An FPGA Based Computer System for Greenhouse Control

Abstract

Greenhouses provide a controlled growing environment for plants. A successful greenhouse requires the determining of many key factors, such as temperature, levels of light and shade, humidity and ventilation. Computer based systems used for data acquisition and climate control are often costly and problem prone. In this paper we present a cheap and flexible computerized system capable of controlling a greenhouse growing a strain of tomatoes popularly known as "cherry tomatoes", for its cherry-like shape (henceforth: "cherry tomatoes"). The system collects meteorological data such as light radiation, humidity, temperature and wind speed; and optimizes the climate in the greenhouse using a special algorithm that determines the movement of the greenhouses' curtains. The project's innovation lies in the use of an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) technology; and an easily customized hardware-software, able to create core processors (in our case a NIOS II processor) in parallel with other logic components, by software only.