Illumination arrangement for illuminating horticultural growths

• US 20110115385A1
• Filed: 07/03/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Van Echtelt, Esther Van, Marinus, Antonius Adrianus Maria, Waumans, Lars Rene Christian, Jacobs, Joseph Hendrik Anna Maria
• Granted Patent: US 8,604,700 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 315/152
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 7/045 with electric lighting
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 9/249 Lighting means with special arrangements for promoting growth A01G7/045
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 60/14 Measures for saving energy, e.g. in green houses

Abstract

The invention provides an illumination arrangement (1) for illuminating horticultural growths (100) with for instance LEDs as a light source. These LEDs are placed in a lighting unit (10). The lighting unit may especially have the ability to direct substantially all light from the light source (here the LEDs) to the horticultural growths (in the greenhouse). Additionally, a horticultural growth-recognition system (50) can be implemented in the illumination arrangement, so that the system can adapt for instance its beam (11) to the location of the horticultural growth(s) (in the case of growth or moving of plants, etc).

Claims

1. An illumination arrangement (1) for illuminating horticultural growths (100) comprising:

a lighting unit (10) arranged to generate a beam of light (11) and to control an optical property of the beam of light (11) in response to a control signal;

an electromagnetic wave sensor selected from the group consisting of a CCD camera, CMOS camera, digital camera and a radar sensor, and arranged to sense the horticultural growth(s) (100) and to generate a sensor signal comprising one or more three-dimensional images of the horticultural growths; and

a control unit (30) arranged to process the sensor signal to produce the control signal.

2. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 1, wherein the optical property comprises the shape of the beam of light (11), wherein the control signal comprises a beam shape control signal, wherein the lighting unit (10) further comprises a beam controller (40) arranged to control the shape of the beam of light (11) in response to the beam shape control signal, and wherein the control unit (30) is arranged to determine the location of the horticultural growth(s) (100) from the sensor signal to produce the beam shape control signal.

3. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 2, wherein the control unit (30) and the beam controller (40) are arranged to control the beam of light (11) to illuminate substantially only the horticultural growth(s) (100).

4. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 2, wherein the beam controller (40) comprises an adjustable mechanical optical beam shaping system.

5. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 2, wherein the beam controller (40) comprises one or more optical elements to control the shape of the beam of light (11), selected from the group consisting of an electrowetting lens, a liquid crystalline lens, a controllable scattering element, a controllable diffraction element, a refraction element and a reflection element.

6. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 1, wherein the lighting unit (10) comprises a plurality of light sources (10a′

, 10″

, . . . ).

7. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 6, wherein the lighting unit (10) comprises a plurality of light sources (10a′

, 10a″

, . . . ) with a plurality of different spectra, respectively.

8. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 1, wherein the beam of light (11) consists of light having a variable beam spectrum, and wherein the lighting unit (10) is arranged to control the beam spectrum of the beam of light (11) in response to the control signal, wherein the control signal comprises a spectrum control signal, wherein the lighting unit (10) is further arranged to provide a predefined beam spectrum corresponding to the determined horticultural growth type (100) in response to the spectrum control signal, and wherein the control unit (30) unit is further arranged to determine one of a plurality of predefined types of horticultural growth (100) from the sensor signal and to produce the spectrum control signal.

9. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 1, wherein the beam of light (11) comprises a plurality of individual beams of light (11′

, 11″

, . . . ), wherein the lighting unit (10) is arranged to control the optical properties of the individual beams of light (11′

, 11″

, . . . ), in response to the control signal.

10. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 9, wherein the beam controller (40) comprises a plurality of beam controllers (40′

, 40″

, . . . ), and wherein the beam controllers (40′

, 40″

, . . . ) are arranged to control the optical properties of the individual beams of light (11′

, 11″

′

, . . . ) respectively, in response to the control signal.

11. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 6, wherein the optical property comprises the shape of the beam of light (11), wherein the control signal comprises a beam shape control signal, wherein the lighting unit (10) is arranged to control the shape of the beam of light (11) in response to the beam shape control signal, and wherein the control unit (30) is arranged to determine the location of the horticultural growth(s) (100) from the sensor signal to produce the beam shape control signal.

12. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 1, further comprising an environment sensor (60) selected from the group consisting of a humidity sensor, an irrigation sensor, a temperature sensor, a gas sensor, a nutrient sensor, and a background light sensor, wherein the environment sensor (60) is arranged to generate a environment sensor signal, and wherein the control unit (30) is further arranged to process the environment sensor signal to produce the control signal.

13. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 1, further comprising a specification information sensor (70) selected from the group consisting of RFID sensors, wherein the specification information sensor (70) is arranged to generate a specification information sensor signal, and wherein the control unit (30) is further arranged to process the specification information sensor signal to produce the control signal.

14. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic wave sensor (50) comprises a sensor selected from the group consisting of an IR image sensor and a visible light image sensor.

15. The illumination arrangement (1) according to claim 1, wherein the electromagnetic wave sensor (50) comprises a radar sensor.