Photonic Technologies for Real-Time Hydroponic Crop Health and Nutrient Supply Monitoring

Opportunity   

Hydroponic monitoring is essential for optimising urban farming automation, particularly in land-scarce regions like Singapore. While existing solutions detect plant stress or track nutrient composition changes, they lack comprehensive real-time analysis for precise nutrient replenishment. Current methods are labour-intensive and subjective, requiring frequent manual intervention. 

This smart hydroponics system provides automated, non-invasive crop health monitoring, quantifying specific nutrient deficiencies at ppb sensitivity levels. By reducing human intervention and improving accuracy, this innovation enhances yield optimisation and resource efficiency in indoor vertical farming.

Technology  

This laser spectroscopy farming system integrates multiple sensing techniques for full-spectrum crop and nutrient monitoring: 

• Real-time, in-situ nutrient analysis with high sensitivity (ppb level) for precise, component-wise replenishment. 
• Non-invasive leaf and root monitoring, detecting stress indicators without sample preparation. 
• Modular, easy-to-integrate subsystems, adaptable to existing hydroponic setups. 
• Machine-learning-enabled spectral analysis, enabling rapid, data-driven decision-making. 

Figure 1. Overview of the crop health monitoring and nutrient supply system. 

Applications & Advantages 

Applications: 

• Urban farming automation – Optimised hydroponic crop growth.
• Nutrient analysis hydroponics – Precise, real-time nutrient management.
• Real-time crop monitoring – Early stress detection for higher yields. 

Advantages: 

• Fully automated, non-invasive crop and nutrient monitoring. 
• Real-time nutrient replenishment at ppb sensitivity levels.
• Modular, easy-to-integrate system for hydroponic setups.
• Machine learning-based spectral analysis for enhanced efficiency.