System for determining the job status of individual laborers in a large-scale greenhouse

Abstract

To obtain the work status of individual laborers by drawing the work progress map and determining the work speeds of individual laborers in a large-scale greenhouse, we developed a simple system comprising smartphone and web-based server applications, using smartphones, two-dimensional (2D) barcodes (called QR codes), a cloud server, and a personal computer. Using the smartphone applications, the laborers read the QR codes on their smartphones when they started or ended the designated work. The timestamps obtained when reading the QR codes were sent to the cloud server. The work progress map was drawn and the work speeds of individual laborers were estimated by the web-based server application in the cloud server based on the length of the gutter and the time difference between the start and end of the designated work. In the field trial, we placed QR codes at the end of the gutters (556 gutters) in a model greenhouse where bell pepper plants were grown in an area of 3 ha. The work progress map and work speeds of individual laborers were obtained rapidly and remotely in the greenhouse based on the collected data. Because the system has a simple structure, its installation is relatively easy, indicating lower cost than that of the commercially available systems.