In the Province of Almería, with favourable weather conditions and a proper type of low-cost greenhouse, is situated the largest concentration of greenhouses in the world (>30.000 H.), being one of the main income sources of our province So, the automatization of the tasks under greenhouse is a priority research line.
Agriculture has probably been one of the least technically developed fields due to varying types of problems; and nowadays it faces major demands for quality, product variety and strong competition. Automation, as a first step, and currently the improvement in the structures and growth systems, genetic engineering, and the utilization of computers as controller, sensors and actuators, allow better results in production to be achieved. As a second step, robotics has become an important tool for the development in coming years. No, in the Data Age, technologies as IoT, Big Data… and, data sharing can be essential tools in seeking solutions through their introduction in each of the phases of the value chain, creating relationships among the different steps based on transparency and product and process information.
In this sense, our research group has the following research work-lines related with the agriculture under greenhouse:
- Vegetable crop growth modelling
- Climate and fertirrigation modelling and control
- Multiobjective and hierarchical crop growth control based on economic, fruit quality, water uses efficiency, diseases or energy efficiency criteria
- Robotization of tedious and dangerous tasks like spraying, transport or harvesting
- Collaborative robot floats in greenhouses for transport purposes
- Internet of Food and Big Data techniques in the agricultural value chain
- Control and optimal management of heterogeneous resources in agri-industrial production districts integrating renewable Energies
