Embodiments described herein generally relate to systems and methods for determining harvest tinting for plant matter within a grow pod and, more specifically, to determining harvest timing based on a harvest time recipe for the plant matter and detected characteristics of the plant matter.
While crop growth technologies have advanced over the years, there are still many problems in the farming and crop industry. As an example, while technological advances have increased efficiency and production of various crops, many factors may affect a harvest, such as weather, disease, infestation, and the like. Additionally, while the United States currently has suitable farmland to adequately provide food for the U.S. population, other countries and future populations may not have enough farmland to provide the appropriate amount of food.
Controlled environment growing systems may mitigate the factors affecting traditional harvests. Individual plants in controlled environment growing systems may require longer or shorter growing times than other plants within the controlled environment growing system. However, in conventional systems, all of the plants in the growing system may be harvested simultaneously, which may reduce the yield of the growing system. Accordingly, a need exists for improved systems and methods for monitoring the growth of plant matter and determining harvest timing within a controlled environment growing system.
In one embodiment, an assembly line grow pod system includes a track, a cart for holding plant matter, the cart engaged with the track, a harvester system positioned at least partially on the track, at least one of a weight sensor positioned on the cart or the track, and a distance sensor, and a controller communicatively coupled to the at least one of the weight sensor and the distance sensor, the controller including a processor and a computer readable and executable instruction set, which when executed, causes the processor to identify a type of the plant matter positioned within the cart, receive data indicative of at least one of a detected plant matter weight from the weight sensor and a detected plant matter height from the distance sensor, retrieve a harvest time recipe based on the identified type of plant matter, the harvest time recipe including a harvest time plant matter weight and a harvest time plant matter height, determine that the at least one of the detected plant matter weight and the detected plant matter height satisfies the harvest time plant matter weight and the harvest time plant matter height, and in response to determining that the at least one of the at least one of the detected plant matter weight and the detected plant matter height satisfies the harvest time plant matter weight and the harvest time plant matter height, direct the cart to the harvester system.
In another embodiment, a method for determining harvest timing for a cart within an assembly line grow pod includes identifying a type of the plant matter positioned within a cart, detecting at least one of a plant matter weight of the plant matter with a weight sensor, a plant matter height of the plant matter with a distance sensor, and a chlorophyll level of the plant matter with a camera, determining that the at least one of the detected plant matter weight, the detected plant matter height, and the detected chlorophyll level satisfies a harvest time plant matter weight, a harvest time plant matter height, and a harvest time plant matter chlorophyll level, and in response to determining that the detected plant matter weight, the detected plant matter height, and the detected chlorophyll level satisfy the harvest time plant matter weight, the harvest time plant matter height, and the harvest time plant matter chlorophyll level, directing the cart to a harvester system.
In yet another embodiment, an assembly line grow pod system includes a track, a cart for holding plant matter, the cart engaged with the track, an actuator positioned on one of the track or the cart, at least one of a weight sensor positioned on the cart or the track, and a distance sensor, and a controller communicatively coupled to the actuator and the at least one of the weight sensor and the distance sensor, the controller including a processor and a computer readable and executable instruction set, which when executed, causes the processor to identify a type of the plant matter positioned within the cart, receive data indicative of at least one of a detected plant matter weight from the weight sensor and a detected plant matter height from the distance sensor, retrieve a harvest time recipe based on the identified type of plant matter, the harvest time recipe including a harvest time plant matter weight and a harvest time plant matter height, determine that the at least one of the detected plant matter weight and the detected plant matter height satisfies the harvest time plant matter weight and the harvest time plant matter height, and in response to determining that the at least one of the detected plant matter weight and the detected plant matter weight satisfies the harvest time plant matter weight and the harvest time plant matter height, move the actuator to an extended position to tilt at least a portion of the cart in a vertical direction.
The embodiments set forth in the drawings are illustrative and exemplary in nature and not intended to limit the disclosure. The following detailed description of the illustrative embodiments can be understood when read in conjunction with the following drawings, where like structure is indicated with like reference numerals and in which:
Embodiments disclosed herein are directed to assembly line grow pods that selectively direct a cart toward a harvester based on detected characteristics of plant matter within the cart. In embodiments, the assembly line grow pods include a plurality of carts, a sensor configured to measure at least one of a weight, a chlorophyll level, and a height of plant matter in each cart. The plant matter in each cart is identified and data is received from the sensor. A harvest time recipe for the identified plant matter is compared with the received data from the sensor, and each cart is directed toward the harvester to harvest the plant matter or directed to continue moving along the assembly line grow pod to continue growing the plant matter based on the comparison. In this way, harvesting decisions may be made for each individual cart in the assembly line grow pod, which may reduce premature harvesting of plant matter thereby increasing crop yield for the assembly line grow pod. The systems and methods for determining a harvest time for a grow pod incorporating the same will be described in more detail, below.
