Plant Factory IoT Management

Plant factory, characterized by artificially controlled operation, is internationally recognized as the most advanced stage of developments in protected agriculture. Covering biological systems management, engineering management, and IoT management, plant factories can produce the planned crop products all year long, with short growth cycles and little pollution. Breakthroughs in artificial-lighting cultivation technology of plant factories have enabled crop production in non-arable lands such as skyscrapers, deserts, islands, ships, and polar regions. Therefore, the plant factory is considered a major countermeasure for the problems of this century, including population expansion, resource shortages, food security, and environmental pollution. Furthermore, it is also viewed as a way to achieve food self-sufficiency in future space engineering and space exploration. With IoT, thorough sensing and recognition, comprehensive interconnection, and deeper integration and analysis are possible, thus bringing intelligent control and decision of plant factories. In this chapter, main components and types of plant factories are illustrated, and applications of IoT systems in plant factories are outlined, so that readers may gain a comprehensive understanding of plant factory IoT.