3/13/23, 12:24 PM Applications of IoT for optimized greenhouse environment and resources management - ScienceDirect

Computers and Electronics in Agriculture

Volume 198, July 2022, 106993

Applications of IoT for optimized greenhouse environment and

resources management
C. Maraveas a , D. Piromalis b, K.G. Arvanitis c, T. Bartzanas a, D. Loukatos c

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Abstract

The role of Internet-of-Things (IoT) in precision agriculture and smart greenhouses has been reinforced by
recent R&D projects, growing commercialization of IoT infrastructure, and related technologies such as
satellites, artificial intellige nce, sensors, actuators, uncrewed aerial vehicles, big data analytics, intelligent
machines, and radio-frequency identification devices. Even though the integration of intelligent
technologies offers unlimited potential in precision commercial agriculture, optimal resource management
remains a challenge considering that IoT infrastructure is unevenly distributed across the world and
concentrated in high-income countries. The utilization of IoT technologies in smart greenhouses often
involves a tradeoff between the cost of agricultural production, environmental conservation, ecological
degradation, and sustainability. The installation of IoT infrastructure is capital-intensive and often translates
to higher energy demand, that elevates the risk for climate change. The widespread use of IoT sensors and
networks also increases new challenges in the management of electronic waste, depletion of finite
resources, and destruction of fragile ecosystems, resulting in climate change. the integration of IoT systems
in greenhouses would be augmented by the global deployment of advanced 5G technology and Low-Earth
Orbit (LEO) constellation broadband internet with low latency and high speeds. Intelligent application of
agrochemicals could yield significant savings ($500/acre or more), while need-based irrigation and fertilizer
application would help improve crop yields. Globally, the deployment of IoT infrastructure would yield
about $500 billion of added value to the GDP by 2030. The forecasted economic benefits affirm that the
applications of IoT for optimized greenhouse environment and resources management were sustainable,
and any potential risks are incomparable to the long-term benefits in commercial agriculture. The review
article contributes new insights on the role of IoT in agriculture 4.0, the challenges, and future prospects for
developing nations, which lacked the resources to invest in precision agriculture technologies.

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Introduction

An optimized environment is defined by the availability of smart systems for autonomous analysis of water,
temperature, humidity, and soil pH among other parameters. The replacement of human labor with
computers is justified, given it translated to tangible cost-savings for commercial farms and better yields
(Rojas, 2015). The following are the primary options for achieving higher cost savings. One, historical
predictive analytics data about markets and weather can be sourced from resesarch institutions (Ferkoun,
2015). However, modern IoT systems have context-specific applications, which require careful identification
of sensors and settings, timely data acquisition and optimization, and rule-based control (Popović et al.,
2017, Khudoyberdiev, Ullah et al., 2021). A key challenge was the transition from the traditional mechanical
modes of farming to intelligent farming, given the resources required to achieve AI optimization.

IoT infrastructure and data-driven decision support systems offer a practical means to reduce the extra
pesticide costs, given plants grown under greenhouses are less susceptible to pests compared to those
grown in the open field (European Parliament, 2021). In addition, the regulation of the internal microclimate
eliminates the risk of frost infestation and blight attributed to temperature and humidity fluctuations. The
net effect is optimal production and better yields (Khavalko, Baranovska, and Geliznyak, 2019). The weather
and demographic-related disruptions of agricultural systems provide compelling grounds for the
sustainable use of IoT systems.

Pilot studies on the use of IoT in agriculture are promising. Zamora-Izquierdo et al. (2018) developed an IoT
system based on edge and cloud computing that could regulate the greenhouse microclimate using
overhead motorized windows for better ventilation. A thermal-shade screen system was installed on the
roof for better energy saving. The system was operated autonomously using an electro-mechanical traction
system. Excess heat was removed from the greenhouse structures using air fog and air cooling systems that
cool the greenhouse structures through water evaporation, air compression, and humification (Zamora-
Izquierdo et al., 2018). The state of the art literature presented by Mavrakis et al., 2015, Liu et al., 2017, Pack
and Mehta, 2012, and Zamora-Izquierdo et al. (2018) affirmed there were various iterations of IoT systems in
modern greenhouses and open field agriculture. The present discourse focused on the four priority areas of
application for IoT, namely green hardware such as sensors, ultra low-power microcontrollers (Piromalis and
Arvanitis (2016)) green software (event prediction, data classification, data delivery, and big data analytics),
green communication infrastructure (future internet −5G/LEO constellation; Bluetooth, RFID, Ad hoc and
ZigBee), and green architecture in the cloud (Friha et al., 2021). The four-point focus was validated by the
immense benefits that would accrue from the adoption of IoT infrastructure in greenhouses (Varjovi and
Babaie, 2020). The integration of IoT in other domains apart from agriculture offers unique opportunities for
value creation (Bilbao-Osorio et al., 2014). A key constraint is the low pace of IoT technology
commercialization and future uncertainties about technology growth returns on investments and hype
surrounding new innovations (Government Office for Science, 2014). Despite the concerns, emerging
research shows there were satisfactory economic returns associated with intelligent technologies.