As used herein, the term “plant matter” may encompass any type of plant and/or seed material at any stage of growth, for example and without limitation, seeds, germinating seeds, vegetative plants, and plants at a reproductive stage.
Referring initially to
Referring particularly to
The lighting system 206 includes one or more electromagnetic sources to provide light waves in one or more predetermined wavelengths that may facilitate plant growth. Electromagnetic sources of the lighting system 206 may generally be positioned on the underside of the track 102 such that the electromagnetic sources can illuminate plant matter in the carts 104 on the track 102 below the electromagnetic sources.
The harvester system 208 is configured to harvest plant matter within a cart 104 as described in greater detail herein.
Once the plant matter within the cart 104 is harvested by the harvester system 208, the carts 104 move to the sanitizer system 210. The sanitizer system 210 is configured to remove the plant matter and/or other particulate matter remaining on the carts 104. The sanitizer system 210 may include any one or combination of different washing mechanisms, and may apply high pressure water, high temperature water, and/or other solutions for cleaning the cart 104 as the cart 104 passes through the sanitizer system 210. Once the remaining particulate and/or plant matter is removed in the carts 104, the cart 104 moves into the seeding region 109, where the seeder system 108 deposits seeds within the cart 104 for a subsequent growing process.
Referring particularly to
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Referring now to
Referring to
The harvester system 208 further includes a collecting apparatus 140 to collect the harvested plant matter that has been dumped from the cart 104. In embodiments, the collecting apparatus 140 includes a conveyor belt or the like configured to move the harvested plant matter out of the harvester system 208. In such embodiments, the collecting apparatus 140 may move the harvested plant matter to a collection receptacle or the like for further processing, such as by chopping, mashing, juicing, or the like. In other embodiments, the collecting apparatus 140 may simply include a receptacle for collecting the harvested plant matter. The plant matter, in some configurations, may be grown without the use of soil, such as through a hydroponic process or the like. In these configurations, the plant matter may not generally require washing or processing to remove soil from the plant matter. Additionally, the roots of the plant matter may grow to be intertwined such that the plant matter may be removed from the cart 104 as a single lump, in some configurations.
Referring to
The actuator 160 is repositionable between an extended position in which the upper plate 122b is tilted with respect to the lower plate 122a as shown in
Referring to
The carts 104 include the weight sensors 310 are configured to measure the weight of a payload on the carts 104, such as plant matter. The carts 104 also include cart computing devices 312 that are communicatively coupled to the weight sensors 310. The cart computing devices 312 may have wireless network interface for communicating with the master controller 106 through a network 850. In some embodiments, each of the carts 104 may include a plurality of weight sensors positioned at different locations throughout the cart 104 to detect the weight of plant matter positioned at different locations within the cart 104,
In some embodiments, a plurality of weight sensors may be placed on the track 102. The weight sensors are configured to measure the weights of the carts on the track 102 and transmit the weights to the master controller 106. The master controller 106 may determine the weight of plants on a cart by subtracting the weight of the cart from the weight received from the weight sensors on the track 102.
Still referring to
In the embodiment depicted in
The assembly line grow pod 100 may further include a camera 340 or other image capture device may be positioned on an underside of the track 102 over the carts 104. The camera 340 may be configured to capture an image of the plants in the carts 104. The camera 340 may have a wider angle lens to capture plants of more than one of the carts 104. For example, the camera 340 may capture the images of the plants in the carts 104 depicted in
Harvest timing for the plant matter may be determined by comparing data from weight sensors 310, the distance sensor 330, and/or the camera 340 with a harvest time recipe for the plants. The harvest time recipe may include information about plants that are to be harvested. For example, Table 1 below shows example harvest time recipes for various plants.
