JP2019128703A - System and method for adjusting harvest date in plan factory - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a system and a method for adjusting a harvest date so that plants can be supplied when an amount of market distributions is insufficient due to an abnormal weather.SOLUTION: A harvest date adjustment system comprises: an amount-of-distributions prediction unit which predicts a distribution insufficiency date of open-field plants; an environment apparatus control unit which controls an environment control apparatus so that a harvest prediction date and a harvest setting date will come in a first range; and a production plan unit which changes the harvest setting date to the harvest prediction date when the distribution insufficiency date and the harvest prediction date are in a second range.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to a system and method for adjusting harvest dates of vegetables and fruits grown in a plant factory.

Plant factories include a "total artificial light factory" controlled in a closed environment isolated from the outside, and a "sunlight utilizing factory" using an external environment in a semi-closed environment such as a greenhouse There are “artificial light combined solar power factories” that also use artificial light. In general, cultivation in a plant factory has the advantages of being less susceptible to abnormal weather, stable yields, and consistent quality compared to open-air (open-air) cultivation, but high energy costs for environmental control. There is a demerit that it is price.
As a method for promoting the growth of plants in a plant factory, a method using discharge in Patent Document 1 and a method for increasing CO2 concentration in Patent Document 2 are known.

Japanese Patent No. 6207001 JP 2017-73990 A

In recent years, the frequency of damage to crops due to abnormal weather accompanying global warming has increased. For example, there were four typhoons that landed in Japan in 2017, and the damage to crops by Typhoon No. 18 that crossed Japan in particular in September was 4 billion hectares, rising to 4 billion yen. If there is a typhoon landing or long rain in this way, the amount of harvested vegetables and fruits cultivated in the open air (hereinafter referred to as outdoor products) is drastically reduced, resulting in a lack of stock and rising market prices. .
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system capable of adjusting the harvest date in a plant factory so that cultivated plants can be supplied at a time when the distribution of the exposed material in the market decreases due to natural environment factors. .

The harvest date adjustment system according to the present invention comprises an environmental control device for controlling the cultivation environment of the plant factory, a growth situation monitoring device for detecting the growth situation of the plant, and an environmental sensor for measuring the cultivation environment.
A weather information acquisition unit that acquires local weather information;
A production area information storage unit that stores production area information of the exposed features;
A distribution amount prediction unit that predicts a distribution shortage date of a ground item based on weather information of the area and the production location information;
A harvest forecasting unit for forecasting a harvest forecast date from the growth state;
An environmental device control unit that controls the environmental control device such that the predicted harvest date and the set harvest setting date fall within a first range;
A production planning unit that changes the harvest setting date to the distribution shortage date when the distribution shortage date and the harvest forecast date are within a second range.

According to the present invention, it is possible to adjust the harvest date of the cultivated plant in accordance with the time when the quantity of the distribution of the marketed article runs short due to the factors of the natural environment.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of the present invention. It is a functional block diagram of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence at the time of changing a harvest setting date and environmental control mode. It is a figure which shows the example of a setting of the environmental condition for every environmental control mode. It is a figure which shows the growth degree of a strawberry (fruit). It is a figure which shows the prediction method of a harvest date.

The whole structure of the plant factory using the harvest date adjustment system of this invention is shown in FIG. In the plant factory 1, the cultivation lane 5 is divided into a plurality of sections by a partition plate 4. In the example of FIG. 1, it is divided into two sections, A section and B section, in the left-right direction of the drawing. Although the example of 2 division is shown in FIG. 1, the left and right direction of the drawing may be divided for each cultivation lane 5 without being limited to this, and further in the longitudinal direction of the cultivation lane (the direction of penetrating the paper in the drawing). It may be divided.
The divided sections become the minimum unit for controlling the cultivation environment. For example, in the A section, as an environmental control device, an illumination device 331a, a curtain 332a, a blower 333a, an air conditioner 334a, a CO2 supply device 335a, a control device 3a for controlling these, a growth monitoring device 6 (not shown), and an environmental sensor 7 (Not shown) is installed. The same applies to the B section.
Furthermore, the management apparatus 2 and the nutrient solution supply apparatus 336 are installed in the plant factory 1 of this invention as an apparatus common to each division. However, the nutrient solution supply device 336 can be individually controlled for each of the sections A and B by the valves 338a and 338b.

