Construction of a Germination Chamber for Solanaceae Seedlings

Abstract

The paper presents the design, construction and automation of a Solanaceae seed germination chamber for short-term production of seedlings. The project started with the design and production of the experimental prototype, with all of its subsystems. The entire system’s model was obtained, which resulted in Multiple Input and Multiple Output (MIMO), where it was observed that the variables to be controlled are temperature and relative humidity. A SCADA system was then designed and implemented for operational testing inside the chamber. The control methodology selected showed satisfactory results for a change in temperature from 20 °C to 24 °C, within a period of six minutes, subject to environmental disturbances. In order to validate the prototype, Santa Clara tomato seeds were planted in the final stage, which resulted in the germination of 1800 seedlings in four days and within an area of 1m3, with a germination percentage of 100 %