In recent years, GREENHOUSES are developing in Iran because of a high productivity technology due to the possibility of controlling environmental factors for agricultural production such as temperature, prevention of frostbite and heat exhaustion phenomena, efficient use of water and soil resources, appropriate use of fertilizers and pesticides and off-season production. Generally, commercial GREENHOUSES are used for high economical and physical production of ornamental plants, vegetables, and fruits. Proper location, type of structure, covering and equipment as well as management and operation are very important to achieve proper environmental conditions inside GREENHOUSES. Some of the main issues of GREENHOUSES in Iran are GREENHOUSES size, geographic orientation, greenhouse height, improper ratio of height to width (H/W) and length to width (L/W), poor ventilation areas, location for ventilation systems, substandard materials and coverings, structural strength against environmental factors such as wind and snow loads, and depreciation of structures. This paper presents technical parameters analysis which required in greenhouse to achieve the minimum standards. Then based on a case study in three provinces include Khuzestan, Bushehr, and Fars, these parameters were investigated during 2014. The results showed GREENHOUSES which were constructed in Khuzestan province generally are not standard and related engineering principles and indices are not considered properly. More than half of the studied greenhouse structures in Bushehr had weakness in structures. The structural and equipment differences which observed in the GREENHOUSES of this province were low and not statistically significant. During last few years, nursery activities for exporting vegetables and fruits propagation to other provinces are expanding in Bushehr. These activities moderated the structural and equipment weakness in this province.The structural and equipment differences which observed in Fars province green houses were low and not statistically significant while weakness in technical indicators in about half of the GREENHOUSES was evident due to climatic diversity in this province.

With the continuous development of the industrialization process, the countries all over the world gradually appeared lack of agricultural labor force and aging phenomenon, which was especially prominent in developed countries. However the agricultural robot with high operating efficiency, high qualities of work will play an increasingly important role in future agricultural production. Robot navigation is not only the key to automation and also the biggest obstacle constraining their development. This paper provides a review of relevant mobile robot positioning technologies. The paper defines seven categories for positioning systems: 1. Odometry; 2. Inertial Navigation; 3. Magnetic Compasses; 4. Active Beacons; 5. Global Positioning Systems; 6. Landmark Navigation; and 7. Model Matching. Therefore, the research status of agricultural robot navigation was introduced in this paper. Also, this paper discusses the problem of using navigation methods for agricultural mobile robots in GREENHOUSES. Nowadays, many agricultural tasks are dangerous and repetitive for human beings and could be improved employing robots. The autonomous navigation in GREENHOUSES has been solved using both deliberative and pseudo-reactive techniques.

One of the main objectives of promoting the development of GREENHOUSES in Iran is increasing production productivity and water use efficiency. Accordingly, in this study the efficiency of water use in Sistan GREENHOUSES was investigated for 2008 using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). In addition, determinants of water use efficiency were investigated using Tobit Regression Model (TRM). The results showed that the mean efficiencies of greenhouse units under study in the constant and variable return to scale conditions were 63 and 87 percent, respectively. Also, the mean efficiencies of irrigation water in the constant and variable return to scale conditions were 49 and 71 percent, respectively. Based on the results, in the variable return to scale condition, age, education, experience and water resource had positive and size of land had negative effect on water use efficiency. According to the findings, a suitable irrigation water price policy and extension classes seem to be effective on improvement the operation of units under study.

Greenhouse culture plays a significant role in driving the agricultural development process by providing artificial conditions for production and/or neutralizing environmental variables. Obviously, planning for developing this production system requires understanding effective and limiting variables. Accordingly, the present study was conducted in 2018 in order to evaluate management indicators of ornamental plant GREENHOUSES in Guilan province, Iran. The research was an applied study in a survey design in which data were collected with a questionnaire. The statistical population was composed of 107 selected GREENHOUSES of which 84 GREENHOUSES were taken by simple randomization technique using Cochran’ s formula. Data were statistically analyzed by mean, standard deviation, linear regression, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and one sample t-test in the SPSS. 21 software package. The results of t-test revealed a significant positive relationship of individual skill and knowledge with optimum management of the selected GREENHOUSES. Also, a significant positive relationship was observed between individual attitude to sustainable development and optimum management of the selected GREENHOUSES and between management technical and professional indices and the optimum performance of the selected GREENHOUSES.

Greenhouse structure plays an important role in success and productivity of greenhouse production. This research work was conducted to study problems related to vegetable greenhouse structure in Khuzestan province for duration of one year (2011-2012). Twenty one GREENHOUSES were selected through simple randomized sampling while Questionnaires were being filled up. The results revealed that the major problems in greenhouse vegetable production are: low height of the roof and gutters, low ratio of height to width, insufficient ratio of ventilated area to floor area, inefficiency of cooling and heating systems along with poor ventilation. Finally, it can be concluded that, the studied GREENHOUSES are grouped in low class technology GREENHOUSES.

