Abstract
Automatic transport can improve the operational efficiency in plant factory production and reduce the use of labor. However, a determination of a plant factory automation operation mode should comprehensively consider the economic strength of the enterprise, operation objects and operation mode, production scale, technical strength, labor costs, and other factors. In this study, a logistics transport system comprising a set of cultivation units was developed for plant factories, using a mode based on shelf-end delivery without power inside the shelf. Moreover, an analysis was conducted on four modes of common transportation methods for the cultivation units for vertical cultivation in plant factories. The results showed that, when comparing the progressive transport type and warehousing/reciprocating transport type for cultivation units, the transport productivity of the former is higher than that of the latter, and the difference in the two transport productivities is proportional to the capacity for cultivation units in each layer. When the capacities for cultivation units in each layer are 20 and 40, the transport productivity of the former is 115–200% and 130–250% higher than that of the latter, respectively. Moreover, the logistics transport system developed herein reaches an input (output) transport productivity of 330 (270) cultivation units h−1.
Highlights
Plant factories have advantages in regards to avoiding pollution in the planting environment, saving production materials, providing high yield and quality, and allowing for annual production [1,2]
Determining a transport method for a cultivation unit for vertical cultivation is very complex, and requires consideration of the transport productivity, investment, and area covered by the equipment
The longer the cultivation unit stays in a single layer, the longer the reciprocating transport path, which lowers the transport productivity; the improvement in Mode 3 is limited to increasing the cultivation unit quantity in each layer
Summary
Plant factories have advantages in regards to avoiding pollution in the planting environment, saving production materials, providing high yield and quality, and allowing for annual production [1,2]. The production investment cost is high, and the production benefit is not evident when compared with the conventional planting mode of crops [3,4]. Scientists have conducted various studies aiming to commercialize plant factories [5]. Cultivation experts have focused on artificial light [6,7,8,9], nutrient solutions, environmental control [10,11], energy saving [7,12,13], and planting modes [14,15]. In terms of production equipment, agricultural equipment experts have studied automatic production in plant factories. Seeding and transplanting equipment have been widely used for hydroponic leaf vegetable production in plant factories [16]
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