Development of Greenhouse Monitoring using Wireless Sensor Network through ZigBee Technology

Greenhouses are often used for growing flowers, vegetables, fruits, and tobacco plants. Most greenhouse systems still use the manual system in monitoring the temperature and humidity in the greenhouse, a lot of problems can occur not for worker but also affected production rate because the temperature and humidity of the greenhouse must be constantly monitored to ensure optimal conditions. The Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) can be used to gather the data from point to point to trace down the local climate parameters in different parts of the big greenhouse to make the greenhouse automation system work properly. This paper presents the design of low cost greenhouse monitoring system to monitor a greenhouse temperature and humidity parameters by applying the ZigBee technology as the WSN system. During the design process, Peripheral Interface Controller (PIC), LCD Display and Zigbee as the main hardware components is used as hardware components while C compiler and MP Lab IDE were used for software elements. The data from the greenhouse was measured by the sensor then the data will be displayed on the LCD screen on the receiver which support up to 100 m range. By using this system, the process of monitoring is easier and it also cheaper for installation and maintenance. The feasibility of the developed node was tested by deploying a simple sensor network into the Agriculture Department of Melaka Tengah greenhouse in Malaysia.