Characterizing the behavior of “greenhouse climate”: a LabVIEW™ application

Abstract

This paper presents an application of LabVIEW™ software for the monitoring and automation of a greenhouse prototype located in Jalisco, Mexico. A database was used to monitoring the greenhouse natural climate evolution and study the “greenhouse climate” under an on/off control of lateral windows and forced ventilation. This allows to test whether actions proposed by some farmers in Jalisco, Mexico, are useful to modify the “greenhouse climate”, for instance, the effect over the temperature in this greenhouse when lateral windows and forced ventilation are controlled. Also, this software is used to automate the drip irrigation system, which allows greater precision in regulating the timing of events irrigation and amount of water applied. And in another experiment the humidifiers contribution to the internal temperature and relative humidity are exposed.