Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

A practical solution for multivariable control of temperature and humidity in greenhouses

García-Mañas, Francisco ; Hägglund, Tore LU ; Guzmán, José Luis ; Rodríguez, Francisco and Berenguel, Manuel (2024) In European Journal of Control 77.
Abstract

This paper presents a simple and effective control solution to regulate temperature and humidity inside a greenhouse, which are the main climatic variables affecting crop growth and health. A multivariable control strategy with inverted decoupling is proposed in two schemes. The nighttime control scheme uses heating and dehumidification, and the daytime control scheme uses natural ventilation, dehumidification, and humidification. A system identification methodology is used to obtain low-order linear models from data measured in a greenhouse. This simplifies the design of proportional–integral (PI) controllers and allows the use of well-known control techniques. For instance, anti-windup is used to deal with the saturation of the... (More)

This paper presents a simple and effective control solution to regulate temperature and humidity inside a greenhouse, which are the main climatic variables affecting crop growth and health. A multivariable control strategy with inverted decoupling is proposed in two schemes. The nighttime control scheme uses heating and dehumidification, and the daytime control scheme uses natural ventilation, dehumidification, and humidification. A system identification methodology is used to obtain low-order linear models from data measured in a greenhouse. This simplifies the design of proportional–integral (PI) controllers and allows the use of well-known control techniques. For instance, anti-windup is used to deal with the saturation of the actuators and for a bumpless transfer mechanism to switch between the nighttime and the daytime control schemes. Setpoint weighting is used for the humidity controllers to attenuate undesired effects on the temperature control loop when the humidity setpoint is changed. Furthermore, split range control is used for the first time to control humidity by combining a heat-pump dehumidifier and a fogging system. The control solution presented in this work allows the integral absolute error to be reduced, on average, by 88.5% for the interactions affecting the temperature control loop, and by 85.6% for the humidity control loop, compared to decentralized PI control. The control schemes have been tested in simulation with real disturbance data from a Mediterranean greenhouse and in preliminary form in a real facility to conclude that the proposed multivariable control strategy could be effective in decoupling the temperature and the humidity control loops.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Agriculture, Greenhouse climate, Inverted decoupling, Process control, Split range control, System identification
in
European Journal of Control
volume
77
article number
100967
publisher
Lavoisier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85186511544
ISSN
0947-3580
DOI
10.1016/j.ejcon.2024.100967
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0f61ca65-87e7-493b-b4e4-30747645bbfc
date added to LUP
2024-03-14 14:39:31
date last changed
2024-03-14 14:39:43
@article{0f61ca65-87e7-493b-b4e4-30747645bbfc,
  abstract     = {{<p>This paper presents a simple and effective control solution to regulate temperature and humidity inside a greenhouse, which are the main climatic variables affecting crop growth and health. A multivariable control strategy with inverted decoupling is proposed in two schemes. The nighttime control scheme uses heating and dehumidification, and the daytime control scheme uses natural ventilation, dehumidification, and humidification. A system identification methodology is used to obtain low-order linear models from data measured in a greenhouse. This simplifies the design of proportional–integral (PI) controllers and allows the use of well-known control techniques. For instance, anti-windup is used to deal with the saturation of the actuators and for a bumpless transfer mechanism to switch between the nighttime and the daytime control schemes. Setpoint weighting is used for the humidity controllers to attenuate undesired effects on the temperature control loop when the humidity setpoint is changed. Furthermore, split range control is used for the first time to control humidity by combining a heat-pump dehumidifier and a fogging system. The control solution presented in this work allows the integral absolute error to be reduced, on average, by 88.5% for the interactions affecting the temperature control loop, and by 85.6% for the humidity control loop, compared to decentralized PI control. The control schemes have been tested in simulation with real disturbance data from a Mediterranean greenhouse and in preliminary form in a real facility to conclude that the proposed multivariable control strategy could be effective in decoupling the temperature and the humidity control loops.</p>}},
  author       = {{García-Mañas, Francisco and Hägglund, Tore and Guzmán, José Luis and Rodríguez, Francisco and Berenguel, Manuel}},
  issn         = {{0947-3580}},
  keywords     = {{Agriculture; Greenhouse climate; Inverted decoupling; Process control; Split range control; System identification}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Lavoisier}},
  series       = {{European Journal of Control}},
  title        = {{A practical solution for multivariable control of temperature and humidity in greenhouses}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejcon.2024.100967}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.ejcon.2024.100967}},
  volume       = {{77}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}