Both Foundation University and St Paul's University Dumaguete are experimenting with mushroom farming. They have cultures growing mushrooms on their campuses and are interested into turning those into products that can be given or sold to small scale farmers that can gain extra income from them with little work. Both universities are interested in jointly developing a "smart" setup where basic variables for a healthy mushroom farm, like temperature and humidity, are monitored and based on this devices will be controlled to take action if needed.
The goal of this project is to design and develop the first prototype for this smart mushroom farm. It will consist of researching requirements for the smart farm setup by talking to the users implementing the mushroom farm now. Based on those requirements, you will design your own solution, concerning both hardware and software. Next you will develop the first prototype of your design. Lastly you will implement your prototype in a test location and test it there and based on the evaluation, suggest future improvements. Finally you will present your findings to interested parties in both universities.
Tasks
- Investigate the requirements for a successful smart mushroom farm. Relevant topics are:
- The parameters to measure for a successful mushroom farm
- Interventions to take based on those parameters and the possibility/desirability of automating these
- Required interfaces for the farmers to interact with the system
- Research what sensors and actuators can be used to measure the parameters and automate the management interventions
- Design the relevant backend and interfaces for an automated mushroom farm
- Develop a first prototype of the smart mushroom farm
- Implement the prototype in one or two farms in a university
- Test and evaluate the prototype
- Report on and present your findings and write recommendations for future improvements