KR20230044721A - Smart growing environment mirroring system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a smart cultivation environment mirroring system which uses the recipe of a desirable outdoor farm for cultivation environmental conditions in a plant factory as it is or further improves the same. Accordingly, the smart cultivation environment mirroring system according to one aspect of the present invention comprises: a server in which cultivation recipes of external farms, which are mirroring targets, are collected; and a control unit which calculates an application recipe to be applied to the plant factory according to the cultivation recipes. The application recipe is applied by increasing or decreasing one of the values of each component constituting the cultivation recipe.

Description

Smart cultivation environment mirroring system {SMART GROWING ENVIRONMENT MIRRORING SYSTEM}

The present invention relates to a mirroring system, and more particularly, to a smart cultivation environment mirroring system that applies the environment of an outdoor farm having a desirable crop yield to a plant factory as it is.

A plant factory is a technology that produces plants in a closed space in which the internal environment is controlled.

Recently, the demand for urban indoor vertical farms, which are sustainable and can stably produce high-quality agricultural products throughout the year without affecting the surrounding environment, is greatly increasing, and the emergence of related foreign companies that have already invested more than 100 billion won proves this.

Currently, the possibility of growing indoor vertical farms has been verified by domestic and foreign companies through their own facilities and technologies. The economics of the farm also show promise.

These plant factories theoretically have a stable supply, are not affected by weather changes such as cooling or riots, typhoons, and are not damaged by pathogens or pests. In addition, it is mentioned as an advantage that crops can be supplied at a stable price. In addition, since plant factories have high stability and no invasion of pathogens or pests, spraying of pesticides for their prevention and control is not required, and safe production without pesticides is expected to be possible.

However, the plant factories developed so far are still in their infancy. In other words, controlling the closed environment of the plant factory requires very detailed control and, in addition, requires a plan to lower the production cost, but it is necessary to control the abstract structure of the plant factory and the environment for crop cultivation as in the prior art literature. Only the contents are being disclosed.

Furthermore, it is expected that plant factories will be able to become competitive by first securing recipe data on the cultivation method for each crop. Furthermore, when the environmental conditions of the target outdoor farm are introduced into the recipe, the production efficiency is expected to further increase, but related research is insufficient.

Korea Patent No. 10-2128166 (2020.6.23) Plant cultivation system

The present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a smart cultivation environment mirroring system that uses the recipe of a desirable outdoor farm as it is or further enhances the cultivation environment conditions of a plant factory.

In addition, the purpose of the present invention is to first secure recipe data on the cultivation method for each crop while the gaps in specifications and prices for facilities and components of indoor vertical farms at home and abroad gradually converge and it is necessary to respond to latecomers. Since this can be, we want to provide a completely controlled automatic cultivation environment mirroring control system technology so that the recipe can be accurately reflected.

In addition, the purpose of the present invention is a system to prove the same quality by collecting the climatic environment (temperature, humidity, illumination, wind speed, carbon dioxide) of the crop to be grown and mirroring it in our test farm. The collected data is stored as a base recipe and provides a smart cultivation environment mirroring system that is used in the next crop. In addition, the present invention provides a smart cultivation environment mirroring system that automatically evaluates data on environmental control information by collecting image data of the growth state of crops and comparing them for each cropping season.

A smart cultivation environment mirroring system according to an aspect of the present invention includes a server in which cultivation recipes of an external farm as a mirroring target are collected, and a control unit calculating an application recipe to be applied to a plant factory according to the cultivation recipe, wherein the application recipe is It is applied by increasing or decreasing any one of the values of each component constituting the cultivation recipe.

At this time, the cultivation recipe includes atmospheric temperature, atmospheric humidity, illuminance, CO ₂ concentration, and wind speed, and the application recipe may further include irrigation cycle, water temperature, and ethylene concentration.

In addition, the application recipe may be formed such that air temperature, illuminance, and CO ₂ concentration are increased compared to the cultivation recipe.

In addition, the application recipe may be formed so that the wind speed is reduced compared to the cultivation recipe and applied to crops.

In addition, the irrigation cycle may set a water supply time and a rest time according to the set oxygen supply time.

In addition, the plant factory may further include a light source applied to the crop, and the light source may be set to increase the illuminance of the light applied to the crop to the light saturation point when the illuminance of the cultivation recipe is less than the light saturation point of the crop.

In addition, the plant factory further includes a light source applied to crops, the light source turns on the light source when the environment in which the plant factory is placed is night time, and the outside is day time In this case, the light source may be turned off.

