EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF RECEDING HORIZON OPTIMAL CONTROL OF GREENHOUSE CLIMATE

Optimal control of greenhouse climate entails the operation of the control variables such that the economic return to the grower is maximised. The basis of this approach is a model that describes the crop behaviour under the influence of the indoor climate conditions which in turn are determined by the outside weather conditions and the exerted control actions. Several simulation experiments have been reported in the literature (e.g. Gutman et al. (1993) and van Henten (1994), but there is no record of any results of experiments using optimal control at an operational level in a real greenhouse. From January until June 1994, experiments have been performed in a real greenhouse with tomatoes, comparing two compartments of the same greenhouse, one controlled by a current commercial greenhouse climate control computer and one controlled by a receding horizon optimal control (RHOC) algorithm. This paper presents the optimal control problem and some preliminary results of the experiment.