The Latest Development of Laser Application Research in Plant Factory

Essential resource elements in crop production are light, water, carbon dioxide and fertilizer. Optimum design for air-conditioning and lightings in plant factory system is required to realize the economical operation of plant factory because most energy consuming elements of plant factory system are air-conditioning and lightings. In this sense application of solid state lighting sources such as LED in plant factory system have been promoted to expect some reduction of running cost in lighting. Research work of solid state laser application in plant factory has just started recently at Osaka Prefecture University Plant Factory Research Center. The latest development of laser application research in plant factory will be reported in this article.