In addition, the application recipe further includes an ethylene concentration, and the control of the ethylene concentration may be performed together with the control of the CO2 concentration.

In addition, the application recipe may further include the EC of the nutrient solution and the pH of the nutrient solution.

Also, the mirroring target may include a plurality of targets distributed at different latitudes.

In addition, the smart cultivation environment mirroring system further includes a sensor unit for detecting the growth state of crops, and the controller may change an applied recipe according to the increase or decrease in crop growth or the occurrence of tip burn.

In addition, the sensor unit detects a shaking state of crops according to the wind speed of the applied recipe, and the control unit can increase or decrease the wind speed when it is out of a set range.

In the present invention, in the process of applying the cultivation recipe of the mirroring target to the crops of the plant factory, specific conditions are changed or an application recipe in which specific conditions are added is calculated, so that smart mirroring of a more detailed cultivation environment is implemented.

1 is a configuration diagram of a smart cultivation environment mirroring system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a list of cultivation recipes in the mirroring target of FIG. 1 .
FIG. 3 is a view showing the sensor unit of FIG. 1 in more detail.
FIG. 4 is a view showing the control device of FIG. 1 in more detail.
5 is a photograph taken of the cultivation module of FIG. 1 .
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a user interface showing data collection from the mirroring target of FIG. 1 .

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail so that those skilled in the art can easily implement it. Since the present invention can have various changes and various embodiments, it will be described in detail by exemplifying specific embodiments in the drawings. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific embodiments, and should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Terms including ordinal numbers, such as first and second, may be used to describe various components, but the components are not limited by the terms. These terms are only used for the purpose of distinguishing one component from another.

For example, a first element may be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element may be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of the present invention. The terms and/or include any combination of a plurality of related recited items or any of a plurality of related recited items.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning in the context of the related art, and unless explicitly defined in the present application, they should not be interpreted in an ideal or excessively formal meaning. don't

Hereinafter, a smart cultivation environment mirroring system 1000 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a smart cultivation environment mirroring system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the enumeration of cultivation recipes in the mirroring target of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a detailed view of the sensor unit of FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the control device of FIG. 1 in more detail.

Referring to FIG. 1 , a smart mirroring system according to an embodiment of the present invention is composed of a server 500 that collects cultivation recipes from a mirroring target 10 of an external farm and a plant factory P. In addition, the plant factory P includes a sensor unit 100, a control unit 200, a control device 300, and a cultivation module 400.

First of all, the smart cultivation environment mirroring system according to an embodiment of the present invention is characterized by applying the environmental conditions of the mirroring target 10 as a cultivation recipe to a plant factory. Here, the mirroring target 100 refers to optimized environmental conditions of an external farm, which will be referred to as a cultivation recipe. In addition, what is applied to the plant factory based on the cultivation recipe of the mirroring target will be referred to as an application recipe.

At this time, referring to FIG. 2, the smart cultivation environment mirror system 1000 according to an embodiment of the present invention collects the environmental conditions of the mirroring target 10. Here, the environmental conditions include air temperature 11 and atmospheric humidity 12. ), CO2 concentration (13), wind speed (14) and illuminance (15) are collected.

In conventional plant factories, only temperature and humidity inside the plant factory were controlled without considering air temperature and humidity. Therefore, since the problem of discrepancies in the desired growth environment of actual crops was derived, the smart cultivation environment mirroring system according to this embodiment is characterized in that the plant factory mirrors even the atmospheric temperature and atmospheric humidity.

At this time, when the temperature inside the plant factory is raised according to the air temperature, the growth rate of crops such as leafy vegetables can be increased, and on the contrary, when the air temperature is lowered, the growth rate of the crops can be controlled to be suppressed. At this time, proper temperature control prevents physiological disorders due to rapid growth. In addition, the atmospheric humidity of the target is a very important factor to be collected in the cultivation recipe, as the transpiration of crops can be controlled according to atmospheric humidity.

In addition, for proper photosynthesis, the CO ₂ concentration 13 and illuminance 15 of the mirroring target 10 are very important factors for photosynthesis. Therefore, the cultivation recipe includes CO2 concentration and illuminance.

However, in the case of the application recipe described later, it is characterized in that any one of the values of each component constituting the cultivation recipe is increased or decreased and applied. This is because it is difficult to mirror the entire environment of the mirroring target to the plant factory as it is, so mirroring consistency can be increased when one or more values are varied and applied to the plant factory, even though key conditions among the environmental conditions of the mirroring target are mirrored. am.

Accordingly, in order to increase the growth of crops, it is preferable to increase the atmospheric temperature, illuminance, and CO2 concentration in the application recipe than those in the cultivation recipe.