The chlorophyll level may be a value in the scale of 0 to 100 that is converted from a processed image. For example, the chlorophyll level may be based on a color level detected from an image taken by the camera 340. In some embodiments, the harvest time recipe may include any other parameters related to growth of plants, such as a size of a fruit, a color of the fruit, a level of nutrients, for example, protein, carbohydrates, sugar content, etc.
In one example, the master controller 106 may identify a type of plant matter within a cart 104 as being of “Type A” as shown in Table 1 above. For example, a user may input the plant matter type into a user computing device 852 of the master controller 106. In some embodiments, the plant matter type may be identified automatically, such as by an image taken from the camera 340. The master controller 106 may then compare a detected weight of the plant matter on the cart 104 with the weight sensor 310 with the plant matter weight of the harvest time recipe for type A plant matter (e.g., 60 pounds). Similarly, the master controller 106 may compare a detected plant matter height from the distance sensor 330 with the plant matter height of the harvest time recipe for type A plant matter (e.g., 10 inches). The master controller 106 may also compare a detected chlorophyll level from the camera 340 with the chlorophyll level of the harvest time recipe for type A plant matter (e.g., 20). If the detected values for plant matter weight, plant matter height, and/or chlorophyll level satisfy the harvest time recipe parameters for plant matter weight, plant matter height, and/or chlorophyll level, the master controller 106 may determine that the plant matter within the cart 104 is ready for harvest. Based on the determination whether the plant matter within the cart 104 is ready for harvest, the master controller 106 may direct the cart 104 to the harvester system 208 (
The harvest time recipes may be stored in the plant logic 844b, and the master controller 106 may retrieve the harvest time recipes from the plant logic 844b. In some embodiments, the master controller 106 may receive the harvest time recipes from an operator through the user computing device 852. For example, an operator may input a desired weight, height, chlorophyll level, and/or any other parameters related to the growth of plants for harvesting through the user computing device 852.
Still referring to
Additionally, the master controller 106 is coupled to a network 850. The network 850 may include the internet or other wide area network, a local network, such as a local area network, a near field network, such as Bluetooth or a near field communication (NFC) network. The network 850 is also coupled to a user computing device 852 and/or a remote computing device 854. The user computing device 852 may include a personal computer, laptop, mobile device, tablet, server, etc. and may be utilized as an interface with a user. As an example, the total weight of seeds in each of the carts may be transmitted to the user computing device, and a display of the user computing device 852 may display the weight for each of the carts.
Similarly, the remote computing device 854 may include a server, personal computer, tablet, mobile device, etc. and may be utilized for machine to machine communications. As an example, if the master controller 106 determines a type of seeds being used (and/or other information, such as ambient conditions), the master controller 106 may communicate with the remote computing device 854 to retrieve a previously stored recipe for those conditions. As such, some embodiments may utilize an application program interface (API) to facilitate this or other computer-to-computer communications.
In some embodiments, for each of the carts 104 on the track 102, the master controller 106 may initiate harvesting process based on data received from at least one of the weight sensors 310, the distance sensor 330, and the camera 340. The master controller 106 may instruct an actuator to tilt the cart that carries plants to be harvested such that the plants are dumped out from the cart.
The master controller 106 may include a computing device 130. The computing device 130 may include a memory component 840, which stores systems logic 844a and plant logic 844b. As described in more detail below, the systems logic 844a may monitor and control operations of one or more of the components of the assembly line grow pod 100. For example, the systems logic 844a may monitor and control operations of the lighting system 206 (
The master controller 106 is coupled to a network 850. The network 850 may include the internet or other wide area network, a local network, such as a local area network, a near field network, such as Bluetooth or a near field communication (NFC) network. The network 850 is also coupled to a user computing device 852 and/or a remote computing device 854. The user computing device 852 may include a personal computer, laptop, mobile device, tablet, phablet, mobile device, or the like and may be utilized as an interface with a user. As an example, a detected weight of plant matter within each of the carts 104 may be transmitted to the user computing device 852, and a display of the user computing device 852 may display the weight for each of the carts. The user computing device 852 may also receive input from a user, for example, the user computing device 852 may receive an input indicative of a type of seeds to be placed in the carts 104 by the seeder system 108.
