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. Keywords: smart agriculture, greenhouse modelling, urban agriculture, vertical farming, automation, internet of things (IoT), wireless sensor network, plant factories DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20181101.3210 Citation: Shamshiri R R, Kalantari F, Ting K C, Thorp K R, Hameed I A, Weltzien C, et al. Advances in greenhouse automation and controlled environment agriculture: A transition to plant factories and urban agriculture. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2018; 11(1): 1–22.
Highlights
Closed-field agriculture is experiencing a breakthrough transition driven by the advances in precision technology, data processing and smart farming
A modern greenhouse operates as a system, it is referred to as controlled environment agriculture (CEA), controlled environment plant production system (CEPPS), or Phytomation systems[1]
A trend in the past 15 years of published literature showed that researchers and greenhouse growers have become more interested in shifting towards smart controlled environment agriculture
Summary
Transition driven by the advances in precision technology, data processing and smart farming. A modern greenhouse operates as a system, it is referred to as controlled environment agriculture (CEA), controlled environment plant production system (CEPPS), or Phytomation systems[1] These structures use natural or artificial light within which optimum growth conditions is intended to achieve for producing horticultural crops, or for plant research programs. This paper begins with a summary of several reviewed literature in Section 2 on the advances in greenhouse covering materials, artificial light, and the efficiency of the microclimate controller for a viable CEA system This part aimed to investigate the effects of the existing and new covering materials on the resulting microclimate (including influencing factors and their interactions with cultural practices), plants growth, and yield.
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