ASF_01_sys_sw_arch/About ASF.md

Project Description

Distributed Intelligent Poultry Farm Environmental Control System (DIPFECS)

1. Purpose of the System

The purpose of the Distributed Intelligent Poultry Farm Environmental Control System (DIPFECS) is to provide continuous monitoring, real-time control, and data-driven optimization of indoor poultry farm environments using a hierarchical IoT architecture, edge computing, and cloud-based analytics and machine learning (ML).

The system is designed to maximize animal welfare, production efficiency, energy efficiency, and operational reliability, while ensuring scalability across multiple farms and geographical locations.

2. System Scope

The system covers indoor poultry houses (broiler, layer, breeder, pullet) and includes:

• Environmental sensing

• Data acquisition and validation

• Local real-time control

• Actuator management

• Alarm handling

• Data logging and analytics

• Cross-farm optimization via cloud services

The system explicitly excludes open-house farms and manual-only operations.

3. System Architecture Overview

The system follows a three-tier hierarchical architecture:

1. Sub-Hub Layer (Sensor Layer)

2. Main Hub Layer (Edge Control Layer)

3. Central Server Layer (Cloud Intelligence Layer)

Each tier has a well-defined functional responsibility and operates independently in case of upstream or downstream communication failures.

4. System Decomposition

4.1 Sub-Hub Subsystem (SHS)

Abbreviation: SH
Typical Hardware: ESP32 or equivalent MCU

4.1.1 Functional Description

The Sub-Hub Subsystem (SHS) is responsible exclusively for local data acquisition, basic preprocessing, and mini-calibration of connected sensors.

SHS units are deployed in high density within each poultry house to provide spatial granularity of environmental data.

4.1.2 Sensor Interfaces

Each Sub-Hub may interface with one or more of the following sensor types:

Parameter	Abbreviation	Unit
Air Temperature	T	°C
Relative Humidity	RH	%
Ammonia	NH₃	ppm
Carbon Dioxide	CO₂	ppm
Carbon Monoxide	CO	ppm
Oxygen (optional)	O₂	%
Light Intensity	LUX	lux
Air Velocity (optional)	AV	m/s
Static Pressure (optional)	SP	Pa
Dust Particulate (optional)	PM₂.₅ / PM₁₀	µg/m³

4.1.3 Local Processing

The Sub-Hub shall perform:

• Sensor sampling

• Noise filtering

• Offset correction

• Basic plausibility checks

• Timestamping

The Sub-Hub shall not perform any control decisions.

4.1.4 Communication

• Wireless uplink to Main Hub

• Supported protocols (configurable):

  • Wi-Fi

  • Zigbee

  • LoRa / LoRaWAN

  • Proprietary RF

4.2 Main Hub Subsystem (MHS)

Abbreviation: MH
Location: One per poultry house / room

4.2.1 Functional Description

The Main Hub Subsystem is the primary real-time control unit of the poultry house.

It aggregates sensor data from all Sub-Hubs, executes control algorithms, and drives physical actuators through a wired control interface.

4.2.2 Data Aggregation

The Main Hub shall:

• Receive data from all connected Sub-Hubs

• Perform spatial averaging and zoning

• Detect anomalies and sensor faults

• Maintain a local historical buffer

4.2.3 Control Functions

The Main Hub shall execute:

• Closed-loop environmental control

• Rule-based logic

• PID / proportional control

• Fuzzy logic (optional)

• ML-assisted parameter adaptation (optional)

4.2.4 Actuator Interfaces

The Main Hub shall control the following actuators via a Control Board (CB):

Actuator	Abbreviation
Ventilation Fans	FAN
Air Inlets / Curtains	INL
Heaters (Radiant / Forced)	HTR
Cooling Pads / Foggers	CLG
Lighting Systems	LGT
Feeding Systems	FDR
Drinking Systems	WTR
Alarm Devices	ALM

Control signals may include:

• Relay (ON/OFF)

• 0–10 V

• PWM

• Modbus RTU/TCP

• CAN Bus

4.2.5 Local Autonomy

The Main Hub shall maintain full operational capability during:

• Internet loss

• Cloud service unavailability

• Partial Sub-Hub failures

4.3 Central Server Subsystem (CSS)

Abbreviation: CS
Deployment: Cloud or Hybrid

4.3.1 Functional Description

The Central Server Subsystem provides cross-farm data aggregation, analytics, and intelligence.

It is responsible for learning from all farms collectively and improving control strategies continuously.

4.3.2 Data Management

The Central Server shall:

• Store time-series data

• Maintain farm profiles

• Support long-term historical analysis

• Enable benchmarking across farms

4.3.3 Machine Learning & Analytics

The Central Server shall:

• Train ML models using aggregated farm data

• Identify optimal environmental setpoints

• Detect patterns related to performance, health, and energy

• Generate optimized control parameters

4.3.4 Feedback Loop

The Central Server shall:

• Send updated control parameters or models to Main Hubs

• Support OTA firmware and configuration updates

• Allow gradual rollout and rollback of updates

5. Communication Architecture

Link	Direction	Protocol
Sensors → Sub-Hub	Wired	I²C, SPI, UART, Analog
Sub-Hub → Main Hub	Wireless	Wi-Fi / Zigbee / LoRa
Main Hub → Control Board	Wired	Modbus, Relay, CAN
Main Hub ↔ Central Server	IP-based	MQTT / HTTPS / TLS

All external communications shall be encrypted.

6. Alarm and Safety Management

The system shall support:

• Threshold-based alarms

• Rate-of-change alarms

• Sensor failure alarms

• Communication failure alarms

• Power failure alarms

Alarms shall be:

• Local (audible/visual)

• Remote (SMS, email, app notification)

7. Scalability and Deployment

The system shall support:

• Multiple Sub-Hubs per house

• Multiple houses per farm

• Multiple farms per server

• Global multi-tenant operation

8. Compliance and Industry Alignment

The system design aligns with:

• Modern poultry automation practices (Big Dutchman, Fancom, SKOV, Hotraco)

• Animal welfare standards

• Environmental monitoring best practices

• Industrial IoT architectures (Edge + Cloud)

9. System Key Characteristics (Summary)

Attribute	Value
Architecture	Distributed, Hierarchical
Control	Local real-time + Cloud optimization
Intelligence	Edge + Central ML
Reliability	High (local autonomy)
Scalability	Very High
Vendor Lock-in	None
Sensor Density	High
Update Mechanism	OTA

10. Project Vision Statement

DIPFECS is designed to become a scalable, intelligent, and adaptive poultry farm control platform that continuously improves environmental control strategies by combining dense sensing, robust local automation, and global data intelligence.