I work for the company LetsGrow.com. LetsGrow.com collects all sorts of data from different horticulture related systems. This data is processed and turned into meaningful information for the grower. The picture below shows which type of systems can be connected to LetsGrow.\r\n\r\n\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">
</p>\r\n<map name="visImageMap"> </map>\r\n\r\n<address style="text-align: center;">Click on one of the systems type to get an idea of the system (Opens in a seperate window).</address>Coupling a system to LetsGrow\r\n\r\nThe process of coupling a system to LetsGrow can be divided into two separate steps. In the first step the actual system is connected to LetsGrow, the second step is creating the mapping between the system and LetsGrow, which we call configuration.\r\n\r\nConnection\r\n\r\nHow a system is physically connected depends on the type of system. Several type of connectors are available that enable the physical connection to LetsGrow. Most systems are connected using the internet as transport layer.\r\n\r\nConfiguration\r\n\r\nThe configuration part of coupling a system to LetsGrow depends on the configuration of the system. An Argus Process Computer of customer A can have a totally different configuration of that of customer B. Therefore each LetsGrow configuration is customer specific.\r\n\r\nThe reason for this difference in configuration comes from the fact that no greenhouse is the same. It is possible that a greenhouse of customer A has 10 separate compartments, while the greenhouse of customer B has 20 compartments. The climate of each compartment in a greenhouse can be individually controlled by the process computer. For example compartment 1 can have a desired temperature of 19°C, while compartment 2 has a desired temperature of 20.5 °C. This depends on the type of crop that is grown inside a compartment.\r\n\r\nOptimize\r\n\r\nBoth parts (connecting and configuration) of the coupling process of a system to LetsGrow need to be optimized to reduce the time to connect a new customer to LetsGrow. Completely automating the connecting and configuration steps will reduce the time and therefore costs to connect a new LetsGrow customer. This business problem will be the subject of the final project of my MSc IT Architecture study.