Semi-autonomous greenhouse environment control by combining expert knowledge and machine learning

The concept of "autonomous greenhouse" hints the automatic setting of control target, and giving orders on facilities to reach these targets (set point). Information and communication technologies are widely used, but how to integrate common sense or knowledge in decision-making is still challenging. Semi-autonomous greenhouse control is to set rules with joint advantages of experienced grower and powerful machinery, with the support of knowledge graph and semantic analysis. The contribution of each side is dependent on the intelligence level of computers, the availability of data, etc. In this work, the hybrid system between human and machinery is shown with the temperature control in greenhouse. The target is set mainly by expert knowledge, while the temperature controlled by vent opening is decided by an algorithm. Result shows that the target is better reached compared to that of the experience-based approach. This example shows the feasibility of human-machine hybrid intelligence system for greenhouse environment control. Although this approach is tested for temperature control, it can be extended to control multiple factors simultaneously (temperature, light intensity, humidity, etc.) by driving multiple facilities (heating, lightening, venting, etc.).