System Design Document

I'm building toward the following:

Modules with grow light strips, solenoid valves, docks.
Design finished, construction will start soon.
Communication between Modules, Controllers, and Servers.
- Communication between Modules and Controllers done, Controller-Server communication is currently in progress.
A graphical interface that shows the status of the system.
- Mockup has been made, coding is in progress.
Temperature sensors in controllers
- Work hasn't started on this.

Please see the components section for a preliminary list of components.

Information:

This is a project aiming to:

Enable growing food at sale locations (→ supermarkets, etc)
- Aims:
  Reduce pollution caused by transportation
Enable automation of growing food
- Aims:
  Permit use of analytics to maximize growing efficiency
Facilitate use of robots in plant growing process
- Aims:
  Reduce needed space
  Achieve consistent quality
Reduce wasted water by eliminating runoff problems and reducing evapotranspiration losses by means of catching runoff and dehumidifying, then filtering water and reusing it.
- Aims:
  Use & waste less water.
Accommodate plants of different sizes.
- Aims:
  Allow use of a single frame to grow different plants (especially useful in smaller commercial contexts)

In conclusion, these are the major goals I am trying to achieve.

Grow food where it's needed (at local supermarkets, etc...)
- Give customers access to fresher food
  - Improve health by reducing the cost of vegetables & fruit in general and making them a more attractive option
- Simplify growing of food in remote regions, especially those that have arid climates
Reduce the environmental impact of growing plants, especially in large scale
- Use less water
  - Stop releasing pesticides / herbicides into groundwater & nature

Other Arduino.cc Software used (GPL and/or LGPL), but also not modified by me.