In addition, in the case of wind speed, when the air around the leaves is stagnant, a thick leaf boundary layer may be generated on the surface of the leaves of crops, which is a very essential mirroring condition to be detected. Therefore, the smart cultivation environment mirroring system according to the present embodiment first counts the wind speed of the outside air into the plant factory and applies a wind speed within a set range according to the crop to increase the CO2 diffusion coefficient into the leaf.

However, in a closed plant factory, the influence of wind speed may be much greater than that of outdoor air. Therefore, it is preferable to limit the actually applied wind speed within a set value.

However, in order to collect more detailed cultivation conditions, it is preferable to have a plurality of mirroring targets. Furthermore, it is more preferable for generalization of environmental conditions that the latitudes at which the mirroring targets are arranged are configured to be arranged at different latitudes.

On the other hand, the sensor unit 100 serves to detect whether the plant factory is controlled by environmental conditions according to the application recipe. To this end, the sensor unit 100 includes a temperature sensor 101 for detecting internal temperature, a humidity sensor 102 for detecting internal humidity, a CO ₂ sensor 103 for measuring internal CO ₂ concentration, and wind speed measurement. It comprises a wind speed sensor 104, and an illuminance sensor 105 to do. These sensors serve to sense the inside of the plant factory to match the environmental conditions of the aforementioned mirroring target.

However, as described above, the smart cultivation environment mirroring system 1000 according to the present embodiment calculates the application recipe separately from the cultivation recipe, and the application recipe further includes other environmental conditions in the cultivation recipe to increase the degree of environmental consistency. desirable.

Therefore, the application recipe in this embodiment is configured to further include the water temperature of the nutrient solution, the concentration of ethylene gas, and the pH / EC of the nutrient solution, the water temperature sensor 106 for the water temperature of the nutrient solution, and the ethylene sensor 107 for the concentration of ethylene gas ), the pH of the nutrient solution is measured by the pH sensor 108, and the EC of the nutrient solution is measured by the EC sensor 109. Furthermore, the camera 110 collects growth data by capturing an image of the appearance of the crop.

Meanwhile, the control unit 200 serves to control the control device 300 so that the application recipe state is continuously maintained according to the detected value of the sensor unit 100 . The control device 300 refers to an individual device that is disposed inside the plant factory and implements environmental conditions according to an applied recipe. To this end, the control device 300 includes an air conditioner 311, a dehumidifier 312, a CO2 valve 313, a fan 314, a light source 315, a heater 316, a ventilation valve 317, a doser 318, and It is configured to include a water pump 319.

The air conditioner 311 serves to mirror the temperature inside the plant factory according to the air temperature described above. However, as described above, as the temperature increases, the growth rate of crops such as leafy vegetables may increase, and when the temperature is lowered, the growth rate may be suppressed. Accordingly, the air conditioner 311 can be set to increase the temperature when increasing the growth rate of crops, and operate to lower the temperature appropriately when physiological disorders are to be prevented.

The dehumidifier 312 is operated to lower the humidity inside the plant factory to facilitate transpiration. In the case of the dehumidifier 312, since it is most preferable to apply the humidity of the mirroring target as it is, it is preferable to operate the dehumidifier 312 to maintain the target humidity without a separate increase or decrease. However, since the heat source generated during operation of the dehumidifier 312 serves to increase the internal temperature, it is more preferable that the operation time of the air conditioner is determined by reflecting the temperature increase at this time.

The CO ₂ valve 313 serves to maintain the CO ₂ concentration inside the plant factory above a set value for smooth photosynthesis. However, in the case of CO ₂ concentration, it is preferable for the growth of crops to apply a higher concentration than that of the mirroring target. Therefore, the CO ₂ valve 313 preferably sets the CO ₂ concentration to a value greater than the mirroring value in order to increase the photosynthetic action by 50 to 100%. At this time, for example, the concentration of CO ₂ is preferably maintained at 1500 ppm above 350 ppm during photosynthetic operation.

The fan 314 implements the above-described wind speed in the outside air inside the plant factory. As described above, when the air around the leaf is stagnant, a thick leaf boundary layer is formed on the leaf surface, and as the leaf boundary layer becomes thick, the inflow of CO and the emission of water vapor are suppressed. The thickness of the foliar boundary layer tends to be the thickest at the apex of the leaf.

That is, when the wind speed decreases, the diffusion coefficient of CO2 into the leaf decreases and transpiration decreases. Accordingly, the fan 314 serves to directly apply this wind speed to the crop.

