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Computer integrated plant growth factory for agriculture and horticulture

Abstract

Management and control for greenhouse production of vegetable and flower based on computer applications have been remarkably developed in northern European countries as the leader in the world. Furthermore, vegetable could be cultivated in the factory where such artificial environmental factors as lamps are controlled just like "process automation(PA)" in chemical process industries. These factories have been developed mainly by Japanese industrial company and are so called "Plant Growth Factory", though its original system appeared in Denmark, about 30 years ago. In the system, many computers are used for environmental control, nutrient control, and management of cultivation. Recently, it seems evident that a seed bed and a nursery of young plant should be improved from the system in the frame of the plant growth factory. Of course, the artificial intelligence is also introduced to the expert system for control and diagnosis of the cultivating crops. On the other hand, progress in automated mechanization for seeding and transplanting has made "greenhouse automation" fit for practical use just like "factory automation(FA)" in industries. Now, process industries are rationalized based on the concept of so called "computer integrated manufacture (CIM)" after the technological development involved in PA followed by FA. Therefore, such the system in the agricultural production as the plant growth factory including vegetable factory and nursery factory as well as the advanced greenhouse, should also be considered based on the concept of CIM. That is the "computer integrated agricultural production (CIAP)", proposed in our previous papers.

In this paper, the CIAP is examined from much more wide and generalized point of view, which may be called "computer integrated plant growth factory for agriculture and horticulture".

It might be noted that the newly proposed concept based on CIAP discussed in this paper should be expected as the most effective system in the coming generation.

Keywords

Computer applications

Artificial intelligence

Control applications

System identification

Agriculture

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