SELF-LEARNING OF PLANT GROWTH STRATEGY IN A GREENHOUSE

• US 20140288850A1
• Filed: 10/30/2012
• Published: 09/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Paskal Technologies Agriculture Cooperative Limited
• Original Assignee: Paskal Technologies Agriculture Cooperative Limited
• Inventors: Avigdor, Tzvi, Morag, Omri
• Application Number:
  US14/353,702
• Publication Number:
  US 20140288850A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/19
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 9/12 Supports for plants; Trellis for strawberries or the like trellis-work for vines A01G17/06; stays for trees, props for vines A01G17/14
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 9/143 Equipment for handling produce in greenhouses
• CPC Class Codes: G01G 19/00 Weighing apparatus or methods adapted for special purposes not provided for in the preceding groups electric measuring arrangements involving comparison with a reference value G01R17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01G 19/414 using electronic computing means only
• CPC Class Codes: G01G 19/4144 for controlling weight of goods in commercial establishments, e.g. supermarket, P.O.S. systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01G 23/3735 using a digital network
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0098 Plants or trees wood G01N33/46
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 11/32 with inputs from more than one sensing element; with outputs to more than one correcting element
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 40/25 Greenhouse technology, e.g. cooling systems therefor

Abstract

A system for monitoring plants in a greenhouse, the system comprising: a plurality of weighing units, the weighing units distributed in the greenhouse, each of the weighing units is attached to a single plant or group of plants and comprising means for weighing the plant or group of plants, the weighing units are trellising from an elevated wire at one end and connected to the top end of the plant or group of plants at the opposite end; a communication network comprising means for communicating the weight of the plant or group of plants from the weighing units to a central unit; and a central unit, the central unit comprising means for receiving, storing, processing and analyzing data received from the weighing units through the communication network.

Claims

1-48. -48. (canceled)

49. A system for monitoring plants in a greenhouse, the system comprising:

a plurality of weighing units, the weighing units distributed in the greenhouse, each of the weighing units is attached to a single plant or group of plants and comprising means for weighing the plant or group of plants, the weighing units are trellising from an elevated wire at one end and connected to the top end of the plant or group of plants at the opposite end;

a communication network comprising means for communicating the weight of the plant or group of plants from the weighing units to a central unit; and

a central unit, the central unit comprising means for receiving, storing, processing and analyzing data received from the weighing units through the communication network.

50. The system of claim 49, wherein the weighing unit comprises a housing, the housing comprising connecting sampling and communication electronic means to a scales transducer;

scales for measuring weight of the plant or group of plants, the scales comprising a transducer and temperature measurement means for calibrating measured weight;

sampling means for transforming A/D signaling of the weight and temperature measurements; and

communication means for communicating with the sampling means and between the sampling means and the communication network, wherein the sampling means comprising means for filtering background noise, identifying weighing events, resetting and calibrating, and memory means for storing data, the data comprising plant measured weight and identification data for identifying the weighing unit, preferably the identification data comprising spatial location of the weighing unit, preferably said calibrating is made according to calibration tables stored in the memory of said system.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein said housing of the weighing unit comprises an anchor attached to the upper face of said housing for detachably connecting or disconnecting to said elevated wire, a round contact on said anchor, said round contact connecting to the elevated wire and eliminating side forces from shaking said weighing unit, an upside down triangle for connecting or disconnecting to a hook attached to an upper end of a trellising plant or group of plants, a magnet located inside a groove in said housing for external manual operation of said weighing unit, resetting of scales inside said weighing unit, manual data transmission and manual calibration without opening said housing, said housing is designed ergonomically for safely holding, lifting and attaching/detaching said weighing unit without shaking it or the elevated wire.

52. The system of claim 49, wherein the communication network communicates with the weighing units and with the central unit wirelessly, wherein the communication network comprises repeater-repeater means distributed in the greenhouse and central transmission means located in the greenhouse, the weighing units communicating wirelessly and continuously monitoring communication with the repeater-repeater means, the weighing units and communicating directly with the central transmission means upon failure of communication with the repeater-repeater means, the communication between the weighing units and repeater-repeater means being re-routed according to base signal transmitted from the central transmission means to the repeater-repeater means, the communication between the weighing units and the repeater-repeater means enables synchronizing weighing events taken at selected time intervals by the weighing units.

53. The system of claim 49, further comprising means for monitoring environmental conditions in the greenhouse, the environmental conditions are monitored in the vicinity of the weighing units or at selected locations in the greenhouse, wherein the means for monitoring environmental conditions comprising means for monitoring temperature, air relative humidity, soil relative humidity at the plant bed, concentration levels of carbon dioxide, radiation, irrigation scheduling, drainage, ventilation opening percentage and shading screen, the means for monitoring environmental conditions configured to transmit measurement data to the central unit for data processing and analysis of plant growth in the greenhouse.

54. The system of claim 53, wherein the means for monitoring temperature or air and soil relative humidity comprising a temperature or humidity measuring device placed in the vicinity of the weighing unit, the temperature or humidity device transmits its reading to the weighing unit through wire communication with a wire having sufficient length to allow the temperature or humidity device to stay in place as the weighing unit moves with the trellising system.

55. The system of claim 49, wherein the central unit further comprising means for displaying continuous distribution of the growth data in the greenhouse, possible reasons for their occurrence, statistical comparative analysis between different areas in the greenhouse, different species and treatments in different areas in the greenhouse, and suggesting strategies for improving plants growth to a user.

56. The system of claim 49, wherein said weighing units are detachable from said trellising system, said weighing units may be deployed in the greenhouse according to any pre-selected formation, said formation enabling collecting and analyzing data on plants growth from any particular area in the greenhouse.