 In the example of FIG. 1, although the nutrient solution supply apparatus 336 is installed as a common apparatus, you may divide and install in each division. Moreover, although the CO2 supply device is divided and installed in each section, it may be installed as a common device in the same manner as the nutrient solution supply device so that supply control can be individually performed with a valve. Similarly, a blower or an air conditioner may be installed as a common device if an air passage is provided and supply can be controlled to each section by a valve. That is, depending on the installation cost and the ease of control, environmental control devices may be appropriately selected as common installation or divided installation.

The control method of the plant factory of this invention is demonstrated using the functional block diagram of FIG.
The management device 2 is, for example, a personal computer or a mobile terminal. The management device 2 includes a setting input unit 21, a weather information acquisition unit 22, a production area information storage unit 23, a circulation amount prediction unit 24, and a display unit 25.
The setting input unit 21 is an input function, and performs initial setting of harvest setting dates of the sections A and B via this function. The weather information acquisition unit 22 acquires weather information via a network.
The production area information storage unit 23 stores the production area of the dew products, the average production amount in the past several years for each production area, and the average shipment peak time.
The distribution amount prediction unit 24 predicts the distribution shortage date of the outdoor object based on the meteorological information and the production area information of the outdoor object production area.

The display unit 25 receives measurement data such as temperature, humidity, amount of solar radiation, CO2 concentration, and air volume measured by the environment sensor 7 from the control device 3 and displays them on a trend graph. At the same time, it displays and manages harvest setting date and harvest forecast date for each section.
The control device 3 is, for example, a PLC (programmable logic controller), and includes a CPU (central processing unit), a communication interface, and a memory. In addition, a production planning unit 31, a harvest predicting unit 32, and an environmental device control unit 33 are provided as application software.
The harvest prediction unit 32 predicts the predicted harvest date from the detection value of the growth status monitoring device 6.
The environmental device control unit 33 is provided with environmental sensors 7 such as a thermometer, a hygrometer, a solar radiation meter, and a CO2 concentration meter so that the predicted harvest date and the set harvest date fall within the first range (for example, ± 1.5 days) Control environmental control equipment using measurement data. The first range varies depending on the type of plant to be cultivated and the same plant depending on the variety. The environmental control devices are a lighting device 331, a curtain 332, a blower 333, an air conditioner 334, a CO2 supply device 335, and a nutrient solution supply device 336. When the harvest setting date is changed by the production planning unit 31, the environment control mode is changed from the normal mode to the promotion mode or the suppression mode. Details will be described later.
The production planning unit 31 collects measurement data of the environmental sensor 7 such as a thermometer, a hygrometer, a solar radiation meter, a CO2 concentration meter, and transmits it to the management device 2. Further, when the distribution shortage date is within the second range (for example, ± 7 days) of the harvest setting date, the harvest setting date of the section is changed to the distribution shortage date.

In addition, although the management apparatus 2 and the control apparatus 3 are divided in this example, the management apparatus 2 and the control apparatus 3 may be integrated. Further, each function of the management device 2 and the control device 3 is not limited to this example, and may be provided in either one.
A method for predicting the harvest date will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the degree of growth of strawberry (fruit). Strawberry fruits are initially white in color (Fig. 5a). As this increases, it begins to change from the tip to a fully ripe red (FIG. 5b). As the growth further proceeds, the red color gradually spreads toward the upper end (FIG. 5c). During the harvest season, the whole is almost red (FIG. 5d). FIG. 6 shows a method for predicting the harvest date, using the ratio of the area of the complete ripe color (red) with respect to the actual whole as an evaluation index for determining the harvest date. In addition, the area ratio of the mature color is extracted from the image of the CCD color camera, a pixel corresponding to white which is an actual initial color and a pixel corresponding to red which is an actual mature color. And dividing by the total number of white pixels. The ratio of the daily mature color is plotted, approximate lines of these plot points are obtained, and the harvest date is predicted from the slope of the approximate line. The slope of the approximate line represents the growth rate, and the number of hours required for harvesting can be obtained from Equation 1.
[Harvest set value (%)-Current value (%)] ÷ Growth rate (% / hour)
In the above-described harvest prediction, an example in which a CCD color camera is used as a color change and its detection means is shown, but this is not restrictive. For example, sugar content may be used as an evaluation index for harvest date, and the detecting means may be an infrared sugar content meter. In the case of leafy vegetables, the size may simply be used as the evaluation index, and the detection means may be a CCD black and white camera. That is, the harvest date prediction method in the present invention is to determine some evaluation index related to the harvest date, and to obtain the rate of change of the evaluation index over time (corresponding to the growth rate of plants).

