Disease Early Warning and Intelligent Climate Control in the Chinese Solar Greenhouse

In recent years, energy issues have become increasingly prominent in various fields. Passive solar greenhouses are receiving increasing attention as fossil energy heating is not necessary for fruit and vegetable production during cold seasons. However, heavy labor and crop diseases caused by inappropriate climate management are the two main problems in solar greenhouses. The challenge for precise management of crop habitat in Chinese Solar Greenhouses (CSGs) lies in the limited control actuators available at low operating costs. This paper presents a solution of intelligently regulate the greenhouse climate under low operating cost, which is based on two techniques. (i) PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) control technique is applied to manage the natural ventilation openings, where the model is designed for the special rolling film vents opening structure for the CSG. (ii) A cost function considering growth temperature and disease warning messages is embedded to a two time-scale receding horizon optimizing control algorithm, so that the set-point in each time step is output and the trade-off between crop growth and disease control can be optimized. This method is committed to achieving precise and intelligent management of crop ambient environment in CSGs, aiming to reduce labor and improve production efficiency.