Design of a Smart IoT-Based Control System for Remotely Managing Cold Storage Facilities

Abstract

Cold storage is deemed one of the main elements in food safety management to maintain food quality. The temperature, relative humidity (RH), and air quality in cold storage rooms (CSRs) should be carefully controlled to ensure food quality and safety during cold storage. In addition, the components of CSR are exposed to risks caused by the electric current, high temperature surrounding the compressor of the condensing unit, snow and ice accumulation on the evaporator coils, and refrigerant gas leakage. These parameters affect the stored product quality, and the real-time sending of warnings is very important for early preemptive actionability against the risks that may cause damage to the components of the cold storage rooms. The IoT-based control (IoT-BC) with multipurpose sensors in food technologies presents solutions for postharvest quality management of fruits during cold storage. Therefore, this study aimed to design and evaluate a IoT-BC system to remotely control, risk alert, and monitor the microclimate parameters, i.e., RH, temperature, CO2, C2H4, and light and some operating parameters, i.e., the temperature of the refrigeration compressor, the electrical current, and the energy consumption for a modified CSR (MCSR). In addition, the impacts of the designed IoT-BC system on date fruit quality during cold storage were investigated compared with a traditional CSR (TCSR) as a case study. The results showed that the designed IoT-BC system precisely controlled the MCSR, provided reliable data about the interior microclimate atmosphere, applied electrical current and energy consumption of the MCSR, and sent the necessary alerts in case of an emergency based on real-time data analytics. There was no significant effect of the storage time on the most important quality attributes for stored date fruit in the MCSR compared with the TCSR. As a result, the MCSR maintained high-quality attributes of date fruits during cold storage. Based on the positive impact of the designed IoT-BC system on the MCSR and stored fruit quality, this modification seems quite suitable for remotely managing cold storage facilities.

Design and Evaluation of a Smart Ex Vitro Acclimatization System for Tissue Culture Plantlets

“…In this study, we used Arduino IDE free software repeatedly executed on the Arduino and ESP8266 microcontrollers to monitor and control the targeted parameters in the E-VAS chamber. Mohammed et al [48,60] describe the detailed functions used in the code. The main function description in the code is as follows: (1) IntializeSensors( ): This function was responsible for implementing sensors' calibration and resetting them if needed.…”

“…The sensors used in this study, i.e., the digital DHT22 temperature and RH sensor, the analog DX-250 pH sensor, the analog LM35 temperature sensor, the analog VH400 volumetric soil moisture content sensor, the analog MQ-135 air quality sensor, and the FUT3101 light intensity sensor module were calibrated using the same techniques described in previous studies [48,60,66] to ensure their accuracy and are briefly described below:…”

“…Robots, drones, remote sensors, computer imagery, and continuously improving machine learning and analytical tools are used in the IoT to real-time monitor crops, microclimate, survey and map fields as well as to provide data to farmers for logical farm management strategies that will not only save them time and money but also improve crop production [55][56][57]. While maintaining the economic stability of farming enterprises, IoT technology is increasingly being used in agriculture to promote greener on-farm practices and better ecological sustainability [58][59][60]. Many automated IoT-based technologies that are widely used in plant tissue culture laboratories have been developed by scientists.…”

Sustainable Nonfarm Approaches to Achieve Zero Hunger and Its Unveiled Reality

“…In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been employed to observe the factors such as relative humidity, temperature, light, ethylene, and other gases that directly influence the quality of stored products. 42 Precooling before storage is an effective way to extend the shelf life of produce. Field heat should be removed as early as possible after harvesting as it is responsible for increased rate of deterioration.…”

“…affect the shelf life of the stored product. In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been employed to observe the factors such as relative humidity, temperature, light, ethylene, and other gases that directly influence the quality of stored products . Precooling before storage is an effective way to extend the shelf life of produce.…”