According to the UN's World Population Outlook report, the world's population is expected to increase from 7.6 billion in 2017 to 9.8 billion in 2050, with an additional 75% of food needed compared to the present, but the annual food growth rate is only 1.75%. In addition, looking at the current situation where the word "food security" is emerging due to various problems such as the COVID-19 incident and international disputes, food shortages that threaten humanity's survival in the near future are feared and securing stable food has become the most important task for mankind.
Due to these changes in the environment, various types of urban agricultural activities are emerging, such as building-type plant factories that allow crop activities in high-rise buildings and eco-friendly energy sources such as solar power, wind power, geothermal power, and LEDs. The reasons why urban residents are interested in urban agriculture include various problems such as environmental problems caused by urban overcrowding, economic problems caused by frequent changes in agricultural prices caused by natural disasters, food stability, and aging. As urban residents become aware of this problem, interest in agriculture and food is increasing, and agricultural activities are emerging in various forms and types, especially in urban areas, which are the main consumption areas of agricultural products. Among them, the importance of a plant factory that combines ICT and agricultural technology, or a system called a smart farm, is being highlighted.
Smart Farm refers to a high-efficiency agricultural form that improves productivity and cost by combining network and automation technology to observe and quantify agricultural environment, systemize ICT in each field of production, distribution, and consumption, and apply it to agriculture.
Smart Farm is expanding into a high value-added industry by converging ICT with agricultural technology to increase agricultural productivity, convenience, and efficiency, and using information throughout the value chain of agriculture, processing, distribution, and consumption to improve crop quality.
Due to the improvement of the standard of living for the people, agricultural consumption patterns are changing to luxury and simplification, and demand for fresh vegetables and fruits is increasing as the food consumption structure is advanced and diversified. As agricultural production shifts from positive to quality-oriented, smart farm systems also need to be optimized for high-value-added crop cultivation.
This paper proposes a smart farm system that is optimized for the cultivation of sprout ginseng (sprout ginseng), a high value-added special crop, and can be produced in a low-cost, low-end type. Chapter 2 describes the design and construction of smart farm cultivation facilities and environmental control devices for the creation of a growth environment optimized for target crop cultivation, Chapter 3 describes the design and implementation of an integrated control system for stable operation, Chapter 4 describes the application of smart farm systems, and Chapter 5 describes the results of this paper.
In order to establish an optimal growth environment for target crops, a medium cultivation shelf for space utilization, a dedicated LED light source for nutrient supply, and a irrigation pump were built based on a standard container. Based on sensors that collect internal environmental data in real time, an integrated management system that automatically controls according to an optimal growth algorithm can efficiently maintain the optimal environment necessary for growth.
It is also advantageous to supply it to farmers by reducing initial construction costs and minimizing the cost of building growth environmental facilities. It is possible to develop an optimal smart farm suitable for production purposes by continuously experiencing field operation through empirical cultivation and collecting and analyzing growth data on target crops.