ISHS Acta Horticulturae 406: II IFAC/ISHS Workshop :Mathematical & Control Applications in Agriculture & Horticulture
PREFACE |
| Author: | B. Day |
| Abstract:
There is a growing recognition that mathematics and modelling of biological systems can make a major contribution to the advance of the biology-based industries. Advances in our understanding of the physics and biology of production systems in agriculture and horticulture have provided many opportunities to develop and apply models for control purposes. This has been recognised by the scientific community in horticulture and control science particularly, and has spawned interdisciplinary workshops and symposia to develop new research opportunities. This workshop is the second in a series jointly supported by the International Federation of Automatic Control and the International Society for Horticultural Science. The first was held in Matsuyama, Japan in Autumn, 1991. This volume reports the work presented at the second workshop. The structure of the meeting emphasised the many common themes for horticulture and other branches of agriculture that can benefit from advances in modelling and control. Thus the session on climate control concepts has common relevance to protected crop production and to housed livestock, and advances in control of field machinery have broad applicability. But there is also a major opportunity to advance the use of new mathematical methods, and sessions on image analysis and on neural networks and intelligent control provided an insight for all on how these techniques may develop. The format of the workshop allowed extensive interaction between all participants, with many discussions and potential collaborations following from the formal talks and poster presentations. The organisation before the day and help and advice during the meeting by Edwina Holden was greatly appreciated. Behind the scenes work by Janet Hobson in the organisation and by Frankie Cox in helping with the production of these proceedings has been invaluable in bringing this exercise to a close with the production of this volume. At the end of the day the success of the workshop was totally dependent on the efforts and enthusiasm of all the participants.
It is a pleasure to thank them all for their active participation in the workshop, and the excellence of the posters, talks and discussions. | |