Food production in controlled cultivation areas plays a crucial role in increasing productivity and offsetting supply shortages. Product yields, water consumption, and energy use are the main parameters determining the performance of food production in a greenhouse. Smart technology is an effective solution to improve these parameters. This study aimed to identify the components, challenges, and requirements for the development of smart agriculture in GREENHOUSES. Our case study focused on Tehran province, which encompasses a significant portion of the total GREENHOUSES in Iran. The statistical population consisted of 20 subject-matter experts with research or executive experience in greenhouse automation, selected purposefully. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used in this study to collect data. First, we identified the variables affecting the development of smart agriculture in GREENHOUSES by using a literature review and semi-structured interviews with experts, Then, the experts were asked to evaluate the cross-influence of the identified variables through pairwise comparison. Finally, data analysis was done using MICMAC software. The findings indicate that the identified requirements and challenges have had a significant influence on the lack of smart agriculture in GREENHOUSES. Through network analysis of influence and dependence relationships, it was found that economic requirements and challenges, technical and infrastructural requirements and challenges, legal and regulatory requirements, and institutional requirements were the most influential variables in the development of smart agriculture in Tehran province.

Farmers and experts are continuously searching for optimal conditions to improve the productivity of tomatoes in GREENHOUSES. To provide an answer to their concerns, we have developed a modeling approach to automate the functioning of a greenhouse cultivated with tomato plants. For the aeration, heating, and irrigation systems, we compared the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller response to the Fuzzy logic (FL) controller response. For the aeration system, the response of both controllers was stable, with a pick of about 1.09 for the PID controller and zero for the fuzzy controller. Likewise, there was no overtaking for the fuzzy controller but about 8.28% for the PID controller. The rise time for the fuzzy controller was less than that of the PID controller (627 s). We signaled a stable response for the PID controller and the fuzzy logic controller for the irrigation system. The pick and the overtake were equal to zero for the fuzzy logic controller but were 1.28 and 28.2 s for the PID controller, respectively. In the case of both controllers, the rise time was the same, equaling 18.3 s. The regulation time was less than 35 s for the fuzzy logic controller and 31.1 s for the PID controller.

The main goal of this study was to investigate the way of affecting of water in production of cucumber. From aspect of econometrics, mutual relationships of production function and expenses have been analysed in which Translog cost function has been used. This function has been estimated using the conditional input demand functions, the shefard theorem, chemical fertilizer, animal fertilizer, labour force, seed, and pesticide in the framework of a system of equations by taking advantage of the irrelevant regression method. Applied inputs is for 151 cucumber Beneficiaries in Khash in farming year of 2011-12 that insider and crossing tendency of input demand for this product has been investigated through collecting questionnaires and using obtained coefficients. The results show that the translog cost model is a good fit compared to the data of research. According to the reviews, demand for water has a minor Insider succession tendency more than one which shows possible stretch of demand function rather than the price of the inputs. Hence, appropriate pricing policies can be used to take a positive step in preventing the extreme usage of this input and directing beneficiaries for optimum use of these inputs.

In this research, the status of GREENHOUSES and their productions in Iran were investigated.This was an applied research and questionnaire was used for to obtain the data. Data were collected for locations, technological conditions, water, soil, soilless culture, type of planting, pests and diseases, marketing, production costs and others. Monovariate statistic was used for descriptive analysis. Data were obtained from selected GREENHOUSES of six provinces of Tehran, Isfahan, Kerman, Markazi, Alborz and Fars, which had the largest areas under greenhouse cultivation.Results showed that the highest frequencies of the ages of greenhouse owners and managers were between 31 to 40 years. Educational fields of 64.5% of greenhouse owners and 62.7% of managers were unrelated to greenhouse operation. Type of culture media in GREENHOUSES were 53.6% soil, 37.3% hydroponics and 9.1% had both types of culture media. Greenhouse coverings of 42.7% of studied GREENHOUSES were polyethylene. Only 38.2% of GREENHOUSES automatically controlled the temperature. Water sources of 74.5% of GREENHOUSES were supplied from the wells and drip irrigation was used in 79.1% of GREENHOUSES. The main cultivated crops were cucumbers (37.3%), cut flowers (25.6%), strawberries (18.2%), and tomatoes (9.1%). Other vegetables and ornamental plants comprised about 10%. Other characteristics were evaluated and suggestions were proposed for improvement of greenhouse operations.