Similarly, the remote computing device 854 may include a server, personal computer, tablet, phablet, mobile device, server, or the like, and may be utilized for machine to machine communications. As an example, if the master controller 106 determines a type of seeds being used (and/or other information, such as ambient conditions), the master controller 106 may communicate with the remote computing device 854 to retrieve a previously stored recipe (e.g., predetermined preferred growing conditions, such as water/nutrient requirements, lighting requirements, temperature requirements, humidity requirements, or the like). As such, some embodiments may utilize an application program interface (API) to facilitate this or other computer-to-computer communications.
The memory component 840 may store operating logic 942, the systems logic 844a, and the plant logic 844b. The systems logic 844a and the plant logic 844b may each include a plurality of different pieces of logic, each of which may be embodied as a computer program, firmware, and/or hardware, as an example. The computing device 130 further includes a local interface 946 that may be implemented as a bus or other communication interface to facilitate communication among the components of the computing device 130.
The processor 930 may include any processing component operable to receive and execute instructions (such as from a data storage component 936 and/or the memory component 840). The input/output hardware 932 may include and/or be configured to interface with microphones, speakers, a display, and/or other hardware.
The network interface hardware 934 may include and/or be configured for communicating with any wired or wireless networking hardware, including an antenna, a modem, LAN port, wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) card, WiMax card, ZigBee card, Bluetooth chip, USB card, mobile communications hardware, and/or other hardware for communicating with other networks and/or devices. From this connection, communication may be facilitated between the computing device 130 and other computing devices, such as the user computing device 852 and/or remote computing device 854.
The operating logic 942 may include an operating system and/or other software for managing components of the computing device 130. As also discussed above, systems logic 844a and the plant logic 844b may reside in the memory component 840 and may be configured to perform the functionality, as described herein.
It should be understood that while the components in
Additionally, while the computing device 130 is illustrated with the systems logic 844a and the plant logic 844b as separate logical components, this is also an example. In some embodiments, a single piece of logic (and/or or several linked modules) may cause the computing device 130 to provide the described functionality.
As described below, detected weights from the weight sensors 310 and the weight sensors 311 may be utilized by the master controller 106 to verify the operation of various components of the assembly line grow pod 100 and may change growing conditions for plant matter in the carts 104.
Referring collectively to
In embodiments, the master controller 106 may perform any or all of the blocks 610-620. Furthermore, while described and depicted as being performed in a specific order, it should be understood that certain blocks 610-620 may be performed in any suitable order and may be performed simultaneously. As described above, if the plant matter within the cart 104 is ready for harvest, a nutrition recipe for the plant matter may be changed to prepare the plant matter for harvest. For example, the amount of water and/or nutrients provided by the watering system 107, the amount of light provided by the lighting system 206 (
Referring to
In embodiments, the master controller 106 may perform any or all of the blocks 710-720. Furthermore, while described and depicted as being performed in a specific order, it should be understood that certain blocks 710-720 may be performed in any suitable order and may be performed simultaneously. As described above, if the plant matter within the cart 104 is ready for harvest, the cart 104 may be directed to the harvester system 208 (
As illustrated above, various embodiments for determining harvest timing for plant matter within a grow pod are disclosed. In particular, characteristics of plant matter within individual carts may be detected and compared with a harvest timing recipe. Based on the comparison, the cart may be directed to a harvesting system or may be directed to continue growing the plant matter on the cart. Further, in some embodiments, a nutrition recipe including water and/or nutrients provided to the plant matter on the cart may be changed to facilitate additional plant growth or maintain a present level of plant growth. In this way, the decision of when harvesting is appropriate for plant matter may made at the cart level, as opposed to harvesting decisions made with respect to an entire crop. By making harvesting decisions at the cart level, crop yield may be increased by ensuring that plant matter is not harvested until an appropriate growth level has been attained for each cart.
While particular embodiments and aspects of the present disclosure have been illustrated and described herein, various other changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Moreover, although various aspects have been described herein, such aspects need not be utilized in combination. Accordingly, it is therefore intended that the appended claims cover all such changes and modifications that are within the scope of the embodiments shown and described herein.
It should now be understood that embodiments disclosed herein includes systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable mediums for determining a harvest time for a grow pod. It should also be understood that these embodiments are merely exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/519,704 filed on Jun. 14, 2017 and entitled “Systems and Methods for Managing a Weight of a Plant in a Grow Pod,” and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/519,701, filed Jun. 14, 2017 and entitled “Systems and Methods for Determining a Harvest Time For a Grow Pod,” the contents each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62519704 | Jun 2017 | US | |
62519701 | Jun 2017 | US |