Objective-Based Light Recipe Generation Across Mixed Sources
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Solution Overview
Problem
Agricultural operators face challenges in managing complex lighting scenarios due to technical heterogeneity and multiple, often incompatible objectives, requiring advanced control over light intensity and spectrum to optimize growth, productivity, and resource management, while lacking the necessary optical expertise.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a light scenario generation module, rendering module, and user interface that processes multiple objectives, ranks them, and sends illumination instructions to a pool of light sources to achieve desired illumination conditions, abstracting technical complexities and facilitating objective-based lighting scenarios.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple light sources with different optical capabilities are used to achieve diverse lighting objectives, then the system's adaptability and versatility improve, but the device complexity increases due to technical heterogeneity
Solution Approach 1:
The control system is designed to manage multiple types of light sources (LED, HPS, MH, fluorescent) with different optical capabilities through a single unified platform. The system accepts various lighting objectives (photosynthetic photon flux density, spectral composition, photoperiod duration) and automatically determines the appropriate combination of light sources to achieve them, making the system universally applicable to diverse horticultural lighting needs without requiring separate control systems for each light source type
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary control system that acts as a mediator between the user's lighting objectives and the actual light sources. This control system translates high-level lighting goals into specific control signals for each light source type, handling the technical heterogeneity internally while presenting a simplified interface to users. The intermediary layer abstracts the complexity of managing different light source families, allowing users to focus on achieving their lighting objectives without directly dealing with the underlying technical differences
2Manufacturing precision
If advanced control over light intensity and spectrum is implemented to optimize growth and productivity, then the manufacturing precision and control accuracy improve, but the ease of operation deteriorates due to requiring optical expertise
Solution Approach 1:
The control system incorporates pre-configured lighting scenarios and automatic optimization capabilities that allow the system to self-adjust to achieve lighting objectives without requiring users to have optical expertise. The system can automatically calculate the appropriate light intensity, spectrum, and timing combinations based on stored horticultural data and current environmental conditions, enabling operators to achieve precise lighting control through simple scenario selection rather than complex manual configuration
Solution Approach 2:
The system includes pre-programmed lighting scenarios and lookup tables containing optimized lighting parameters for different crops and growth stages. These preliminary configurations allow operators to quickly implement precise lighting control by selecting from pre-prepared scenarios rather than calculating parameters from scratch. The system has already performed the complex optical calculations and optimizations in advance, making precise control accessible to users without specialized expertise
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple incompatible lighting objectives are pursued simultaneously to optimize growth, productivity, and resource management, then the system's functionality improves, but the device complexity increases due to conflicting requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The control system dynamically adjusts lighting parameters based on real-time monitoring of environmental conditions and crop needs. When multiple conflicting objectives are present (e.g., maximizing photosynthesis vs. minimizing energy consumption), the system continuously optimizes the balance between them by adjusting light intensity, spectrum, and timing in response to changing conditions. This dynamic adaptation allows the system to handle conflicting objectives flexibly without requiring complex static control logic for each possible scenario combination
Data Source
AI summary
There are provided techniques, including systems and methods, for adjusting illumination conditions provided by a pool of light sources. The adjustments made to the illumination conditions are based on one or more objectives, hence enabling the possibility of generating objectives-based light recipes or scenarios. The system is connectable to the pool of light sources through appropriate components and protocols. The system includes a light scenario generation module, a rendering module, and a user interface, and the method is implemented using these components.