Automation of crop growing processes in vertical greenhouse complexes

Introduction: Modern methods and means ofautomating technological processes in agriculture and, in particular, in greenhouse complexes, are the subject of research by many scientific teams, but many solutions are partial, i.e. usually cover individual technological parameters, or allow the collection of data about the technological process (monitoring), but not the management of production processes. Often solutions are designed largely for manual use or do not provide for adaptive control of greenhouse parameters. Such solutions do not fully satisfy the requirements of practice.Thus, it is necessary to increase the level of automation of technological processes in vertical farms through the development of methods, models and architecture for adaptive control of these processes.

Purpose: To present a three-level modular architecture of a process control system of a modern greenhouse complex, using a CAN bus as an interface and characterized by scalability, modularity and the ability to cover all technological processes of automatic crop cultivation in greenhouses.

Materials and Methods: A greenhouse for vertical cultivation of microgreens using lowpressure aeroponics technology,equipped with a number ofengineering systems, is considered as an automation object. Based on the source materials and requirements for such a system, a three-level automation architecture is developed.The feasibility of technological processes using the proposed design and technical solutions is assessed. In this work, for this purpose, the criterion of the maximum permissible time for the implementation of the technological process is used.

Results: The lower level contains sensors and actuators. The middle level contains input and output modules, data acquisition, and control units. The top level is a SCADA system, a personal computer on which a server is deployed that receives and aggregates information from logic and data acquisition modules and provides the user with a graphical interface for managing processes. Simulation shows the ability of a system based on such an architecture to meet the timing criteria established for technological processes and interaction with users.

Conclusions: Further work consists of developing specifications for the described modules, formulating requirements for them, performing design, development, manufacturing and testing. 

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