Intelligent design for precision farming resulted in 25% savings in irrigation costs in wheat farms (Antony et
al., 2020). In addition, judicious use of fertilizers resulted in better yields (Khudoyberdiev, Ullah and Kim,
2021). Other reports presented by Rayhana, Xiao, and Liu (2020) showed that agricultural production
improved by 12%. A key constraint moving forward was the inadequate adaptability of precision and IoT
agriculture systems to semi-arid regions and hot climatic conditions (Zamora-Izquierdo et al., 2018;
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Ghoulem et al., 2020). Nonetheless, the long-term benefits validated the need for smart and intelligent
agriculture.

In farm environments, optimal resource management is characterized by better irrigation supervision,

pesticide control, water quality analysis, and fertilizer control (Jawad et al., 2017). Past scholarly research has
desmonstrated that better resource management translated to significant cost savings. IoT connectivity with
LoRaWAN and other suitable networks in the open field and greenhouse farming would result to significant
cost savings, better resource use and optimization, reduced cost of production by eliminating unnecessary
human interventions (Madushanki et al., 2019, Villa-Henriksen et al., 2020), which would translate to lower
prices for consumers. The focus on cost savings was reinforced by climate change and global warming-
related farming losses, desertification (Lal, 2001, Sivakumar, 2007), and depletion of agricultural land as a
result of rapid urbanization (Mavrakis et al., 2015, Liu et al., 2017). The Environmental Protection (2020)
noted that US farmers would spend $11 billion more on pesticides due to climate. The global costs are
unquantifiable in light of emerging issues concerning eco-toxicity, adverse effects on human health, and
long-term efficacy (European Parliament, 2021). The projected increase in the cost of production would
strain the already existing fragile agricultural infrastructure, given the global population was projected to
surpass 11 billion by 2100 (Friha et al., 2021). The precision agriculture market is projected to record 15%
annual growth in the short-term and exceed $12 billion in valuation by 2025 and increase (Bersani et al.,
2020); this might translate to higher energy demand and climate change, given commercial power
production has a higher carbon footprint.

The widespread growth of IoT systems in agriculture has been augmented by emerging technologies such as
fiber-optics, 4G/5G, low-earth orbit (LEO) constellation, and sensors (Tzounis et al., 2017) (multi-wavelength
laser-diode photodiode, graphene-based sensors, Bragg, piezoelectric, electrochemical, electromagnetic
sensors and RNA sensors), RFID, Al, and machine learning (Symeonaki, Arvanitis and Piromalis, 2019). RFID
and Bluetooth connectivity are ideal for short-range device-to-device connectivity, while LEO constellations
offer global coverage with reduced latency (Starlink. , 2020, OneWeb., 2021); this eliminates the constraints
associated with unequal global internet connectivity. Additional benefits would be provided by the global
rollout of WiFi 6 and 5G connectivity, which will help improve internet speed and device density while
overlaying on the existing 4G infrastructure (Goedde et al., 2020). The potential benefits linked to these
technologies would provide massive IoT, characterized by the scaling up of IoT and application of precision
agriculture in field crops, tracking of machinery, and the performance of remote structures (Achour et al.,
2021, Jamil, et al., 2022). The massive IoT would facilitate the use of technology in mission-critical services
such as the operation of machinery and drones, among other applications that would require stable real-
time connections and improved stability (Goedde et al., 2020). Beyond the connectivity requirements,
massive IoT deployment requires the availability of low-cost sensors with higher functionality for
monitoring light/imaging, acoustics, vibrations, weather and temperature, water flow, capacitance, and
gases (Cisco and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 2015). Apart from the temperature
monitoring systems (Peña, Peralta and Mar 2020), illuminance, ground, multimedia, climate, radiationand
tag sensors, and decision support systems were needed. Presently, there are no low-cost sensors that offer
higher functionalities.

