This title provides a general overview of recent developments and research into types of systems and their uses in the agricultural and horticultural industry. 64 papers are included, containing both theoretical models and applied examples for greenhouse systems, harvesting technology and plant factory systems.

A wide ranging programme was planned, covering the principal areas where mathematical models or control engineering can have a major impact on agricultural and horticultural processes and their management. Emphasis was placed on applications of models and control in agriculture. Focal areas for the meeting included: models and control of post-harvest processing and grading, climate control in plant production and animal houses, mathematical models relating to the environmental impacts of agriculture, sensing and control methodologies appropriate to agricultural systems, information technology, impact of uncertainty and forecasting in models, demonstration of novel developments in software for agriculture and horticulture, and practical implementations of models and control. The meeting was structured to maintain maximum interaction between participants in the focal areas of the programme - and to permit presentations across a wide range, from control methodologies to practical implementation of models.

Greenhouse control system manufacturers produce equipment and software with hundreds of settings and, while they hold training courses on how to adjust these settings, there is as yet no integrated instruction on when or why. Despite rapid growth in the greenhouse industry, growers are still faced with a multitude of variables and no unifying frame

The aim of this book is to open up research areas in automatic control engineering for crop production systems in horticulture and agriculture, and to explain the principle ideas of advanced automatic control in plant production. The text includes detailed discussions of:- Fundamental systems engineering concepts- Modeling- Control for agricultural systems- Optimal control and its applications- Artificial intelligence for agricultural applications

The 1st IFAC/CIGR/EURAENG/ISHS Workshop on Control Applications in Post-Harvest and Processing Technology (CAPPT '95) provides the opportunity to discuss and evaluate the state of the art and application of control methods in storage and processes of agricultural and horticultural products. This publication, generated from the papers at the workshop, provides a detailed assessment of present and future developments of key technologies within the agricultural and horticultural fields.

The IFAC Workshop series on post-harvest and processing technology is widely acknowledged as a showcase for the best work in this important research area. Research into control methods for storage and processes in agricultural and horticultural products is growing at a rapid pace. This workshop series provides a unique view of these areas from the perspective of control engineering. The proceedings of this, the latest IFAC workshop on Control Applications in Post Harvest and Processing Technology held in Tokyo in October 2001, presents updates on all the main technological developments. Topics covered include mathematical modelling, quality evaluation, quality control, crop management, control in post-harvest operations, observation for control, and intelligent techniques.

A discussion of challenges related to the modeling and control of greenhouse crop growth, this book presents state-of-the-art answers to those challenges. The authors model the subsystems involved in successful greenhouse control using different techniques and show how the models obtained can be exploited for simulation or control design; they suggest ideas for the development of physical and/or black-box models for this purpose. Strategies for the control of climate- and irrigation-related variables are brought forward. The uses of PID control and feedforward compensators, both widely used in commercial tools, are summarized. The benefits of advanced control techniques—event-based, robust, and predictive control, for example—are used to improve on the performance of those basic methods. A hierarchical control architecture is developed governed by a high-level multiobjective optimization approach rather than traditional constrained optimization and artificial intelligence techniques. Reference trajectories are found for diurnal and nocturnal temperatures (climate-related setpoints) and electrical conductivity (fertirrigation-related setpoints). The objectives are to maximize profit, fruit quality, and water-use efficiency, these being encouraged by current international rules. Illustrative practical results selected from those obtained in an industrial greenhouse during the last eight years are shown and described. The text of the book is complemented by the use of illustrations, tables and real examples which are helpful in understanding the material. Modeling and Control of Greenhouse Crop Growth will be of interest to industrial engineers, academic researchers and graduates from agricultural, chemical, and process-control backgrounds.