57. The system of claim 49, further comprising an internet cloud enabling access to the central unit for retrieving data uploaded by remote computer databases to servers of the internet cloud, uploading data from the central unit accessible to the servers, the data accessible to remote computer databases, processors and monitoring and supervising means.

58. A method for monitoring plants in a greenhouse, the method comprising:

measuring the weight of a plant or group of plants from a top end of the plant or group of plants by a plurality of weighing units distributed in a greenhouse and trellising from an elevated wire between the wire and plants;

measuring values of climate and environmental conditions surrounding the plant or group of plants;

importing climate, environmental and any other growth- and growth-rate affecting conditions data surrounding the greenhouse;

recording the weight values measured in the weighing units;

recording the values of climate and environmental conditions;

transmitting the weight and climate and environmental values to a central unit through a communication network; and

storing, processing, analyzing the weight and climate and environmental values performing continuous dynamic growth simulation updated at regular time intervals and predicting plant growth at a central software in the central unit.

59. The method of claim 58, wherein the measuring of weight is made at selected time intervals between 10 and 30 minutes enabling continuous monitoring of plants weight.

60. The method of claim 58, wherein the weight values are measured with an error range of no more than ±

2 grams for every 10 kg of plant weight.

61. The method of claim 58, further comprising calibrating scales of the weighing unit according to temperature, wherein a calibration curve produced for the calibrating scales is specific for each scale and independent of absolute temperature in the surrounding of the weighing unit.

62. The method of claim 58, further comprising identifying problems in the cultivating, treatment, process and control systems of a greenhouse and providing early and on-line indications on problems and irregularities in growth of the plants, said problems and irregularities comprising irregular irrigation cycles identified in the irrigation system, instabilities in temperature, air and soil humidity, concentration levels of carbon dioxide and radiation.

63. The method of claim 58, further comprising monitoring climate, environmental, labor and growth-affecting conditions in the greenhouse in the vicinity of plants weighed by the weighing units or at selected places in the greenhouse, wherein measured values of said conditions are processed according to specially formulated mathematical equations, the equations setting the ground for correlating between measured climate and environmental conditions and plants growth.

64. The method of claim 58, further comprising filtering background noise, identifying weighing events and identifying weighing units according to identification data, preferably the identification data comprising an identification serial number for spatial location of the weighing units.

65. The method of claim 58, further comprising extracting statistical models for strategy and decision-making for growth of plants in the greenhouse and optimal values of measured parameters and climate and environmental data.

66. The method of claim 58, further comprising providing spatial representation of plants performance and variation of the plants performance with time, the plants performance being expressed in diseases in the plants, growth rate and general response to development process of the plants.

67. A decision support system for operating and managing a greenhouse comprising means for collecting, recording, storing and analyzing plant-related and climate, environmental, labor and growth affecting conditions data, weighting and processing the data, providing comprehensive status of the greenhouse based on continuously updated database, and optimizing yield and economic growth of plants, wherein the means comprising a plurality of weighing units distributed over the greenhouse and wireless communication network comprising repeater-repeater means distributed in the greenhouse and central transmission means located in the greenhouse, the weighing units communicating wirelessly and continuously monitoring communication with the repeater-repeater means, the weighing units and communicating directly with the central transmission means upon failure of communication with the repeater-repeater means, wherein the communication between the weighing units and the repeater means or central transmission means enabling synchronizing weighing events taken at selected time intervals by the weighing units, the plurality of weighing units and wireless communication means enabling the formation of a moving kernel, the moving kernel providing a dynamic image of growth rate of plants in the greenhouse, the image varying with time, wherein a central unit communicating with the central transmission means comprises time-domain filters, spatial-domain filters, smoothing filters and edge-enhancement filters, and wherein the system is configured to predict daily plant growth based on plant growth affecting conditions data collected on last days preceding the day of predicting plant growth.

68. The decision support system of claims 67, wherein the time-domain filters and smoothing filters enable smoothing irregularities and highlighting non-linear events associated with the growth rate of plants, the irregularities comprising picking, deleafing, trimming and lowering, the events comprising variations in climate and environmental conditions in the greenhouse.

69. The decision support system of claim 67, wherein the spatial-domain filters, edge-enhancement filters and smoothing filters enable smoothing and highlighting location-dependent phenomena and defining areas boundaries in the greenhouse according to the phenomena, the location-dependent phenomena comprising local development of plant performance expressed in diseases in the plants, growth rate and general response of the plants, working-boundaries of a worker, areas of non-uniform circulation of humidity, variations in temperature, distribution of pesticides and non-uniformities in plants fertilization.

70. The decision support system of claim 69 further comprising means for correlating between present growth rate and past values of growth-influencing parameters, the means enabling such correlation lacking any in-advance information of the phenomena generating values of the growth-influencing parameters.

71. The decision support system of claim 67 further comprising means for deriving conclusions on the greenhouse operation, the means comprising statistical means for calculating growth rate data in plants in the greenhouse, wherein the means for deriving conclusions on the greenhouse operation enable producing and optimizing economic and cost-effective models of growth of plants in the greenhouse based on accumulated, historical and statistical data and quantifying growth strategy for analysis and decision-making activities.

72. The decision support system of claim 71, wherein the growth strategy comprises optimizing plants growth-rate affecting conditions, the growth-rate affecting conditions comprising fertilization, irrigation and water balance, heating, carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration levels, application of ventilation, screen opening and closing and plant treatment regimens, the plant treatment regimens comprising plants lowering, deleafing, trimming, picking, harvesting and spraying and labor.

73. The decision support system of claim 72, wherein the growth strategy enables a user to maximize profits.