Design and validation of a low cost programmable controlled environment for study and production of plants, mushroom, and insect larvae

TL;DR

This paper presents a low-cost, modular, programmable controlled environment system for studying biomass growth in plants, fungi, and insect larvae, enabling detailed quantitative analysis of environmental influences.

Contribution

It introduces a novel modular design with integrated sensors, actuators, and a hierarchical software framework for customizable biological growth experiments.

Findings

Studied photosynthesis dependence on temperature and light in basil.

Quantified metabolic activity evolution in Hermetia illucens larvae.

Validated system capabilities through multiple biological experiments.

Abstract

Use of commercial growth chambers for study of biological processes involved in biomass growth and production pose certain limitations on the nature of studies that can be performed in them. Optimization of biomass rearing and production process requires quantitative study of environment influences on the organism and eventually the products and byproducts consumed and produced. This work presents a low cost modular system designed to facilitate quantitative study of growth processes and resource exchanges in organisms such as plants, fungi and insect larvae. The proposed system constitutes of modular units each performing a specific function. A novel compact thermoelectric cooler based unit is designed for conditioning the air. Sensor cluster for measuring gas concentrations, air properties (temperature, humidity, pressure), and growing medium properties is implemented and tested. An actuator cluster for resource exchange and a wiring and control scheme for light spectrum adjustment is proposed. A three tier hierarchical software framework consisting of an open-source cloud platform for data aggregation and user interaction, embedded firmware for microcontroller, and an application development framework for test automation and experiment regime design is developed and presented. A series of experiments and tests were performed using the designed hardware and software to evaluate its capabilities and limitations. This controlled environment was used to study the photosynthesis and its dependency on temperature and light intensity in Ocimum basilicum. In a second experiment, evolution of metabolic activity of Hermetia illucens larvae over its larval phase was studied and the metabolic products and byproducts were quantitatively measured.