Advances in greenhouse automation and controlled environment agriculture: A transition to plant factories and urban agriculture

Abstract

Greenhouse cultivation has evolved from simple covered rows of open-fields crops to highly sophisticated controlled environment agriculture (CEA) facilities that projected the image of plant factories for urban agriculture. The advances and improvements in CEA have promoted the scientific solutions for the efficient production of plants in populated cities and multi-story buildings. Successful deployment of CEA for urban agriculture requires many components and subsystems, as well as the understanding of the external influencing factors that should be systematically considered and integrated. This review is an attempt to highlight some of the most recent advances in greenhouse technology and CEA in order to raise the awareness for technology transfer and adaptation, which is necessary for a successful transition to urban agriculture. This study reviewed several aspects of a high-tech CEA system including improvements in the frame and covering materials, environment perception and data sharing, and advanced microclimate control and energy optimization models. This research highlighted urban agriculture and its derivatives, including vertical farming, rooftop greenhouses and plant factories which are the extensions of CEA and have emerged as a response to the growing population, environmental degradation, and urbanization that are threatening food security. Finally, several opportunities and challenges have been identified in implementing the integrated CEA and vertical farming for urban agriculture.

Relation between Changes in Photosynthetic Rate and Changes in Canopy Level Chlorophyll Fluorescence Generated by Light Excitation of Different Led Colours in Various Background Light

“…where F740 is the fluorescence signal according to Equation (1) indicate the region where the spectrum is integrated to get the F740 signal according to Equation (1). Notice that the spectrometer is light saturated in wavelengths 630-670 nm, however this is outside the wavelength of interest (i.e., the span 735-745 nm).…”

“…Today, greenhouses are to a large extent automated [1]. There is climate control, stepwise movement of the plants from sowing area to the harvesting area, and automated irrigation and fertilisation.…”

Evolution of Vertical Farms and the Development of a Simulation Methodology

“…Nevertheless, CEA is not necessarily a synonym of VF. Furthermore, a variety of other indoor agricultural concepts creep deeper into the concept of VF, such as High Density Vertical Growing (HDVG) [31], [38], which "can be considered a form of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) that aims to allow people to grow food where they live, using fewer resources to produce a higher output" [35]. Frediani describes these concepts as sustainable urban agriculture.…”

“…The last couple of years witnessed a great increase in the number of academic research work published in the area of urban agriculture, particularly in VF [31], [38], [41], [42]. However, almost all the publications on VF make the consensus remark that further research is needed.…”

Grid quorum‐based spatial coverage in mobile wireless sensor networks using nature‐inspired firefly algorithm

“…In other words, sensors with controlled mobility can increase the coverage quality in a way that suits the best to the user or the application of the network. The developments in mobile sensors received much attention today because of the ever‐expanding possibilities for different applications such as, for example, smart roadbeds and intelligent transportation (Knaian, ), telemedicine (Hu, Celentano, & Xiao, ), air pollution monitoring (Khedo, Perseedoss, & Mungur, ), active volcano surveillance (Werner‐Allen et al, ), and smart agriculture (Shamshiri et al, ).…”