International Workshop on Computer Science in Sports (IWCSS 2013)

An Intelligent Management System for Aquacultures Environmental Monitoring

and Energy Conservation

Wen Pen Chen Luke K. Wang

Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences
Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan
[email protected] [email protected]

Tsai Ting Wang Yu Ting Chen

Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences
Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan
[email protected] [email protected]

AbstractThe objective of the proposed system is to possible that the substitution of fishery and animal
construct a highly profitable aqua-farming system, capable husbandry industries by aquaculture will come true, a
of processing the jobs of monitoring, intelligent control of substantial component in the food chain.
the Internet of thing (IoT), abnormality awareness, and A rapid increase of the ocean fishery product is almost
carbon emission reduction as well as energy conservation. impossible, associated with present fishery industry. On
While the aqua-farming environments are degraded, the the contrary, a planned/scheduled aqua-farming one
proposed system can automatically resolve the accidentally becomes dominant; therefore, the property of the 21st
incurred problems or send out a text message to the person(s) contrarys aqua-farming is undoubtedly based upon the
in charge; the reducing of the human negligence due to the
traditional evolution, innovation, and skillfulness in
past experiences as well as experiencing the risk of
uncontrollable/ unpredictable environments of the
association with marketing and environment-friendly
traditional aqua-farming ponds can be accomplished in attributes, avoiding the scarcity of the aquaculture
order to increase the survival rate and the aquaculture resources [3].
production. Fishery sustainability is the future trend of Taiwan.
Taiwanese aquaculture industry is small capital, small
Keywords-energy conservation, carbon emission, Internet scale production [4]. Observing the features of them, they
of thing, power monitoring, aquaculture industry, power are basically family-based business, and their skills are
supervisory/monitoring system depending on their own knowledge/experiences.
Fortunately, with the help of modern technology, the
I. INTRODUCTION water quality and those environment factors affecting
aqua-farming can be quantized via machines. The
Under the influences of environmental pollution, nominal indices may include biochemical oxygen demand
energy shortage, human beings aging, and lifestyle (BOD), dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, ammonia nitrogen,
disease, people are more recently concerned about diet Escherichia coli, turbidity, phosphate, and conductivity;
and health as well. More and more scientific data shows they are totally 8 items [5]. Good water quality will make
that eating aqua-farming food is helpful to ones health [1]. fish have appetite, less disease, leading to lower cost
Aqua-farming food with low cholesterol content not only business; the poorness of the water quality is nevertheless
contains rich, easily digestive protein but also possesses judged by the color, sodium nitrite, ammonia, and pH [6].
highly unsaturated fatty acid, mineral, and vitamins. Water quality maintenance is the key issue for aqua-
According to the reports published by the Organization farming employers. Most of the water quality monitoring
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and systems performs on-site sampling and analysis to obtain
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the worlds the deviation of the water quality, whereas those
aquaculture products will reach 160 million tons, with accidentally pollution cases are not noticed immediately.
15% increase comparing with the amounts between 2008 Therefore, it is a must to construct a water quality
and 2010. In [2], it predicts that aqua-farming will monitoring system [7].
substitute fishery industry, becoming the major source of How to keep the ecological balance around the water
worlds fishery products. In 2020, approximated half of surroundings for aquaculture is the key technology. A
the worlds fishery products are contributed from aqua- proverb from fisherman says one needs to take care of
farming [1]. Based on the preceding observations, it is the pond before nursing a school of fish in the pond [8].

