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业用地长期减少的问题。根据联合国粮食及农业组织（粮农组织）的数据，到2050年，人均可耕地将减少到1970年的三分之一。使用水培技术，高层农场，在相同的土地足迹上有许多层，提供了可以增加可用农业用地数量的替代方案。水培法扩展了温室水培农业的模式，对除草剂、杀虫剂和肥料的要求更高。水培法所需的水比室外农业要少得多，因为废水可以循环利用，蒸发较少。今天，随着对能源效率、连通性和可持续性的需求，食品行业需要让研究人员将连接的网络物理系统引入鱼菜共生技术。该研究项目旨在将几十年前发展起来的垂直农业的初始模式提升到最先进的水平，并利用加拿大制造的技术来解决现有垂直农场流程中的技术差距。专注于集成网络物理系统的工业4.0原则，并遵循之前的ENGAGE拨款研究，我们设计了一个智能货架系统，这项研究将设计，原型和测试，网络物理垂直农业系统。

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.