Vertical Farming

As the climate changes, it becomes increasingly important to find sustainable ways to grow food. Vertical farming is a method of growing crops in vertically stacked layers, often using controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) technology. This project explores the design and implementation of a vertical farming system that can be used in urban environments, allowing for fresh produce to be grown at home, reducing the need for transportation.

In this project, we successfully built a compact stack of hydroponic boxes that can grow a variety of crops. Each box contains LECA (Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate) balls, to contain the roots and provide a medium for the plants to grow in. The system is designed to be modular, allowing easy stacking of multiple boxes.

The system is controlled by an Arduino host controller, which manages the water pump, LED lights and sensors to monitor the environment. Each box contains the same sensor stack module, multiplexed via the I2C standard - allowing the Arduino to control N number of boxes.