2013. The authors - Published by Atlantis Press 194

Water quality maintenance is the crucial component to be identified when fish are being feed. If the salinity level
achieve a healthy aqua-farming environment. Its main is measured by conductivity, the worst case is 3,
purpose is to control the following quantities, i.e., water consequently causing the death. Fish death outbreak is the
temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), salinity, highest concern for aqua-farming people; this fact is due
turbidity, ammonia nitrogen, chemical oxygen demand to the large variation of water temperature. Variation of
(COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), etc., the water temperature is followed by the change of
parameters that strongly correlated to the incubation atmospheric temperature. Large variation of atmosphere
environment of aquaculture. Presently aqua-farming sites temperature let fish not adopt to the abrupt change of
are lacking of constantly monitoring capability of the water condition, leading to large amount of death.
aforementioned parameters. Luckily, due to the wide Aqua-farming businesses are primarily located at the
spread of Internet uses and the advancement of sensory southern Taiwan. Fish and shrimp aqua-farming can be
technologies, the Zigbee applications and its related found along the sea shores.
technologies have been advocated/developed such as When fish/shrimp grow in some extent, they must be
smart power grid, intelligent traffic control, intelligent separated to different ponds in order to reduce the
architecture, home medication/nursing, environment population density, while reducing the loss due to mutual
monitoring, and being applied to lots of sites surveillances. fighting. For the case of raising seabass, it is a carnival,
In fact, Chinese Prime Minister, Chai-Pau Wen, has aggressive species with fast growing speed; mutual
announced the Sensing China in 2009 at Wu-Xi. fighting and swallowing always occur when the
Internet of thing is the trend for the blossom of industries population density is too high. Currently, separation into
in the next 10 years; the global economy will be booming different ponds is determined by the head size of the fish
in 2020 accordingly. The estimated growth will be up to solely discriminated by persons naked eyes.
tens of billion. Internet of Things (IoT) [8-12] will bring Local aqua-farming industry reaches its matured stage
lot of convenience to all mankind, so every country starting at 1998. These aqua-farming techniques consist of
around the world is focusing on it with strategic viewpoint water recirculation, filtering facilities, and fish food,
[13]. accounting for 84% of the aqua-farming technology.
After becoming the member of the WTO, the import With so many competitive markets in aqua-farming
of aqua-farming products is increasing and the selling industry, focus should be put in the aspects of customers
prices are decreased; the domestic aqua-farming requirement and monitoring technology of the
community is facing highly competitive situation. environment.
Basically, there is no alternative for the career change of How to work and coordinate with academics/research
the fisherman to make their living except aqua- institutes is the issue that we must exert efforts in, that is,
farming[13], and at the same time due to the aging issue to work together to develop small volume, multi-
of the aqua-farming people, career alternation is not functional, lower cost, and collector storing a large amount
feasible. The downside of the Taiwanese aqua-farming of data. With innovative technology and effective
industry is the resources scarcity of freshwater and the processing scenario will promote competition level,
deterioration of the water quality for the seashore aqua- lessening the disadvantages coming from limited land area,
farming people. Being not fully redistributed for the water high population density, and finite amount of water/land
resource, the salient features of the underground resource.
freshwater, good quality and temperature, are most
helpful to the aqua-farming people. The long-term II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
overdrawn freshwater from aquifers are found in almost To investigate the feasibility and applicability of the
all aqua-farming individual, resulting in the problems of proposed technique for traditional outdoor aqua-farming
ground level sinking and salt water intrusion. Oxygen sites, we had visited some local aqua-farming workers at
dissolved into the water is coming either from the Ping-Dong County. The specs of the generic system are
interface of atmosphere with water or from the output of (1) Increment of aqua-farming production rate,
photosynthesis from sea plants. The OD is normally at 8- energy conservation and carbon emission reduction,
10mg/L. For most sea/water species including fish, they informing of the system safety events based on intelligent
withdraw oxygen they need from water. OD decreases sensing, wireless sensor network, communication
when water temperature rises, leading to the reducing of technology, intelligent processing/control, IOT technology
OD. Therefore, water temperature is strictly related to development, on-line sampling of the water and its
fishs food absorption, metabolism, and their growth; low surroundings, wireless communication, intelligent
OD will cause fishs suffocation and death. Generally handling, alarm message broadcasting, decision made,
speaking, very few fish can tolerate long-term exposure to remote control are altogether integrated into one single
the water with OD less than 3mg/L. Cool water has larger unit of IOT.
OD than lukewarm one. Raising water temperature will (2) Aqua-farming personnel can attain the status of
obviously result in death. There are three symptoms due aqua-farming surroundings, and acquire abnormality and
to the depletion of the oxygen in the water for fish, poor water quality alarm; appropriate control command
namely, widely open mouth, gill turnover, head bending can be executed based on those returned water quality
to the rear. Poor OD will affect fishs appetite, which can data to fulfill scientific aqua-farming and management.

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The ultimate goal is to achieve energy conservation and computer. When the motor/pump is malfunctioning, the
carbon emission reduction, green environment, and the proposed system will inform the supervisor of the
increases of aqua-farming production and revenue. abnormal states through GSM; the supervisor will enable
(3) For large scale aqua-farming company, the crisis handling process to prevent the death of
employees working status and water quality information fish/shrimp. The flowchart of the generic intelligent
at different sites are transmitted on a network platform. system, composing of environmental monitoring and
The proposed system architecture is shown in Fig.1. energy saving management systems, is illustrated in Fig.3,
Its functionality includes water quality check, also showing the water quality status and power
environmental monitoring, power monitoring, and web monitoring control portions. The proposed system can
surveillance platform. The details are as follows. upgrade aqua-farming technology, reduce carbon
(1)Water quality and environmental monitoringthe emission, energy saving, and alleviate the problem of the
requirement for water quality monitoring may include the overdrawn freshwater from aquifers.
temperature, OD, pH, and conductance. Water quality
sensor possesses the ability to automatically collect data Pond 220V/3phase
needed, have mutual communication, and output/display Aeration
standardized characters. The water pump will be
activated according to the decision made by these
collected water quality information, whereas the water in
the pond may be withdrawn to vary the pH or temperature. 220V/3phase
Subsequently, those aqua-farming creatures will stay in a
Pump
good surrounding condition.
Computer

Smart Phone
IoT Smart Monitoring System Data
(Data Record and Analysis)
User Meter Collector
iplad
GSM
Abnormal FIG. 2. THE ILLUSTRATION OF THE POWER CONTROL

