Research on the Interface of Sustainable Plant Factory Based on Digital Twin

Jiayao Liu, Linfeng Wang, Yunsheng Wang (), Shipu Xu and Yong Liu
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Jiayao Liu: School of Railway Transportation, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai 201418, China
Linfeng Wang: School of Railway Transportation, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai 201418, China
Yunsheng Wang: Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai 201803, China
Shipu Xu: Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai 201803, China
Yong Liu: Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai 201803, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: A digital twin (DT) system is a virtual system that can provide a comprehensive description of a real physical system. The DT system continuously receives data from physical sensors and user input information and provides information feedback to the physical system. It is an emerging technology that utilizes an advanced Internet of Things (IoT) to connect different objects, which is in high demand in various industries and its research literature is growing exponentially. Traditional physical systems provide data support for the monitoring of physical objects such as buildings through digital modeling techniques, data acquisition tools, human computer interfaces, and building information models (BIM). However, DT can offer much more than data presentation. DT uses the received data to perform operations such as analysis, prediction, and simulation, and finally transmits the analysis results to the physical system as feedback. Compared with other physical systems, DT has the characteristics of bidirectional data exchange and real-time autonomous management. The plant factory control system based on digital twin technology continuously measures the power consumption of electrical equipment through the sensors of the physical system and makes the corresponding virtual color-coded gradient map based on the obtained data. The darker the virtual device is, the more power it currently requires, and just based on the shade of color gives the user a very intuitive idea of the current power usage of the electronic device. There has been extensive research on digital twin technology, but there are few studies on implementing plant factories based on digital twin technology. This paper proposes the idea of combining digital twin technology with plant factories to provide research directions for future smart agriculture. It proves that smart agricultural production with sustainability can also benefit from this idea.

Keywords: digital twin; internet of things; plant factory; smart farm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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