This paper discusses some alternatives to greenhouse control. It is the bas
is for a research on greenhouse control systems that is under development i
n a stepwise approach.
In order to design a greenhouse controller, knowledge about greenhouse syst
ems and about plant response is essential. This knowledge may be acquired f
rom specialists who usually make those control operations manually.
On this purpose, we will study four methods to solve the environment contro
l problem, which will enable us to gain such knowledge gradually. These met
hods are discussed in the paper and are listed below.
Simple irrigation controller: in this step a programmable timer will that c
ontrol the period and duration of irrigation and save history on temperatur
e information. The collected information together with programming history
will serve to design a fuzzy controller, with rules obtained from this data
.
Greenhouse controller based on macro climate: with temperature, humidity, p
hoto period sensor, and using knowledge obtained from previous step. This s
ystem will be able to automatically adjust its parameters.
Greenhouse controller based on micro climate: insisting on accuracy, this p
hase will try to look at the climate close to the plant, as an improvement
of the fuzzy control system of the previous design.
Greenhouse controller based on bio response: all the previous control syste
ms extract indirect information about plant state. In the future, sensors c
apable of measuring plant responses directly will be used. Ideally this is
the most perfect control system.