Lettuce modelling for growth control in precision agriculture

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new lettuce growth model for precision agriculture that improves crop uniformity and yield through simple control strategies, reducing fertilizer use and adapting to real-world challenges.

Contribution

A novel mechanistic lettuce growth model suitable for control algorithms in precision agriculture is proposed and validated with experimental data.

Findings

Model fits well to experimental data

Control law increases yield and uniformity

Reduces nitrogen use despite sparse actuation

Abstract

Improving the efficiency of agriculture is a growing priority due to food security issues, environmental concerns, and economics. Precision agriculture and variable rate application technology could enable increases in yield while maintaining or reducing fertiliser use. However, this requires the development of control algorithms which are suitable for the challenges of agriculture. In this paper, we propose a new mechanistic open model of lettuce growth for use in control of precision agriculture. We demonstrate that our model is cooperative and fits well to experimental data. We use the model to show, via simulations, that a simple proportional distributed control law increases crop uniformity and yield without increasing nitrogen use, even in the presence of sparse actuation and noisy observations.