Implementation of 6LoWPAN and Controller Area Network for a Smart Hydroponics System

Hydroponics is the practice of growing plants and crops in soilless culture. It is becoming more prevalent nowadays because of decreasing available land due to urbanization, and the various advantages it has as compared to soil-based farming. To study and optimize the various factors that affect plant growth in hydroponics set-ups (such as ambient temperature, light intensity, humidity, etc.), a hybrid sensor network system, with both wireless (6LoWPAN) and wired (CAN Bus) components, was proposed. The proposed system was then implemented using off-the-shelf devices such as the CC2650 MCU, MSP432 launchpad, Digilent PMOD CAN, and the Raspberry Pi 2. The total number of 6LoWPAN nodes in the intended application setup was shown to be reduced by 87.26% compared to fully-wireless setup. The system was shown to be functional and the packet drop rate when time interval between messages is 800ms drops to almost 0%. An initial design for the visualization of the web application was also presented.