Internet of things based farm greenhouse monitor and alarm management system

• US 8,643,495 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2012
• Issued: 02/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zehua Lan
• Original Assignee: Zehua Lan
• Inventors: Lan, Zehua, Ma, Lixia
• Primary Examiner(s): Previl, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US13/343,751
• Publication Number:
  US 20130093592A1
• Time in Patent Office: 761 Days
• Field of Search: 340/602, 340/584, 340/601, 340/12.1, 340/12.15, 340/12.22, 340/531, 340/517, 340/521
• US Class Current: 340/602
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 25/167 Control by humidity of the soil itself or of devices simulating soil or of the atmosphere; Soil humidity sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 9/24 Devices or systems for heating, ventilating, regulating temperature , illuminating, or watering, in greenhouses, forcing-frames, or the like
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 40/25 Greenhouse technology, e.g. cooling systems therefor

Abstract

A farm greenhouse monitor and alarm management system based on the Internet of things with real-time monitoring environmental parameters, which is aimed at monitoring and managing the growth of crops in the farm greenhouse, includes mobile inspection devices, data acquisition units, data receiving devices, REID devices and data storage servers. The system can automatically collect greenhouse environmental parameters such as air temperature, air humidity, illumination, soil temperature and soil moisture, etc. and also can automatically judge the critical value of every parameter and alarm. It utilizes ZigBee chip integrated wireless sensors and data collecting modules. This system provides inspection devices, which lowers the requirements for practitioners and reduces the cost of automatic management of the farm greenhouse.

Claims

1. A farm greenhouse monitor and alarm management system based on an Internet of things comprising:

a data collecting unit including air temperature and humidity sensors, illumination sensors and soil parameters sensors placed in greenhouses and collecting data of environmental parameters;

a mobile inspection device including data receiving units, tag reading modules, storage units, data processing units, data communicating modules, I/O modules, and a power supply, with the mobile inspection device reading an electronic tag attached to tag devices in the greenhouses to identify a unique greenhouse and get the data of environmental parameters through wireless networks, with the data of environmental parameters saved to judge whether to alarm and alarming once conditions are met, with the mobile inspection device alarming users, with all of the data of environmental parameters in the mobile inspection device uploaded to data storage servers through the Internet to be accessed by the users;

wherein the data collecting unit transports the data of environmental parameters to data receiving devices through wireless networks;

wherein the data receiving devices placed in the greenhouses receive or transfer the data of environmental parameters from the data collecting unit through the wireless networks or serial ports;

wherein the tag devices are placed in the greenhouses and identify the unique greenhouse, with the tag reading modules of the mobile inspection device reading information from the unique greenhouse;

wherein the data storage servers store the data of environmental parameters and provide the users an interface to access the data of environmental parameters, with the users enabled to monitor the environment in which the crops live or manage the system after logging in through the interface.

2. The farm greenhouse monitor and alarm management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mobile inspection device includes the tag reading modules automatically collecting the data from the tag devices in the unique greenhouse alongside an incepting route to identify the unique greenhouse, wherein the data receiving units send requests to the data receiving device in the unique greenhouse asking for the data of environmental parameters and transfers the data of environmental parameters to the data processing units, wherein the storage units save the data of environmental parameters from the data processing units, wherein the data processing units analyze the data of environmental parameters received and judges whether to alarm and alarms the users when alarming conditions are met, wherein the data communicating modules communicate with outside, with the data processing units sending all kinds of information to the data communicating modules regularly and uploading the data of environmental parameters to the data storage servers, wherein the I/O modules get users'"'"' input signals to perform operations and to show an interactive graphical interface, wherein the power supply entirely powers the mobile inspection device.

3. The farm greenhouse monitor and alarm management system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a wireless communication between the data collecting unit and the data receiving devices in the greenhouses.

4. The farm greenhouse monitor and alarm management system as claimed in claim 1 further including a terminal device processing the data of environmental parameters coming from the data receiving devices and judging whether a current environment is suitable for crops and playing a song to alarm when the current environment is suitable for crops

5. The farm greenhouse monitor and alarm management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data collecting unit includes distributed soil sensors.

6. A farm greenhouse monitor and alarm management system based on an Internet of things comprising:

a data collecting unit including air temperature and humidity sensors, illumination sensors and soil parameters sensors placed in the greenhouses collecting data of environmental parameters; and

fixed devices adapted to be placed in a control room, wherein the fixed devices include data receiving devices, a data processing device, storage units, data communication modules, and I/O modules, wherein the fixed devices process the data of environmental parameters collected from the data receiving devices and judge whether alarm conditions are met according to requirements of crops planted and alarm inspection practitioners when the requirements are met, wherein the data collection unit transports the data of environmental parameters to the data receiving devices through wireless networks, wherein the data of environmental parameters includes data of soil temperature and humidity and air temperature and humidity;

wherein the data receiving devices receive or transfer the data of soil temperature and humidity and air temperature and humidity collected from the data collecting unit, with the data of soil temperature and humidity and air temperature and humidity transferred to the data processing device by serial ports, through which the data receiving devices are connected with the data processing device.

7. The farm greenhouse monitor and alarm management system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the fixed devices read tag information from tag devices inside the greenhouses to identify a unique greenhouse and connect to the data processing device through mobile communication networks TD-SCDMA to query greenhouse'"'"'s information, with the information collected as a form of a voice broadcast provided to the inspection practitioners.

8. The farm greenhouse monitor and alarm management system as claimed in claim 6 further comprising a router, with the router and the data receiving devices connected by Ethernet, with a local area network established by the router, with the data processing device getting the data of environmental parameters through the router.

9. The farm greenhouse monitor and alarm management system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the data receiving devices include a serial port communication therebetween.

10. The farm greenhouse monitor and alarm management system as claimed in claim 6 further including a real-time monitor unit placed inside the greenhouses, wherein the real-time monitor unit is a timing single chip micyoco with responsibilities to monitor the data of environmental parameters in real-time, wherein the real-time monitor unit gets the data of environmental parameters from the data collecting unit and judges whether alarm conditions are met and sends boot alarm signals to the data processing device in a form of a control host through serial cables when the alarm conditions are met, wherein the control host is normally turned off and turned on to boot the control host to show alarm messages and alarm the inspection practitioners in a pre-set way when the boot alarm signals from the real-time-monitor unit arrives, wherein the control host and the real-time-monitor unit are connected by serial ports or to a USB port.