Team:NCKU Tainan/Hardware

Hardware

One of the important problems for fish-farmers is the manpower needed while controlling water quality, and another is that the commercial device are too expensive for fish-farmers to afford. Therefore, we build our own devices. One is sensing boat which provides an affordable approach to nitrate sensing, and the other is regulation box which is able to do regulation. We hope to turn traditional aquaculture into a sustainable industry with technology.

Accomplishment

  1. Built and characterized two functional and affordable prototypes for respectively sensing the concentration of Nitrate and doing regulation of it.

  2. Created an instructional video, a manual and lists of materials.

  3. Implemented Bio-Safety to our devices.

  4. Integrated with modeling.

Introduction

Nitrate, one of the most important nutrition for aquatics, but too much nitrate cause eutrophication. The goal of our project is to solve an important problem for fish-farmers, manpower while controlling water quality, by IoT. Therefore, we build 2 devices, a sensing boat and a regulation box.

Motivation

After having a visit to Center of Shrimp Disease Control and Genetic Improvement, and meetups with fish-farmers, we found that there was still space for improvement in aquaculture in Taiwan. One of the important problems is the manpower needed while controlling water quality, and another is that the commercial device are too expensive for fish-farmers to afford.

As a result, we build our own devices, which are able to reduce the workload for fish-farmers, to provide an affordable approach to both Nitrate sensing and regulation, and to collect immediate detailed information of the environment for users. We hope to turn traditional aquaculture into a whole new industry connected with hi-tech.

Measuring Principle

We use 450nm laser to excite our genetically modified E. coli. After that,E. coli will emit 510nm green light to our optical sensor. Then,by analyzing different fluorescence intensity. We can get accurate concentration value of nitrate in the water.

Device Design

Sensing Boat (How to build a boat)

The structure of sensing device contains 4 parts.

  1. Sample Collection


    2. We constructed a multiple sensing boat to collect fundamental infomation of water in the fish pond. It’s a woody boat with three sensors and two solenoid valve. Firstly the water will enter the boat and flow through two solenoid valves. With the specific controlling, we can gather quantitative water for nitrate sensing. Then,the sample of water will react with our E. coli in a tube fixed in a light absorber.

  2. Detection

    3. We use a pH meter and a thermometer to detect some date. Also, we use 450nm laser to excite our E. coli. As you can see the picture below, there are a light sensor, a detecting box and a light source placed from left to right. Then, E. coli will emit 510nm green light and the green light will be received by light sensor. By analyzing different fluorescence intensity. We will get concentration value of nitrate in the water.


  3. Processing


    4. The signal then is sent to the processor. We chose Arduino as the processor, because Arduino is an open-source prototyping platform featuring as easy-to-use hardware and software. We coded our Arduino to initialize our detection, to filter our input signal and to measure the result kinetically.

  4. Transmission


    5. We change digital data to analog. Then combine all the data sensing boat got to a single string and transmit the data via 2.4G radio from boat to remoter. The remoter would send the to our sever. To send data immediately, we choose to use get request which is much faster than post request. And the user can use their mobile app to get the latest data. The mobile app follows the same path our boat did. It can show the data in chart or even the location of the boat.

  5. Verification


    6. We collected the electrical signals from our device and the fluorescent signals from M2 in pairs. And we assumed that the increase in electrical signals is positive correlated to the increase in fluorescent signals. Since the increase in electrical signals did not follow a normal distribution, we use Spearman rank correlation coefficient to test their relationship.

    Xi=The increase in electrical signals; Yi=The increase in fluorescent signals
    Null hypothesis: X and Y are independent
    Alternative hypothesis: X and Y have a position correlation
    α = 0.01
    r s = 0.5272024
    For N = 32 and α = 0.01, the critical value of rs is 0.412.

    Since rs = 0.5272024 > 0.412 , we reject null hypothesis and conclude that the increase in electrical signals and the increase in fluorescent signals have a position correlation at a significant level = 0.01.
    It can prove the data which our device senses and the data which M2 senses are positive correlation.

Regulation Box

The structure of regulation box contains 2 parts.

  1. Boat’s Notifying


    2. Nitrate, is one of the most important nutrition for aquatics, but too much nitrate will cause severe problems. So, we create a purifier that can take action immediately, if our sensing boat notify us a high nitrate concentration level. That is our regulation box. Originally, fish farmers would change water frequently to keep nitrate concentration low enough for aquatics to live when facing nitrate excess problem. However, our regulation box will prevent this situation. First, sensing boat will send data to server. Then, our App can get information after data analyzed by server. Moreover, it can notify users and they can push some bottoms sending signal to regulation box.

  2. Processing


    3. When receiving the signal, regulation box will start to work. To achieve our goal, purifying water, the regulation box need to consist of some elements, that is water input hole, output hole, “motor and filter system” and replaceable grooves. When regulation box starting to work, it pumps water into the box by motor system. Then, water flows through filter system for physical water cleaning and goes into grooves to do biological transformation. Consequently, clean water appears and the whole aqua system can stay healthy.

Materials

Sensing Device

  • Arduino Mega
  • Batteries
  • MediaTek LinkIt One
  • pH meter
  • Thermometer
  • Light Sensor
  • Shaft
  • Relay
  • DC Brush Motor
  • Servo Motor
  • Rudder
  • Propeller
  • Wood
  • Nuts and Screw
  • Electromagnetic Valve
  • Jump Wires
  • Tube
  • 4.7k Resistor
  • Clay
  • Breadboard
  • Seal Tape

Regulation Device

  • Sink
  • Filters
  • Motors
  • Power Supply
  • Grooves
  • Tubes