Various informatization agricultural supporting systems have been developed using ICT (information andcommunication technologies) to improve agricultural productivity. However agriculture is very complex system ingeneral and thus is strictly influenced by climate, weather, soil conditions, crop types, and so on. Authors have also proposed the supporting system called “Agri-eye” in which a field monitoring, crop growth and quality evaluation,work recording, and online data offering and sharing sub-systems were incorporated. On the other hand, actuation sub-system for controlling agricultural facilities in a greenhouse such as a heater, pumps, fans, a CO2 generator, etc. has notbeen developed and installed up to present. The actuation system based on agricultural information measured by fieldmonitoring sensors is effective to improve quality of agricultural product and reduce the energy used for facilitiesintroduced in a greenhouse. In this study, we proposed an intelligent control system for a greenhouse, which coversmonitoring and actuation system for agricultural facilities. The prototype system for establishing a low-cost irrigationcontrol system has been designed based on a single board microcontroller called Arduino TM. The system is utilized as alocal system, which has a controlling function for the irrigation unit in the greenhouse while the configuration of thelocal actuation system is achieved by the management sub-system in the Agri-eye. The developed system was appliedto establish optimal and ecological irrigation control for Japanese Mustard Spinach (Brassica rapa) cultivation in thegreenhouse.
Keywords: monitoring and actuating system, global and local management, control system, feasibility study