At present, the adoption of IoT systems in agriculture is primarily driven by the need to reduce the cost of
agricultural production; however, there has been a lesser emphasis on environmental conservation,

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ecological degradation, and sustainability (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations., 2017,
Goedde et al., 2020). From a resource use perspective, LEO constellation, WiFi 6, 5G would facilitate the
rollout of massive IoT and data-driven decision support systems to support autonomous functions and
precision agriculture (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations., 2017, Goedde et al., 2020,
Lehr et al., 2021). However, market data suggests that WiFi connectivity would be less suitable for IoT
infrastructure in outdoor environments. Spitfire Technology Group – an industry leader in the provision of
IoT connectivity infrastructure in the UK, established that the technology was less appropriate for extreme
environment scenarios, places with intermittent power/insufficient power infrastructure, and real-time
communication with mobile devices (Spitfire, 2021); this means that IoT connectivity should be confined to
selected low-bandwidth networks such as LoRaWAN, with long-range, low power, low-maintenance
requirements. Selected resources for smart/intelligent greenhouses were presented under Table 1.

The transition to agriculture 4.0 and 5.0 was augmented by the adoption of smart agriculture, AI, big data,
UAVs, and IoT in farming (Saiz-rubio, 2020). Additionally, agriculture 4.0 is indispensable to closed-loop
control of precision farming (Katamreddy et al., 2019), and efficient use of farming resources (Madushanki et
al., 2019). The efficient utilization of energy and water resources in optimized greenhouse environments is
vital to the sustainability of smart farming (Popović et al., 2017, Syafarinda et al., 2018, Raviteja and Supriya,
2020, Ruan et al., 2020, Friha et al., 2021, Placidi et al., 2021) and the actualization of global sustainable
development goals (Cisco and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 2015). The transition from
Agriculture 3.0 to Agriculture 4.0 commenced in 2017 and represents one of the most ambitious
technological innovations in the agricultural sector, given that it encompasses the integration of big data
analytics, uncrewed aerial surveillance vehicles (Jumaah et al., 2021), the internet of things, and artificial
intelligence and machine learning (Friha et al., 2021) (see Fig. 1).

The transition has been catalyzed by severe weather events linked to global warming and climate change
(Environmental Protection, 2020) and the need for better efficiency and sustainable practices in agriculture
to optimize the food supply chains (Sinha, Shrivastava, and Kumar, 2019), and improve traceability. The role
of IoT in facilitating agricultural traceability was demonstrated following the outbreak of the African swine
flu in China (He and Shi, 2021). However, the unlocking of the maximum benefits would be dependent on
the extent to which advanced technologies are integrated into the agricultural sector. The review purposed
to build upon existing research by critiquing different narratives on energy, water, and e-waste resource
management, optimized environmental challenges, IoT protocols, and digital transformation.

Section snippets

Standardization of IoT platforms

Despite the adoption of IoT platforms (O'Grady et al., 2019), growth and ownership remained a challenge.
Considering that different regions and countries have different technological competencies and challenges,
global agriculture 4.0 has been characterized by various iterations. For example, 84% of Canadian farmers
have integrated at least one type of precision agriculture technology such as GPS. Most farmers intend to
adopt IoT technologies in the future (Sinha, Shrivastava, and Kumar, 2019). …

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IoT protocols

New advances in technology have led to the development of multiple IoT protocols, including ZigBee, REST,
MQTT, LPWAN, LoRaWAN, Data-Distribution Service (DDS) (Zu et al., 2016, Murugesan et al., 2017),
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), Z-wave, and IPv6 (Badenhop et al., 2017, Tournier et al.,
2021). Each protocol has context-specific applications. For example, highly efficient σcommunication
protocols such as MQTT Protocol (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) (da Cruz et al., …

Industry 4.0 core technologies

Research and development have contributed to emerging innovations in ICTs, which would have direct
positive benefits on commercial production and the future of precision agriculture (Dachyar et al., 2019,
Singh et al., 2020, Friha et al., 2021). The technologies that would have the most notable impact include CPS,
WSN (Bravo-arrabal et al., 2021), big data, Machine to Machine (M2M) (Chen et al., 2012, Wan et al., 2013),
Human to Machine (H2M), LoRa Protocol (LoRaWAN) (Compte, 2019, Sendra et…

Conclusion

The rigorous appraisal of scholarly research concerning IoT in agriculture demonstrated that emerging
technologies such as artificial intelligence sensors, actuators, uncrewed aerial vehicles, satellites, big data
analytics, intelligent machines, and radio-frequency identification devices had multiple and practical areas
of application in smart greenhouses and precision agriculture. Theoretical evidence shows the progress
made in research and development coupled with would catalyze the uptake…

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that
could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.…

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