Smart Environments Design on Industrial Automated Greenhouses

Abstract

Greenhouse automation carried out with monitoring and control technologies optimizes the cultivation processes in industrial scenarios. In recent years, new trends and technologies have emerged in the agricultural sector. The application of Information and Communication Technologies has clear benefits. Embedded hardware systems development, new communication protocols over the Internet and applied Artificial Intelligence paradigms have increased the services’ capabilities. These technologies can be installed both in new facilities and in facilities that are already functioning. This paper analyses the integration of these paradigms into automated greenhouses. An integration model is proposed and developed in the plant experimental unit installed at the University of Alicante. This unit already has an automated system that controls air conditioning, soil conditions, and irrigation, but these control subsystems are not integrated. In this work, new processing nodes with integrated data are designed to develop new detection, prediction and optimization services. These services increase the performance of the installation and create smart environments in agricultural production.