Networked Control of Greenhouses

该计划的目标是开发网络控制系统技术基础设施，以适应恶劣环境的高生产率温室。我们提出的研究的知识价值在于，由于城市化、淡水供应减少、人口增加以及以农业为目标的生物燃料，全球粮食生产正面临越来越大的资源压力。温室通过创造可控的生长环境提供6-20倍的生产力提高。传感、计算和通信技术在低成本、低功耗、微型设备上的快速融合正在实现网络控制系统的革命。这些是具有大量传感器、执行器和计算节点的分布式控制/估计系统，它们通过有线或自组织无线网络进行通信。网络控制系统将使下一代高科技温室成为可能。这些将包括用于无处不在的传感的无线传感器网络，用于调节环境变量的优化控制体系结构，以及分布式故障检测算法。该项目的社会影响在于开发技术工具，通过受保护的精准农业，在恶劣环境中以低成本的方式生产粮食。该项目的科学影响将源于开发跨一类应用环境的网络控制系统的基本系统理论分析和设计方法。将开发分层体系结构方法来导航设计权衡，例如计算资源分配、通信协议选择和电源/可靠性妥协。该项目的技术影响是，它将使网络控制温室的系统，成本效益设计特别适合恶劣环境。具体而言，将开发适用于通用温室的面向控制的模型，研究分布式故障检测和隔离算法，并设计适当的可扩展分布式控制体系结构。该项目的变革方面是发展基础网络控制基础设施，通过对大批量生产温室的环境控制来提高作物产量。

The objective of this program is to develop the network control system technology infrastructure necessary for high-productivity greenhouses specialized to harsh environments.The intellectual merit of our proposed research is Global food production is coming under increased resource pressure due to urbanization, reduced fresh-water availability, population increase, and targeting agriculture for bio-fuels. Greenhouses offer a 6-20X productivity increase by creating controlled growing environments.The rapid convergence of sensing, computing and communication technologies on cost effective, low power, miniature devices is enabling a revolution in Networked Control Systems. These are distributed control/estimation systems with large numbers of sensors, actuators, and computing nodes that communicate over wire-line or ad hoc wireless networks.Networked control systems will enable the next generation of high-technology greenhouses. These will include wireless sensor networks for ubiquitous sensing, optimized control architectures for regulation of environmental variables, and distributed fault-detection algorithms.Broader Impact The societal impact of the project comes is in developing technological tools that can be used for cost-effective production of food in harsh environments through protected precision agriculture.The scientific impact of the project will stem from developing fundamental system-theoretic analysis and design methods for networked control systems across a class of application contexts. Layered architecture approach will be developed to navigate design tradeoffs such as computational resource allocation, communication protocol choice, and power/reliability compromises.The technological impact of the project is that it will enable the systematic, cost-effective design of network controlled greenhouses particularly suited for harsh environments. Specifically, control-oriented models suitable for generic greenhouses will be developed, algorithms for distributed fault detection and isolation will be investigated, and appropriate scalable distributed control architectures will be devised.The transformative aspect of this project is to develop the foundational network control infrastructure necessary to increase crop yield by environment control of high-volume production greenhouses.