Reinforcement Learning versus Model Predictive Control on greenhouse climate control

The greenhouse system plays a crucial role to ensure an adequate supply of fresh food for the growing global population. However, maintaining an optimal growing climate within a greenhouse requires resources and operational costs. To achieve economical and sustainable crop growth, efficient climate control in greenhouse production is paramount. Model Predictive Control (MPC) and Reinforcement Learning (RL) are the two approaches representing model-based and learning-based control, respectively. Each one has its own way to formulate control problems, define control objectives, and seek for optimal control actions that provide sustainable crop growth. Although certain forms of MPC and RL have been applied to greenhouse climate control, limited research has comprehensively analyzed the connections, differences, advantages, and disadvantages between these two approaches, both mathematically and in terms of performance. Therefore, this paper aims to address this gap by: (1) introducing a novel RL approach that utilizes Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) for large and continuous state–action space environments; (2) formulating the MPC and RL approaches for greenhouse climate control within a unified framework; (3) exploring the mathematical connections and differences between MPC and RL; (4) conducting a simulation study to analyze and compare the performance of MPC and RL; (5) presenting and interpreting the comparative results to provide valuable insights for the application of these control approaches in different scenarios. By undertaking these objectives, this paper seeks to contribute to the understanding and advancement of both MPC and RL methods in greenhouse climate control, fostering more informed decision-making regarding their selection and implementation based on specific requirements and constraints.