CES 2020 has featured some pretty interesting innovative technologies but perhaps one of the more intriguing ones is the “planty cube” developed by agriculture IoT startup, n.
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The company describes its product as an automated vertical farming system that will allow operators to maintain their crops at any time and from anywhere.
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The system is a modular design that is designed to connect like LEGO bricks. Each modular capsule is called a pickcell and you can string several pickcells together. Each pickcell houses the seed of each plant.
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n.thing built a smart hydroponic farm that utilizes the planty cube design in order to demonstrate the potential of the system. With stacked rows and shelves of planters on the sides, each pickcell is about two inches in length, depth, and width.
The seeds are first sown via their smart seed capsules then a computerized system manages the environment and monitors plant health. The system also automatically adjusts the LEDs, temperature, and humidity, as needed.
Sensors collect data on the plants which allows control via smartphone. This opens up unique possibilities of controlling the farm remotely.
Because the system is modular, it can be adjusted to match any location, whether it’s an apartment or a cafeteria. The automated system also ensures that even minimal human attention can make the plants thrive.
For clients who are new to vertical farming and want to start a venture, the system is easy enough to learn and use so that they can increase their farm’s size at a low cost and over longer periods of time according to their needs.
But n.thing is not the only player that is developing vertical farming concepts. LG came up with its own indoor vertical farm at CES 2020.
Vertical farming utilizes LED lighting to supply different wavelengths of light and can be adjusted depending on crop and growth stage needs. This is in contrast to greenhouse production which relies on natural sunlight.
Companies such as n.thing are devoting resources to develop high-tech agricultural solutions in order to tackle the challenges confronting traditional production methods, such as water use, pollution, and limited space in rapidly urbanizing countrysides.
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