Wireless Sensor/Actor Networks for Real–Time Climate Control and Monitoring of Greenhouses

Climate control and monitoring of greenhouses is an important application which has some peculiar features. From a practical point of view, in order to achieve effective cultivation plans, the best environmental conditions inside a greenhouse have to be ensured. This requires that some specific variables, such as temperature, humidity and luminosity are controlled in order to follow desired profiles. The recent advances wireless sensor/actor networks (WSANs) offer an interesting opportunity in this area of application. In this paper we actually propose the use of (WSANs) for real-time monitoring and control of greenhouses. We start by reviewing the application features, particularly in terms of real-time performance. Then, we evidence the peculiar characteristics necessary for WSANs to satisfy the requirements for climate monitoring control. In the second part of the paper, we describe a case study based on 20:1 scaled down version of greenhouse including a complete and functioning real-time monitoring and control system employing a small multi-hop WSAN, which succeeded in controlling temperature, humidity and luminosity. Finally, we summarize our results and propose future research avenues.