“We’ve Built a Controller That Works With Any Horticultural Lighting"

August 12, 2021

In July 2021, the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) announced the five start-ups selected to participate in the initiative’s ninth cohort, with agtech company GrowFlux among the participants. The program is targeting the development of sustainable technologies for controlled environment agriculture. GrowFlux specializes in horticultural lighting control, having developed brand-agnostic wireless controllers that allow growers to control both HPS and LED lights. The controllers work with nearly all LED lights, while most HPS lights with dimming capabilities are compatible with the controller.

GrowFlux’s participation in the IN2 will provide up to $250,000 in non-dliutive funding from Wells Fargo as well as the opportunity to collaborate with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The GrowFlux Dimmer. Picture by GrowFlux.

According to CEO and founder Eric Eisele, GrowFlux will use the opportunity to enhance its Precision PAR® branded software controls, which will offer growers the ability to use PAR sensors to control any light according to grower defined lighting targets. The intelligent controls will also incorporate energy management features that will analyze natural light conditions in real time, compare it with historical data and electricity prices, then define the best time to light the greenhouse accordingly.

Coupling lighting control 
“Utility companies are challenged to meet the demand of the rapidly expanding lighting loads within the CEA industry. By coupling our lighting control technology with real-time sensor and energy pricing data, we can define the best time to light a crop to optimize for energy savings,” Eric explains.

GrowFlux plans to address the largest addressable market possible and is doing so by focusing on small- and medium-sized operations. As Alex Roscoe, chief technology officer, explains, these operations are focused on efficiency, ease of use and the eliminating the need for technicians where possible. However, growers’ reliance on proven technologies has previously made it difficult to implement new technologies in the industry. Through IN2, GrowFlux will be able to continue developing its technology and prove it in a near-production setting.

“Right now, we’re in the development phase and once we reach the field deployment phase, which will happen shortly after the program, we’ll be looking for participants to help us scale our technology and ensure that the technology is accessible to the majority of the market. Different cultivators have different priorities; some are light-centric while others lead with temperature and humidity. We want to work with all of these strategies,” says Alex.

Ensuring accessibility and reliability
GrowFlux controllers are wireless and cloud-based, allowing growers to control their lighting system from any device. GrowFlux has also built redundancies into the platform to continue running the light plan should any Internet issues arise. With most facilities having back-up generators, power outages can quickly be mitigated and the redundancies allow the grower to quickly resume its lighting strategy. Cybersecurity has also become a main focus, alongside reliability, to ensure that growers can easily use the controllers and fully benefit from the peace of mind offered.

“We’ve built a controller that works across the entire industry and with any horticultural lighting. At the end of the day, we want to make energy saving controls as accessible as possible and see our industry grow sustainability,” says Eric.

For more information:
GrowFlux 
info@growflux.com 
www.growflux.com

Lead Photo: The GrowFlux Dimmer. Picture by GrowFlux.

Women in AI: How Does the Future of Horticulture Will Look?

August 11, 2021

Getting the best from your crop and greenhouse will increasingly become a computer responsibility. We need to make better decisions, to get better results and fix the global food problems and expertise shortages. Artificial Intelligence can help us with this. But what skills are needed to work in AI tech? And what does the future of working with AI look like? Britta Meixner, Saheli De and Gosia Piekarska of Blue Radix answer these questions, and suggest how we can encourage more women to aim for tech jobs in AI or IT.

What’s your job at Blue Radix?

Britta: “My name is Britta Meixner, and I’m a Scientific Data Engineer. I advise the Blue Radix management team on technical implementations. I keep track of new technologies enabling us to introduce innovative products to customers. I also design, build and maintain a scalable and future-proof IT environment. Other tasks include implementing proof of concepts for new technologies and setups; I design and realize solutions when we start using these new technologies. One of these is the Azure IoT Hub, which lets us send results from the Data Science Team to greenhouses, steering installations autonomously.”

“A day in a data scientist’s life entails a range of tasks,” explains Saheli De, who works as a Data Scientist at Blue Radix. “Developing new functionalities for our customers involves preparing, cleaning and analyzing the data that comes from the climate computers and other data platforms. In this phase we work closely with our product development team to understand the dynamics and strategies involved in the greenhouse. Then there’s extensive discussion of strategies to solve the business requirement, leading to building models using cutting-edge AI technologies like machine learning. The essence of the job lies in translating the horticulture industry’s business requirements into data science solutions.”

Gosia Piekarska works as a Blue Radix Test Engineer and is responsible for implementing testing procedures, shaping the testing process, and software testing. “My job is to check the quality of the infrastructure and components in both Crop Controller and the energy domain. My work is my hobby; I’m always trying to improve my software testing knowledge in my spare time. I’m particularly interested in Test Automation, Data Analysis and DevOps.”

What do you like about working with new AI tech solutions for horticulture?
Britta: “There’s often no standard way of doing something when creating new AI solutions. Every new project requires new skills and technology knowledge. I can never stop learning in my job. Staying up to speed on new developments and technologies is the key to success. This makes my job demanding, but at the same time it never gets boring.”

Adds Saheli: “The tech industry is growing rapidly, and being the flag-bearer of AI in horticulture lets you design unique and sustainable solutions. Imagine walking into a supermarket picking up a tomato that was produced with the help of your algorithms! That’s powerful!”

