A NONLINEAR OPTIMAL GREENHOUSE CONTROL PROBLEM WITH HEATING AND VENTILATION

A simplified non-linear dynamic model of greenhouse crop growth with c onstraints on the state and the control signal is considered. The weat her is assumed to be known. The optimization criterion is to minimize the heating and ventilation cost. In this paper a novel solution is pr esented for the case when both the heating cost and the ventilation co st are included in the criterion. Important properties of the optimal solutions are clarified. It is found that neighbouring maxima and mini ma of a particular function of the outside temperature, the solar radi ation and the heat transfer coefficient decide whether heating or vent ilation has to be applied. A numerical example is given.