FIG. 6 also shows harvest date prediction when the harvest setting date is changed and the environmental control mode is changed accordingly. When the environmental control mode is changed, the harvest date is newly predicted from the slope of the approximate straight line of the plot points in the changed environmental control mode.
Next, a procedure for dynamically changing the harvest setting date will be described with reference to FIG. The process shown in FIG. 3 is cyclically executed at predetermined intervals.
In step S1, the weather information acquisition unit 22 acquires a weather forecast from the Meteorological Agency via the network. The weather forecast is divided into three levels from the alert level. There are six types of special alarms, “When the risk of serious disasters is extremely high and the highest level of caution is required,” and seven types of alarms are used: “When there is a risk of serious disasters and requires caution.” There are 16 types of information, “when a disaster may occur and attention is required”.
In step S2, the presence or absence of an alarm is determined. If the special alarm and the alarm are issued, the process proceeds to step S3. If the warning or nothing is issued, the area where the alarm is issued is stored in the production place information storage unit 23 in step S3. It is judged whether or not it coincides with the outdoor production area. If they match, the process proceeds to step S4, and if they do not match, the process ends.

 In step S4, the distribution amount prediction unit 24 predicts a day when the amount of distribution in the market runs short. Assuming that the market price soaring date is the distribution shortage date, the average value of the difference between the warning date and the market price soaring date in the past case is predicted as the number of days until the circulation amount is insufficient. Not limited to this, alarm level (special alarm or alarm), alarm type (heavy rain, heavy snow, storm etc), alarm date, damage occurrence day (typhoon passing day, heavy rain rainfall day etc), past results of price soaring day You may make it predict a distribution shortage day using the database learned by machine learning.

 In step S5, a section candidate whose harvest setting date is to be changed is extracted, and one examination section is selected. If the number of divisions of divisions is as small as two divisions as in this example, all divisions may be extracted unconditionally as change candidates. When the number of sections is large, a section where the growing stage has come to the end may be extracted. When returning from step S8, an unselected section is selected again.

 In step S6, the range in which the harvest date can be adjusted is about one week (about ± 7 days), and it is determined whether or not the harvest setting date of the extracted section candidate can be changed on the distribution shortage day predicted in step S4. If the current harvest forecast date and the distribution shortage date predicted in step 4 are within the second range (for example, ± 7 days), the process proceeds to step S7, and if outside the range, the process is terminated.

 In step S7, the current harvest setting date is changed to the distribution shortage day predicted in step 4, and the environmental control mode is changed from the normal mode to the suppression mode when delaying the harvest date and to the promotion mode when advancing the harvest date.

In step S8, it is determined whether or not all the candidates extracted in step S5 have been examined. If not completed, the process returns to step S5. If it has been completed, the process ends.
A method for adjusting the harvest date will be described with reference to FIG.
Plants grow by photosynthesis. The four major elements of environmental factors of photosynthesis are light intensity, light irradiation time (day length), temperature, and CO2 concentration. In general, the higher these four elements, the more active photosynthesis.
In the present invention, the environmental control mode is divided into three modes, a normal mode, a promotion mode, and a suppression mode.

The normal mode is set so that the plant tastes best or the nutritional value is maximized, and the damage to the plant is minimized. Naturally, this set value differs depending on the type of plant to be grown, and even on the same plant.
The promotion mode is a mode in which the setting value is increased compared to the normal mode as shown in FIG. 4 in order to promote photosynthesis. In this mode, photosynthesis is activated and the growth rate is increased, but the damage to plants tends to increase and the taste and nutritional value tend to decrease.
The suppression mode is a mode in which the set value is reduced as compared with the normal mode as shown in FIG. 4 in order to suppress photosynthesis. Unlike the promotion mode, this mode has no particular adverse effects.