PH, Conductivity, Dissolved oxygen

Water Quality Monitoring

Data
Waterwheel, Pump Monitoring, Collector
Bait Machine 1
Power Monitoring

Fish Pond 1
Water Temperature
Environmental Monitoring

PH, Conductivity, Dissolved oxygen

Water Quality Monitoring

Data
Waterwheel, Pump Monitoring, Collector
Bait Machine 255
Power Monitoring
FIG. 3. THE FLOWCHART OF THE MONITORING SYSTEM
Fish Pond 255
Water Temperature
Environmental Monitoring (3)Network monitoring platform Fig.4 shows the
system architecture of the platform. Key components are
as follows, power meter with duplex communication
FIG.1. THE SCHEMATICS OF THE ENVIRONMENT MONITORING AND capability and power plug, human body sensor module,
ENERGY CONSERVATION IN AQUACULTURE data collector, and server PC. Users can access the system
through the Internet remotely. Its software and hardware
(2)Power monitoring techniques: due to the scenario components are listed as the followings.
of large death count owning to the malfunctioning of (a)Data collectortransmit the systems status data
pump/watermill as shown in Fig.2, our system will corresponding to water quality, power monitoring, video
connect the power with motor and pump via the 3-phase, clips, environmental status to the server via the media,
220V distributor; the associated states information is read RS-485, Ethernet, or WiFi. By going through the
from the meter that directly connect to the outlet of the designated wire reserved for control purpose, the power
distributor. By using WiFi, data collector can transmit supply to the system can be adjusted.
those data stored in the meter to the monitoring port of the (b)Remote loginuser can login into the system using
PC, tablet computer, or smart phone. All of the system

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status data are displayed in web browser; even the power time instant of power abnormality, the supervisor will be
supply at any monitoring site can be terminated. informed by GSM; the power supply to the system can
(c)System managementusers need to provide both also be tuned through wire. All system states information
username and password in order to access the system, and is displayed in web browser; furthermore the power
the associated authentication, authorization, and account supply at any or all remote locations can be terminated.
management are described as follows. (3) Network monitoring platform mainly consists of
z Account managementprovide an user demand- power meter with duplex communication capability and
based interface for systems supervisor including those power plug, human body sensor module, data collector,
functions like add-in, delete, edit, and security level and server PC. User can access the system via the
assignment Internet, meanwhile lowering the risk of facing so many
date
z Security administrationsprovide an interface uncontrollable/unpredictable situations outdoors, i.e., the
for the administrator to handle the work scheduling, surroundings of aqua-farming ponds, and increasing the
adding, deleting, and administrators level assignment. survival rate and production.
z Programming managementprovide an
interface for the administrator to deal with the status
management, adding, editing, deleting, and scalability.
(4) Operation monitoringthe proposed system can
deal with the process of water quality monitoring, power
monitoring, and various operations. For example, pump
is activated whenever OD is lower than the designated
threshold; otherwise, pump is disabling for power saving
purpose. The water withdrawn pump is activated once the
pH is too high or temperature is significantly deviating to
maintain good water quality; consequently freshwater is
not necessarily to be redrawn from aquifers to leverage
the ground level sinking problem.
(5) Report editing the system provides a database
for the storage of power consumption; these record can be
output to a table for a visualization of the power
consumption curve.
(A) STATISTICS FOR POWER CONSUMPTION IS AS SHOWN
IN FIG.5. THE SYSTEM PROVIDES THE DATA OF POWER
CONSUMPTION, STATISTICS, DURATION OF POWER
FIG. 4. WEB PLATFORM ARCHITECTURE
CONSUMPTION, AND PRINTING SERVICE.
(B) POWER CONSUMPTION ANALYSIS IS SHOWN IN FIG.6.
THE SYSTEM PROVIDES THE DATA OF PEAK/AVERAGE
POWER CONSUMPTION AND THEIR STATISTICS AND
PRINTING SERVICE.
(6) BROADCASTING SYSTEMOUR CONTROL SYSTEM
MONITORS ALL ON-SITE WATER QUALITY, POWER SUPPLY,
AND OPERATIONS OF ALL FACILITIES; ALL THOSE
ASSOCIATED DATA ARE SENT BACK TO THE SERVER AFTER
PASSING THROUGH DATA COLLECTOR, GATHERING VARIOUS
DATA FROM SENSORS.

III. CONCLUSION hour

Based on the intuition from the Internet of thing (IOT)
in association with network platform, sensor technology, FIG.5. THE POWER CONSUMPTION PER HOUR
and image processing technique, we construct an
intelligent system for aquaculture environmental
monitoring and energy conservation. The scope for the
proposed techniques and its services/applications are
detailed as follows.
(1)The demand from aqua-farming people for
maintaining water quality is satisfactory due to the
introduction of the monitoring technology.
(2)Power monitoring technologywe develop an
intelligent power saving and monitoring system. At any

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The authors would like to thank The National Science International ICST Conference on Communications and
Networking in China (CHINACOM), pp.1026-1031, 2011.
Council (NSC) of Taiwan for supporting this research
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