compares the quantity of light, among the actual hydroponic growing governmental conditions, with the set quantity of light. In this regard, when the actual quantity of light is out of the predetermined reference range, the smart hydroponics system controls the illumination adjuster to reach the set quantity of light.

According to the present disclosure, where the actual environment is not developed due to performance of the respective devices or surrounding environment, feedback into the set hydroponic growing condition is given, thereby enabling the plant to reach the target growth rate thereof.

According to the present disclosure, growth of the plants is controlled uniformly. In this regard, quality deviation in the plant can be minimized and the plant can also be produced under optimal conditions, thereby bringing an effect that mass production of the high quality plant is available.

According to the present disclosure, the smart hydroponics system may be capable of controlling the hydroponic growing environment according to outside weather conditions by collecting weather information of a region in which the hydroponic cultivation is conducted, on the basis of location information of the region.

According to this exemplary embodiment, it is possible to conduct the hydroponic cultivation with minimizing power consumption, thereby enabling cost reduction. In addition, as the environmental conditions are set by reflecting the hydroponic growing conditions which vary due to outside weather conditions, there is an effect to increase the probability such that the plant can reach the target growth rate thereof.

Preferred exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the embodiments described in the specification and the configurations illustrated in the drawings are merely preferred examples and do not exhaustively represent the technical spirit of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be appreciated that there may be various equivalents and modifications that can replace the embodiments and the configurations at the time at which the present application is filed. Therefore, preferred embodiments of the present disclosure have been described for illustrative purposes, and should not be construed as being restrictive. It should also be appreciated that the scope of the present disclosure is defined by the accompanying claims rather than the description which is presented above. Moreover, the present disclosure is intended to cover not only the exemplary embodiments, but also various alternatives, modifications, equivalents and other embodiments that may be included within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

A smart hydroponics system, comprising:

an environmental condition setter configured to set a hydroponic growing environmental condition under which a plant grows to reach a target growth rate at each predetermined point in time;

a sensor configured to sense an actual hydroponic growing environmental condition at the preset hydroponic growing environmental condition;

a detector configured to produce a captured image of the plant by photographing the plant at each predetermined point in time, extract a plant image from the captured image, and determine whether or not the plant has reached the target growth rate on the basis of at least one of a height and a leaf area of the plant; and

a controller configured to compare the sensed actual hydroponic growing environmental condition with the preset hydroponic growing environmental condition when it is determined that the plant has not reached the target growth rate and give feedback to the environmental condition setter, so as to meet the preset hydroponic growing environmental condition.
The smart hydroponics system of claim 1, wherein the environmental condition setter comprises a water environment developer,

wherein the water environment developer comprises:

a nutrient solution producer configured to produce a nutrient solution by mixing water with nutrients required for growth of the plant;

a water pump configured to feed the nutrient solution into a housing for the plant and circulate the nutrient solution; and

an oxygen pump configured to feed oxygen into the nutrient solution, and

the controller compares components of an actual nutrient solution, among actual hydroponic growing environmental conditions, with components of a preset nutrient solution and controls the nutrient solution producer when the components of the actual nutrient solution are out of a predetermined reference range, so as to allow the components of the actual nutrient solution to reach the components of the preset nutrient solution.
The smart hydroponics system of claim 1, wherein the environmental condition setter comprises an illumination adjuster configured to adjust quantity of light of a first space in which the plant grows, and

the controller compares an actual quantity of light, among the actual hydroponic growing environmental conditions, with a preset quantity of light and controls the illumination adjuster when the actual quantity of light is out of a predetermined reference range, so as to allow the actual quantity of light to reach the preset quantity of light.
The smart hydroponics system of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises:

a plant height calculator configured to calculate the height of the plant by inputting a plant image into a plant height measuring model that is learned as a second learning image in which a low end reference point and a high end reference point of the plant are set;

a leaf area calculator configured to calculate a leaf area of the plant by inputting the plant image into a leaf area measuring model that is learned as a third learning image in which a leaf area range of the plant is set; and

a determiner configured to compare a target height of the plant and a target leaf area of the plant at a predetermined point in time with the calculated plant height and the calculated leaf area and determine that the plant has not reached the target growth rate when at least one of the calculated plant height and the calculated leaf area is smaller than the target plant height and the target leaf area.
The smart hydroponics system of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises:

an image preprocessor configured to convert the captured image into a gray scale; and

an extractor configured to extract the plant image by inputting the converted captured image into a classifying model that is learned as a first learning image including the plant.
The smart hydroponics system of claim 1, further comprising:

a location information collector configured to collect location information of the first space in which the plant grows; and

a weather information collector configured to collect weather information at a location at which the system is installed from a server of the Korea Meteorological Administration according to the location information,

wherein the environmental condition setter comprises:

an air adjuster; and

a humidity adjuster,

wherein the air adjuster comprises a circulation fan configured to exchange air in the first space in which the plant grows with outside air, and

the humidity adjuster comprises:

a humidifier configured to discharge vapor into the first space so as to raise humidity;

a cooling fan configured to circulate the discharged vapor; and

a dehumidifier configured to lower humidity of the first space, and

the controller controls the air adjuster and the humidity adjuster according to the weather information.
The smart hydroponics system of claim 6, wherein the controller compares a temperature and a humidity included in the weather information with a target temperature and a target humidity and turns off the air adjuster and the humidity adjuster when the temperature and the humidity included in the weather information fall within reference ranges thereof.
The smart hydroponics system of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises at least one of a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a CO sensor, a barometric pressure sensor, a light adjusting sensor, a PH sensor, an EC (electrical conductivity) sensor, and a DO (dissolved oxygen) sensor.