# The Impact of Cloud Versus Local Infrastructure on Automatic IoT-Driven Hydroponic Systems
## 2 Materials and Methods
### Prototype Infrastructure  
The system, as illustrated in Figure 1, comprises a pipe serving as a reservoir for the nutrient solution, a PVC channel for supplying the reservoir with the nutrient solution, a hydraulic ram pump, and a monitoring system equipped with sensors. The plant chosen for conducting the tests was _Lactuca sativa_ L. (green lettuce). For these tests, this type of plant was used due to its rapid growth cycle. Practically, this plant generates experimental results in the shortest time. This work will be followed by further research, including a comparative analysis of the degree of development of various species in a hydroponic system, as well as a study on the growth of a specific class of species in a mixed hydroponic system. The authors declare that at the time of writing this material, they are monitoring and acquiring data for several species.  
The element responsible for monitoring the solution is the M5 Stack module. It has the following components connected:  
* A liquid temperature sensor (DS18B20) for measuring the temperature of the nutrient solution;
* An electrical conductivity sensor (EC-5 Atlas Scientific) for determining the concentration of nutrients;
* A liquid level sensor (SEN18) for monitoring the amount of available nutrient solution;
* An environmental temperature and humidity monitoring sensor (DHT22).  
Figure 1: Conceptual prototype of the hydroponic drip system.  
The data are collected at one-hour intervals, as the monitoring process exhibits minimal variability. The data is transmitted to a cloud database stored in Azure, which is made possible by the Wi-Fi element integrated into the MSStack module.  
The novel element introduced in this study focuses on integrating a hydroponic system into an Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure. This is necessary for Industry 5.0 for the following reasons:  
* The growth of the population and the standard of living leads to an increase in food consumption, especially in urban agglomerated areas. In this context, traditional agriculture no longer represents a solution. For this reason, the integration of plant growing systems under non-traditional conditions becomes an acute necessity;
* Hydroponic systems require careful monitoring of nutrients, as they lack soil and are grown in environments that are generally not conducive to plant development;
* This type of plant cultivation requires reduced costs for plant maintenance, human resources, and the raw materials used, such as water, nutrients, and energy consumption. This is necessary because hydroponic agriculture must have lower production costs than traditional agriculture to be viable.  
Therefore, Industry 5.0 explicitly directs the integration of hydroponic systems into an IoT infrastructure that allows for the monitoring and automation of the plant-growing process in urban environments [39].  
In contrast to conventional agriculture, hydroponic agriculture is based on growing plants without soil. The advantages of this system include water savings, better control over nutrients, the ability to produce in atypical environments, without influence of bad weather conditions, and higher yields per unit of surface area. However, the major disadvantage of this approach lies in the need for constant monitoring of the environment in which these plants are grown. Therefore, the prototype proposed in Figure 1 aims to continuously monitor parameters such as water temperature, EC, solution level in the tank, and ambient temperature and humidity and adjust the nutrient concentration of the solution for the plants. Automating the entire process implies minimal human intervention, increasing production profitability.