“I always love working on the cutting-edge technology solutions, because they introduce the innovations which are so desperately needed in our world,” says Gosia. “I think that sustainable technology in the food-growing industry is critical for people’s well-being.”

What skills are needed to work in the AI tech-field?
“You need a broad spectrum of knowledge to make our solutions work in the greenhouse, from network protocols and operating systems, databases and APIs, to data pipelines. It’s only the combination of these which enables us to steer a greenhouse autonomously,” explains Britta. “Because the IT infrastructure differs in every greenhouse, we must be able to create solutions that quickly adjust to a wide range of situations. So alongside a very broad technical knowledge, you also need to be flexible, and to understand new situations and requirements quickly.”

Saheli adds: “Data Science in particular is a mix of mathematics, statistics, and computer science skills. Horticulture-related skills are a benefit, but not mandatory in my role.”

Gosia: “Constant learning of both broad technologies and tools.. On top of that, don’t forget soft skills.”

How do you think the future of working with AI will look?
Britta: “Data Scientists now focus mainly on a deep understanding of algorithms and data sets to be able to get the most accurate results for steering the greenhouse. This is often done in controlled offline setups. But there’s still a large gap before these algorithms are ready to be integrated into production environments to produce real-world data for the greenhouse. Data science and data engineering have to work together early in the development process to close this gap. That lets us deliver new features and improvements to existing functionalities faster.”

Saheli: “As we say at Blue Radix: ‘Algorithms can feed the world’. We believe that algorithm-based solutions, like our Crop Controller, offer growers worldwide a digital brain for their greenhouse. The dream is to work towards a symbiotic utopia of growers and AI-driven solutions.”

Gosia adds: “The key will be the AI-human interaction and how to deliver AI solutions to customers who don’t necessarily have a deep technical understanding of AI systems. This is important in horticulture, because advanced controlled systems are relatively new in this industry.”

How can we generate enthusiasm among women for tech jobs in AI or IT?
Britta: “Women have different styles of working, thinking and communicating than men. While that might cause confusion here and there, it can really help a team to reach their goals faster, and to find better solutions. If we are to encourage more women to take up AI or IT jobs, it’s important to reach true equality in opportunities and pay in every job out there. We need to remove gender stereotypes in daily work, while also avoiding them in early childhood and at schools.”

Saheli: “I completely agree with Britta,; we need to generate opportunities for both genders to be able to access and experience meaningful interaction with technology from a very young age. I strongly believe that curiosity is the key to science. Stay curious and keep asking questions!”

Gosia: “We can’t shape our world if we’re not involved. Working in IT offers enormous opportunities for women to make their mark. I also believe there are great career prospects if you choose a future working in AI, IT and sustainability. There are so many great challenges, and you can really contribute to a better world. The best would be to provide successful examples and stories of women working in AI, to encourage young girls to join the field.”

NL: Celebrating 15 Years of Horticultural Development At The Horti Science Park

August 9, 2021

Wageningen University & Research (WUR), the Delphy Improvement Centre, and the Municipality of Lansingerland are celebrating fifteen years of scientific development in the field of greenhouse horticulture. Save the date: various activities will be organized during the ’Horti Science Park Event Weeks’, held this year from 20 September to 8 October. From looking back, we are now looking forward to the role that the Horti Science Park will be playing in the future.

The autumn of 2006 saw the launch of a number of cultivation trials at the Delphy Improvement Centre and Wageningen University & Research (Greenhouse Horticulture Business Unit) sites, both located at Violierenweg in Bleiswijk (Municipality of Lansingerland). Pioneering research was conducted in support of both the Dutch and international greenhouse horticulture sector at this Horti Science Park in the past decade and a half.

In addition to devising and developing the Next Generation Greenhouse Cultivation project, a great deal of research was carried out on the application of LED lighting with a view to creating sustainable cultivation systems. The development towards digital cultivation in autonomously controlled greenhouses with the application of newly developed plant sensors is in full swing and will result in far-reaching changes regarding the management of greenhouse horticulture. The development of production systems has always been a part of this, just as several greenhouse prototypes are now being tested and scientific knowledge in the area of cultivation is being developed in support of Vertical Farming practices.

The Municipality of Lansingerland is pleased with the presence of these two leading research institutions in greenhouse horticulture and therefore wishes to further develop its position as a knowledge-intensive municipality focusing on greenhouse horticulture. It is currently collaborating with entrepreneurs and residents on a ‘Horti Science Vision’, which should comprise the basis for guiding greenhouse horticulture research and future plans on themes such as education, employment, and space.

The opening of the ‘Vertical Farming Fieldlab’ by Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and Delphy is scheduled to take place during the ‘Horti Science Park Event Weeks’, which will be held from 20 September to 8 October. In addition to the above, the Municipality of Lansingerland, WUR and Delphy, in conjunction with organizations such as Glastuinbouw Nederland and Greenport West-Holland, will be organizing at least ten other events. Examples are the Knowledge Day for entrepreneurs in horticulture, the WaterEvent and an afternoon symposium on taste research. Meet-ups on the 'Horti Science Vision' will also be planned with young people who are interested in the horticultural sector and residents of the municipality. All events will be looking towards the future based on the knowledge we have today.

For more information:
Wageningen University & Research
www.wur.nl