However, in the case of accurate mirroring, since the inside of the plant factory is a closed environment, a stronger wind speed is applied to the crops. At this time, if the wind speed is too fast, transpiration increases rapidly, leaf temperature decreases, and the vapor pressure difference between the leaves and the surroundings decreases, reducing transpiration.

Therefore, inside the plant factory, it is necessary to limit and apply the wind speed below the set value according to the crop. Furthermore, since CO2 absorption or transpiration occurring on the plant leaf surface is performed in the absence of wind, it is desirable to maintain the wind speed at several tens of cm/sec in this case.

The light source 315 may use LED lighting, and it is preferable to mix and use red-based light to compensate for red-based light, which is a wavelength peak lacking in normal white light and normal white light. In addition, at this time, when the light emitted by using the blue-based bare chip is excited by the phosphor and expresses white, the blue-based wavelength peak is struck and can be used to supplement the blue-based light required for photosynthesis. In the case where the wavelength peak of the bare chip itself is light separated from the blue series, it is also desirable to add another LED separately emitting blue light. Accordingly, the growth rate can be increased by allowing the chlorophyll of crops to mainly absorb blue-violet light (430-460 nm) and red light (630-680 nm).

In addition, it is preferable that the emitted light of the light source 315 associated with such growth is continuously emitted (turned on) or turned off for a predetermined period of time. However, when the light source 315 is turned on, it itself serves as a heater together. Furthermore, when the outside is daytime, the temperature increase additionally caused by the light source is added to the relatively high daytime temperature. In the case where the temperature is lowered by separately controlling the air conditioner, the production cost is greatly increased. In addition, even if the light source is turned off even when the outside is at night time, the production cost is greatly increased even when the relatively low outside air is introduced and the temperature is additionally increased.

Therefore, when the outside is daytime, it is preferable to turn off the light source to induce respiration, which is the resting period of the plant, and to induce photosynthesis and growth of the plant by turning on the light source when the outside is night time. Therefore, it is also preferable that the smart cultivation environment mirroring system according to the present embodiment basically controls the light source by reversing day and night.

In addition, it may be desirable for the light source 315 to apply light having an illuminance in a range higher than the illuminance of the cultivation recipe to the crop. This is because when the intensity of light is increased, the amount of photosynthesis continues to increase until the light saturation point. Therefore, when the illuminance of the cultivation recipe is smaller than the light saturation point of the crop, it is preferable to increase the illuminance of the light applied to the crop as an application recipe to the light saturation point, so the conditions are changed to perform mirroring.

The heater 316 controls the temperature of water or nutrient solution in the plant factory. When the water temperature is lowered, the amount of dissolved oxygen rises, making it easier to supply oxygen to the roots in hydroponic cultivation using a medium such as drip irrigation rather than the NFT method. Thus, the heater serves to control the environmental conditions that exist only in the application recipe.

The ventilation valve 317 is operated to take the gas inside the plant factory to the outside. When crops are cultivated, ethylene gas and the like are generated by hormones produced by plants, which accelerates the aging of crops. Therefore, when the ethylene sensor 107 detects an excess of the concentration, the ventilation valve 317 is opened to introduce outside air. However, in the present embodiment, when the ventilation valve is opened to control the ethylene concentration, CO ₂ is discharged to the outside together. Therefore, when the ventilation valve is operated, it is preferable that the CO ₂ valve is operated together so that the lost CO ₂ is immediately drawn in so that an appropriate CO ₂ concentration is maintained.

The doser 318 maintains the acidity (pH) and electrical conductivity (EC) of the water or nutrient solution measured by the pH sensor and the EC sensor at set values. Since the absorption of macro/microelements differs depending on the degree of pH, the appropriate pH is different for each crop, and the pH changes according to the absorption of nutrients and water by the crop, the doser is operated to maintain a constant pH. In addition, the doser serves to efficiently and easily manage the culture medium by checking the concentration of ions contained in the water or nutrient solution. At this time, the doser operates in a way that replenishes the EC that falls through nutrient absorption when growing crops.

The water pump 319 supplies water to the cultivation module 400 where crops are placed, and serves to move water or nutrient solution from the lower part to the upper part. The nutrient solution moved to the upper part is supplied to each crop, and the surplus nutrient solution is again dropped into a watering can (not shown) at the bottom to be collected.

However, when the flow of water by the water pump is not sensed, it is preferable to turn off the aforementioned light source 315. This is because when the light source 315 is turned on while no nutrient solution is supplied to each crop because the flow of water is not detected, photosynthesis and transpiration of the crop must be quickly blocked to prevent death of the crop.

