Sustainable Indoor Intelligent Aquaponics Farming based on Industry 4.0 (Aquaponics4.0)

我国社会正面临着人均可用农地存量长期递减的问题。根据联合国粮食及农业组织(FAO)的数据，到2050年，人均耕地将减少到1970年可用耕地的三分之一。利用水培技术，在同一土地上有多个水平的高层农场提供了替代方案，可以增加可用的农业用地数量。水培技术扩展了温室水培农业的模式，对除草剂、农药和化肥的要求更高。与室外农业相比，水培需要的水要少得多，因为灰水可以回收利用，蒸发也更少。今天，随着对能源效率、连通性和可持续性的需求，食品行业需要吸引研究人员，将互联的网络-物理系统引入水培技术。这项研究计划旨在将过去几十年开发的垂直农业的初始模式提升到最先进的水平，并使用加拿大制造的技术来解决现有垂直农业流程中的技术差距。这项研究将重点放在工业4.0集成网络-物理系统的原理上，并遵循之前的Engage Grant研究，其中我们设计了一个智能货架系统，本研究将设计、原型和测试计算机-物理垂直耕作系统。

Our society is facing a long-term decreasing available stock of agricultural land per capita. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), by 2050, arable land per person will decrease to one-third of the amount available in 1970. Using aquaponics, high-rise farms, with many levels on the same footprint of land, provide alternatives that can increase the amount of agricultural land available. Aquaponics extends the model of greenhouse hydroponic farming, with better requirements for herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers. Aquaponics requires much less water than outdoor farming because gray water is recycled and there is less evaporation. Today, with demands for energy efficiency, connectivity and sustainability, the food industry needs to engage researchers to bring connected cyber-physical systems to aquaponics technologies. This research program aims to bring the initial model of vertical farming, developed in previous decades, to a state-of-the-art level and use Canadian-made technologies to address technology gaps in the existing vertical farm processes. Focusing on Industry 4.0 principles of integrated cyber-physical systems, and following the previous ENGAGE grant research, where we designed an intelligent racking system, this research will design, prototype and test, cyber-physical vertical farming systems.