Recipient Organization
VECNA TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
7500 GREENWAY CENTER DR
GREENBELT,MD 20770
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Lack of fresh, year-round produce contributes to illness for the 13.5 million Americans who in live "food deserts," those mostly urban areas where little but fast and processed food is available. Growing urban produce is possible using controlled environment agriculture (CEA), including greenhouses and artificially lighted "plant factories," but has been difficult to do affordably and flexibly. Building and labor costs are a major problem for greenhouses, and using conventional automation has required large, hard-to-modify mechanical setups.The project will design and demonstrate a complete CEA system that uses stackable farming techniques and robots in place of the large fixed infrastructure conveyor systems or human labor to reduceboth building and operational costs. The robots and the software to orchestrate them are proven in the material handling industry and need only be adapted to this innovative approach to farming. The system will be heavily instrumented, and all inputs and costs will be tracked against the production of the system.With industry partners, we will run two pilot operations. These will yield data on what is required to grow crops using the system, enabling us to design a market-ready version for existing greenhouse growers, traditional farmers, entrepreneurs and schools. This project addresses five USDA National Challenge Areas: food security, climate variability and change, childhood obesity, food safety, and water
Animal Health Component
20%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
5%
Applied
20%
Developmental
75%
Goals / Objectives
The main goal of this project is to produce aCEA system thatwillreduce fixed infrastructure and electricity consumption, better leverage human labor, and achieve commercial viability at lower cost byutilizing robotics,modular hydroponics, and relying mostly on natural light. The major goals are:Iteratively design & test a commercially viable growbox suited to robotic handling.Develop techniques for maximizing crop density throughout the growth cycle.Integrate robotics into the growbox system and demonstrate autonomous handling and movement of the growbeds and growboxes.Produce crops continuously from a prototype systemincorporating all aspects of the proposed automated commercial system.Produce a complete design for a commercially viable first-generation system.
Project Methods
Goal 1: Iteratively design and test a commercially viable growbox.Improve and manufacture next-iteration growbox design based on Phase I experience as part of our continuous improvement, build-measure-learn approach. Create draft of design spec document for growboxes. Begin with best estimates of all quantitative goals (weight, size, cost, etc.) and revise continuously during Phase II.Goal 2: Develop techniques for maximizing crop density throughout the growth cycle.As staggered grow cycles proceed throughout Phase II, perform plant re-spacing in consultation with our greenhouse industry partners. Document procedures and results; produce one or more species-specific re-spacing protocols suitable for incorporation in the expert system aspect of the CEA Manager software.Goal 3: Integrate robotics into the growbox system and demonstrate the feasibility of moving growbeds and growboxes in an automated warehousing environment.Write design specification for CEA Manager, which will actas the "operating system" of the CEA operation, incorporating intelligent protocols for crop management. Adapt Core Task Manager to meet the CEA Manager design specification. Conduct software simulation and real-world functional testsof automated CEA operations to evaluate performance and make necessary adjustments to the CEA system.Goal 4: Produce crops continuously from a prototype system incorporating all aspects of the proposed commercial system.Design and build a prototype system integrating all developments into a working prototype. Run pilots in CA and MA and begin crop production in prototype growboxes as soon as available. Run grow cycles in prototypes until end of Phase II, recording inputs, outputs, procedures, and sensor measurements.Produce formal system design for a number of growboxes and aunit each of the Vecna robots to be employed. Prototype growboxes from designs for new molds, utilizing current best design from Goal 1, to characterize design performance in Phase II and inform redesign for Phase III prior to mass manufacturing.Goal 5: Produce complete design for a commercially viable first-generation system.Deliver a complete engineering design specification for software, growboxes, and other hardware, and operational procedures for scaling, setting up, and running a Vecna CEA system.