At this time, it is preferable that the control unit 200 blocks the operation of the water pump 319 together. The nutrient solution moves the cultivation module 400 by the water pump 319. In this case, since the light source is blocked, cooling of the crops has occurred. By the way, the nutrient solution moving the cultivation module 400 by the water pump 319 plays a role of secondary cooling of crops. Therefore, in order to suppress excessive cooling, when the flow of water is not sensed, it is preferable to turn off the light source 315 and control the operation of the water pump 319 to stop at the same time.

In addition, as for the irrigation cycle of the water pump 319, it is preferable that the water supply time and the idle time are separately set according to the oxygen supply time set for each crop. Therefore, environmental conditions for water supply are preferably an exception to the mirroring target.

At this time, in the case of NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) hydroponic cultivation, oxygen can be supplied to the roots when irrigation is stopped, so if the rest period is reduced, the oxygen supply time is reduced, and if the water supply time is reduced, the nutrient solution supply time This is reduced and appropriately coordinated for each crop to operate.

Meanwhile, the above-described sensor unit includes a camera 110, and the camera 110 captures images of crops. From the captured data, the control unit 200 determines the increase or decrease in crop growth or the occurrence of tip burn. In this case, if growth is reduced, the frequency of occurrence of tip burns is greater than the set value, or the area of tip burns is larger than the set value, it is determined that there is a problem with the applied recipe, and the control unit preferably changes the applied recipe.

In addition, the camera also captures shaking when the wind speed according to the application recipe is applied to the crop. At this time, even if the wind speed is within the set value, if the leaves rub against each other, crop damage may occur, so the fan is controlled to form a lower wind speed.

In the above specification and drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed, and although specific terms are used, they are only used in a general sense to easily explain the technical content of the present invention and help understanding of the present invention, but the present invention It is not intended to limit the scope of It is obvious to those skilled in the art that other modified examples based on the technical spirit of the present invention can be implemented in addition to the embodiments disclosed herein.

1000: Smart cultivation environment mirroring system
10: mirroring target
100: sensor unit
200: control unit
300: control device
400: cultivation module
500: server

Claims (12)

A server in which cultivation recipes of external farms, which are mirroring targets, are collected; and
a controller for calculating an application recipe to be applied to a plant factory according to the cultivation recipe;
including,
The application recipe is a smart cultivation environment mirroring system, characterized in that applied by increasing or decreasing any one of the values of each component constituting the cultivation recipe.
According to claim 1,
The cultivation recipe comprises atmospheric temperature, atmospheric humidity, illuminance, CO ₂ concentration and wind speed, and the application recipe further comprises irrigation cycle, water temperature, and ethylene concentration. Smart cultivation environment mirroring system.
According to claim 2,
The applied recipe is a smart cultivation environment mirroring system, characterized in that the atmospheric temperature, illuminance and CO ₂ concentration are formed to increase compared to the cultivation recipe.
According to claim 2,
The application recipe is a smart cultivation environment mirroring system, characterized in that the wind speed is formed to be reduced compared to the cultivation recipe and applied to the crop.
According to claim 2,
The irrigation cycle is a smart cultivation environment mirroring system, characterized in that for setting the water supply time and the idle time according to the set oxygen supply time.
According to claim 2,
The plant factory further includes a light source applied to the crop, and the light source increases the illuminance of the light applied to the crop to the light saturation point when the illuminance of the cultivation recipe is smaller than the light saturation point of the crop. .
According to claim 2,
The plant factory further includes a light source applied to crops, the light source turns on the light source when the environment in which the plant factory is placed is night time, and when the outside is day time Smart cultivation environment mirroring system, characterized in that for turning off the light source.
According to claim 2,
The application recipe further includes an ethylene concentration, and the control of the ethylene concentration is performed together with the control of the CO ₂ concentration.
According to claim 2,
The smart cultivation environment mirroring system, characterized in that the application recipe further comprises the EC of the nutrient solution and the pH of the nutrient solution.
According to claim 1,
The smart cultivation environment mirroring system, characterized in that the mirroring target consists of a plurality of targets distributed at different latitudes.
According to claim 1,
The smart cultivation environment mirroring system further includes a sensor unit for detecting the growth state of the crop, and the controller changes the applied recipe according to the increase or decrease in the growth of the crop or the occurrence of tip burn Smart cultivation environment mirroring system.
According to claim 11,
The smart cultivation environment mirroring system, characterized in that the sensor unit detects the shaking state of the crop according to the wind speed of the applied recipe, and the control unit increases or decreases the wind speed when it is out of a set range.

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