In FIG. 4, the set value of the nutrient solution is not changed because the control is performed to replenish the components that are absorbed and reduced by the plant. The reason why the air volume is increased or stopped is to increase or decrease the transpiration rate from the leaves and to promote or suppress nutrient absorption from the roots. In the present invention, the growth rate of plants is controlled by the four major elements of photosynthesis and the air volume, and the harvest date is adjusted.
As described above, according to the present invention, the harvest date can be adjusted, which helps when a disaster occurs. As a secondary effect, plant plant managers can expect high-sale sales, so stable management can be expected.

Reference Signs List 1 plant factory 2 management apparatus 21 setting input unit 22 weather information acquisition unit 23 production location information storage unit 24 distribution amount prediction unit 25 display unit 3 control device 31 production planning unit 32 harvest prediction unit 33 environmental device control unit 331 lighting device 332 curtain 333 Blower 334 Air conditioner 335 CO2 supply device 336 Nutrient solution supply device 337 Valve (CO2)
338 valve (nutrient solution)
4 Partition plate 5 Cultivation lane 6 Growth condition monitoring device 7 Environmental sensor

Claims (9)

In a harvest date adjustment system comprising an environment control device that controls the cultivation environment of a plant factory, a growth condition monitoring device that detects the growth condition of the plant, and an environmental sensor that measures the cultivation environment,
A weather information acquisition unit that acquires local weather information;
A production area information storage unit that stores production area information of the exposed features;
A distribution amount prediction unit that predicts a distribution shortage date of a ground item based on weather information of the area and the production location information;
A harvest forecasting unit for forecasting a harvest forecast date from the growth state;
An environmental device control unit that controls the environmental control device such that the predicted harvest date and the set harvest setting date fall within a first range;
A production planning unit for changing the harvest setting date to the distribution shortage date when the distribution shortage date and the predicted harvest date are within a second range;
A harvest date adjustment system characterized by comprising: The harvesting date adjustment system according to claim 1, wherein the plant factory is divided into a plurality of sections, and a harvest setting date is set for each section. The production site information is a plurality of production sites of the open place of plants grown in a plant factory, an average production amount in the past several years for each production site, and an average shipping peak time. The harvest date adjustment system according to 1.   The harvest prediction unit linearly approximates a time change of a predetermined harvest time evaluation index, takes the inclination of the straight line as a growth rate, and calculates a difference between a harvest setting value of the harvest time index and a current value of the harvest time index. The harvest date adjustment system according to claim 1, wherein the harvest rate is predicted by dividing by the growth rate.   The environmental device control unit has a normal mode, a promotion mode, and a suppression mode as an environmental control mode, and when the production planning unit advances the harvest setting date, changing the control mode to the promotion mode. The harvest date adjusting system according to claim 1, wherein the harvest date is adjusted.   The environmental device control unit has a normal mode, a promotion mode, and a suppression mode as an environmental control mode, and when the production planning unit delays the harvest setting date, changing the control mode to the suppression mode. The harvest date adjusting system according to claim 1, wherein the harvest date is adjusted.   6. The harvest date adjustment system according to claim 5, wherein the promotion mode increases at least one of a set value of light intensity, light irradiation time, temperature, CO2 concentration, and air volume.   The harvest date adjustment system according to claim 6, wherein the suppression mode decreases at least one of set values of light intensity, light irradiation time, temperature, CO2 concentration, and air volume. In a harvest date adjustment method using an environmental control device for controlling a cultivation environment of a plant factory, a growth situation monitoring device for detecting a growth situation of a plant, and an environmental sensor for measuring the cultivation environment,
A meteorological information acquisition step for acquiring local weather information;
Information on the production site of open-place objects,
A distribution amount prediction step of predicting a distribution shortage date of a ground item based on the weather information of the area and the production location information;
A harvest prediction step for predicting a predicted harvest date from the growth state;
An environmental equipment control step for controlling the environmental control equipment so that the predicted harvest date and the set harvest date are within a first range;
A production planning step for changing the harvest setting date to the distribution shortage date when the distribution shortage date and the predicted harvest date are within a second range;
A method for adjusting harvest date, comprising: