Technology Service Area: Precision Agriculture

First and foremost: we bring a Full System VIewpoint

What’s the hidden secret to development efforts in precision ag? It’s a system level view. The cultivar is at the center of all of our collective efforts and the having the best of something will show no benefits if another area is lacking. We focus on entire systems and work to upgrade pieces in a logical progression.

Custom LED Lighting for Horticulture

We design custom horticultural LED lighting products large and small for both manufacturers and end customers.  From low cost single channel 4’ bars to multi-spectrum research systems; from 1000 Watts to 1 MegaWatt; tissue culture lab to greenhouse supplemental, we can custom design a solution for your needs.  With our expertise in plant photobiology as well as electrical engineering & manufacturing, we can create the specifications for luminaires directly with growers and plant scientists, spanning the distance between requirements capture and scaled implementation. 

Agricultural Sensor Systems

Sensing in controlled environment agriculture is more difficult than it appears at first glance. Sensor selection, mechanical housing design, firmware, and processing algorithms all play a critical role in providing the data that is the lifeblood of a modern CEA operation. We have experience with new and legacy wired and wireless protocols (i.e. RS485 vs. LoraWAN ), ultra-low power consumption for extended sensor battery life, as well sensing critical agricultural parameters such as Vapor Pressure Deficit, CO2, PPFD and beyond.

CEA Facility Lighting Design

There is no ‘standard’ fixture in our industry.  We work with many reputable lighting suppliers as a ‘buyer’s agent’ and set up your facility based on your needs.  We often install several different lighting brands in the same facility - we exclusively focus on what works in the application.

Climate Control and HVAC

Climate control is finally getting the focus that it deserves.  Sensible loads, latent loads, cooling, dehumidification, disinfection, airflow: all are critical to clean, disease free crops that pass stringent fungal and microbial tests.  More often than not, the problems we see in commercial facilities comes back to poor agricultural HVAC design. We design and remediate controlled environment agriculture HVAC systems, working with local MEP firms and national manufacturers to select the right tools for your application. 

Machine Learning and AI for Agriculture

ML algorithms need data. Lots of data. But often overlooked is that they need high quality data. We work with ML and AI teams to collect the data they need ensuring it is high quality and highly correlated with the plant’s true climate and environmental conditions. We deploy off the shelf sensors when possible, and design custom design sensor systems where needed.

Power Systems

Single phase, 3 phase, 480V, 208V, 277V, 60Hz, power factor...industrial power systems are a world within themselves.  We collaborate with MEP firms to design the right power system for facilities to get from the grid to powering your grow in the most cost and energy efficient manner possible.  We make sure you have the right power (and backup power!) to run your facility to match your plans for operation and expansion.

Water Measurements and Fertigation

Measuring, checking and correcting hydroponic reservoirs automatically can take crop quality to the next level, while reducing labor and costly human error (ph down instead of up anyone?).  We have experience designing these systems for automating large farms, including selective ion measurement systems that allows you to dial in individual nutrients - not just overall EC.

Specialty Facility Design and Support: R&D, LABs and Tissue Culture 

We love collaborating with R&D labs to solve their research problems and achieve their investigation goals.  In the past we have specified clean rooms and lab layouts, designed incubators for plant tissue culture, and built multi-spectrum LED lighting for researchers. 

Horticultural Process Engineering

What media type is best to achieve your facility goals? How best to design a facility for organic? How much water will my facility use? How many grams per square foot does my floor need to hold?  All of these are critical questions in facility design. We act as an overall horticulture system advocate and help translate between project stakeholders.

Facility Lighting Design

Most CEA facilities can achieve their production goals with ‘off the shelf’ fixtures. Given the full system requirements for a CEA facility, we assist clients in selecting the correct LED lighting strategy for their facility, cultivars, and production goals. Once we have established the best overall lighting strategy, we assist clients in selecting from several different manufacturers products which can help them achieve their targets within their capex and opex targets.

One fixtures are selected, we work on behalf of clients to design a lighting plan and ensure the plan works in harmony with the rest of the facility design. A typical project includes: 

• verifying lighting levels through DiaLux or other modeling software

• dividing facility lighting into zones and mapping dimming signals to control systems

• For High Pressure Sodium to LED retrofits: verify HVAC system will continue to function properly with new lighting source

• Architect overall connection to power systems, including both grid power and specifying a backup power system narrative

• Performance verification of lighting system both before and after facility start-up

• Grower assistance and collaboration to dial-in using high performance lighting systems to maximize a facilities Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) by using a plant data driven approach

Third Party Luminaire Evaluation

There are seemingly an endless number of LED luminaire manufacturers. Lighting specs are confusing and do not lend themselves to easy ‘apples to apples’ comparison. Compound this with a multi-million dollar purchase decision and it’s easy to get lost.

We work with clients to help select and vet manufacturers by taking in products and running an independent engineering evaluation. With our experience in LED design and manufacturing, we audit the design and manufacturing choices to de-risk purchase decisions and facilitate true comparisons between options. 

A standard evaluation consists of:

• Mechanical evaluation of lamp construction and ease of installation

• Full product mechanical teardown including electrical & thermal measurements of key parameters

• Testing of luminaire at accredited lighting laboratories to verify data sheet metrics