Kusuma et al. (2025) TerraGrow: Integrated platform for real time plant monitoring and automated watering system with IoT and fuzzy Sugeno Algorithm

Identification

• Journal: HardwareX
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-24
• Authors: Prima Wijaya Kusuma, Galang P. N. Hakim, Bin Li
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ohx.2025.e00724

Research Groups

• Beijing Institute of Technology, China
• Universitas Mercu Buana, Indonesia

Short Summary

TerraGrow is an open-source, low-cost IoT platform for automated precision irrigation that integrates multi-sensor data (soil moisture, pH, air temperature, humidity) with a local Sugeno-type fuzzy controller on an ESP32, demonstrating stable moisture regulation and reduced unnecessary watering in bench and greenhouse tests.

Objective

• To develop an open-source, low-cost, and easy-to-deploy integrated platform for real-time plant monitoring and automated watering, addressing global water scarcity and making precision irrigation accessible to resource-constrained growers.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Small-scale, localized setups including bench tests with pots and reservoirs, and small greenhouse environments.
• Temporal Scale: Continuous real-time monitoring and control; validation tests performed over short durations (e.g., single irrigation cycles, incremental additions for pH). Sensor readings are sampled every few seconds (moisture every 5 s, temperature/humidity every 10 s, pH every 15 s).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Sugeno-type fuzzy controller (Sugeno FIS) for closed-loop irrigation decisions.
• Data sources:
  • Real-time soil moisture (three resistive electrode pairs).
  • Real-time air temperature and relative humidity (DHT11 sensor).
  • Real-time soil pH (aluminum electrode pair).
  • Blynk mobile dashboard for telemetry visualization and manual override.

Main Results

• The system achieved stable soil moisture regulation, maintaining moisture levels within a defined 60–80 % target band during greenhouse and pot-soil tests.
• Soil moisture sensing demonstrated a strong inverse linear correlation (R² ≈ 0.994, r ≈ -0.997) between ADC values and moisture percentage, with a 100-code ADC drop corresponding to approximately a 9.8 % increase in moisture.
• Air temperature and relative humidity measurements from the DHT11 sensor showed high agreement with a reference sensor (HTC-2), with small mean offsets of +0.95 °C for temperature and +1.47 % for relative humidity, and strong correlations (r ≈ 0.969 for temperature, r ≈ 0.9999 for relative humidity).
• Soil pH sensing exhibited a stable linear response to acid/alkali additions (R² ≈ 0.978 for pH vs. ADC), accurately covering a range of pH 3.5–10.0 after buffer calibration.
• The Sugeno fuzzy controller consistently produced appropriate relay actions (On, Off, Mid) based on various environmental scenarios, with a mean actuation latency of 4.2 seconds.
• The integration of microclimate inputs (temperature and humidity) into the fuzzy logic enabled finer actuation, reducing superfluous irrigation and enhancing water-use efficiency.

Contributions

• Development of TerraGrow, an open-source, low-cost, and modular IoT platform for automated precision irrigation, specifically designed for easy deployment and service by non-experts.
• Integration of fully local multi-sensor fuzzy control (Sugeno-type) on a single ESP32 microcontroller, utilizing real-time soil moisture (multi-point), pH, air temperature, and relative humidity inputs.
• Demonstrated quantitative control accuracy by maintaining soil moisture within a defined 60–80 % target band, a significant improvement over basic on/off systems.
• Enhanced irrigation efficiency by incorporating microclimate data (temperature and humidity) into fuzzy logic, leading to reduced unnecessary watering.
• Provision of complete and reproducible hardware design files, firmware, and documentation, fostering accessibility and adaptability for resource-constrained growers.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Citation

@article{Kusuma2025TerraGrow,
  author = {Kusuma, Prima Wijaya and Hakim, Galang P. N. and Li, Bin},
  title = {TerraGrow: Integrated platform for real time plant monitoring and automated watering system with IoT and fuzzy Sugeno Algorithm},
  journal = {HardwareX},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.ohx.2025.e00724},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2025.e00724}
}