During this century, there has been a shift in the ability to change settings and environments in order to provide reliable agricultural products. Greenhouses and indoor farms have been superb tools for cultivating reliable products. However, the set of parameters that determines the response of a certain plant type is very complex and unknown. A farmer who applies the best–known set of e.g. pH values for a given crop can optimize the yield by several percentages without adding any energy into the system (since changing pH has a negligible effect on the energy added).
OptimaPlanta wants to help all farmers worldwide unlock this great potential, providing them with the tools, equipment, and information needed to maximize production and minimize costs. With a team of highly competent experts in AI and machine learning and plant cultivation combined, two professors as scientific advisors prof. Martin Weih at SLU and prof. Mats Gustafsson at Uppsala University. Optima planta has the following solutions:
(1) A fully automated and modular aeroponics system that utilizes machine learning for maximum numerical optimization. Recommended use is the cultivation of plants that are difficult to grow and have high margins.
(2) Numerical optimization and comparative studies for existing farms (indoor farms, greenhouses) where optima planta can help to find optimal pH, and nutrient compositions or answer binary questions like is seed X or Y best, is lamp Z or W best, and more.
Optima planta is delighted to engage in academic research with other researchers, companies, and further stakeholders. One current research project is:
The evaluation of the potential of Auto-Aeroponics, which involves fully automated and optimized indoor cultivation of plants. High-pressure Aeroponics is used where the roots of the plants grow freely in the air instead of soil and are sprayed with a nutrient solution at regular intervals. This method has a number of interesting advantages compared to alternatives like Hydroponics but is still not widespread and has not yet been scientifically analyzed in terms of how great potential there is to:
(1) Adapt the growth environment to maximize the growth rate and/or some other attractive properties such as durability and nutritional content.
(2) Automate and scale up the cultivation to commercially interesting levels.
20 separate culture chambers will be used in parallel in two pilot studies. Three such cultivation chambers have already been developed in their lab. Computer-based optimization methods will simultaneously optimize several adjustable environmental variables such as temperature, light intensity, and humidity. The pilot studies will demonstrate unique opportunities to address several needs from academia, industry, and society related to food production, medicinal plants, production of chemicals/ biomolecules/ bioplastics, functional foods, and fundamental research in plant sciences.
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