Controlled Agricultural Systems and Methods of Managing Agricultural Systems

• US 20200134741A1
• Filed: 12/13/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2018
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Fluence Bioengineering, Inc. (Ams-Osram AG)
• Original Assignee: OSRAM GmbH (Ams-Osram AG)
• Inventors: Bongartz, Timo, Olschowski, Sebastian, Haas, Norbert, Angenendt, Guido, Burza, Marek, Magg, Norbert
• Application Number:
  US16/713,122
• Publication Number:
  US 20200134741A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 31/02 Special apparatus therefor self-acting watering devices A01G27/00
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 31/042 with containers travelling on a belt or the like, or conveyed by chains
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 9/0297 Grids for supporting several receptacles
• CPC Class Codes: A01G 9/247 Watering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/02 Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 60/21 Dinitrogen oxide [N2O], e.g. using aquaponics, hydroponics or efficiency measures

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to different techniques of controlling an agricultural system, as for example a controlled agricultural system, an agricultural light fixture and a method for agricultural management.

Furthermore, the disclosure relates to an agricultural system, which comprises a plurality of processing lines for growing plants of a given plant type, wherein a first processing line in the plurality of processing lines is configured to move a first plurality of plants through the agricultural system along a route; and apply a first growth condition to the first plurality of plants to satisfy a first active agent parameter for the first plurality of plants.

Claims

1. A horticultural platform, comprising:

a first communications interface configured to;

receive raw input data from a plurality of input devices; and

transmit output data to a plurality of output devices;

a second communications interface configured to;

receive application input from one or more applications via one or more application programming interfaces (APIs); and

transmit application output to the one or more applications via the one or more APIs; and

one or more processors configured to;

process the raw input data into standardized input data; and

generate the output data and the application output based on at least one of the standardized input data and the application input, wherein;

the application output comprises data regarding growth of one or more plants in an indoor horticultural environment; and

the output data comprises control commands for controlling at least one of the plurality of output devices to affect growth of the one or more plants in the indoor horticultural environment.

2. The horticultural platform of claim 1, wherein each input device provides the raw input data in a format specific to the input device.

3. The horticultural platform of claim 1, wherein processing the raw input data into standardized input data comprises:

classifying the raw input data into a plurality of input types; and

standardizing, for each input type, the raw input data classified as that input type.

4. The horticultural platform of claim 3, wherein the plurality of input types includes at least one of temporal data, results of data analytics, blockchain data, structured/relational data, and unstructured data.

5. The horticultural platform of claim 3, wherein:

the application input comprises a request for the application output and/or output data; and

the one or more processors are further configured to;

select one or more of the plurality of input types based on the request; and

generate the application output and/or output data based on the standardized input data of the selected input types.

6. The horticultural platform of claim 1, wherein each output device receives data in a format specific to the output device.

7. The horticultural platform of claim 1, wherein the plurality of input devices comprises at least one of a sensor, a lighting fixture, a third-party data service, and an environmental control system.

8. The horticultural platform of claim 1, wherein the application input comprises input from at least one of a user and a third party application.

9. The horticultural platform of claim 1, wherein the plurality of output devices comprises at least one of an actuator, a sensor, a lighting fixture, a computing device, a third-party data service, and an environmental control system.

10. The horticultural platform of claim 1, wherein:

the one or more processors are further configured to determine correlations between the standardized input data; and

the application output and the output data are generated based on the determined correlations.

11. The horticultural platform of claim 1, further comprising:

a memory configured to store the raw input data, the application input, the standardized input data, the determined correlations, the application output, and the output data.

12. The horticultural platform of claim 1, wherein the raw input data comprises at least one of sensor data, user input, environmental data of the indoor horticultural environment, lighting data, plant growth data, and data collected by third parties.

13. The horticultural platform of claim 1, wherein the output data comprises at least one of operational parameters for at least one of the plurality of output devices, plant lighting recipes, plant growth recipes, pest control programs, disinfection procedures, and yield prediction.

14. A method of providing a horticultural platform as a service, comprising:

receiving, at a first communications interface, raw input data from a plurality of input devices;

receiving, at a second communications interface, application input from one or more applications via one or more application programming interfaces (APIs);

processing, by one or more processors, the raw input data into standardized input data;

generating, by the one or more processors, output data and application output based on at least one of the standardized input data and the application input, wherein;

the application output comprises data regarding growth of one or more plants in an indoor horticultural environment; and

the output data comprises control commands for controlling at least one of a plurality of output devices to affect growth of the one or more plants in the indoor horticultural environment;

transmitting, by the first communications interface, the output data to the plurality of output devices; and

transmitting, by the second communications interface, the application output to the one or more applications via the one or more APIs.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein each input device provides the raw input data in a format specific to the input device.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein processing the raw input data into standardized input data comprises:

classifying, by the one or more processors, the raw input data into a plurality of input types; and

standardizing, by the one or more processors, for each input type, the raw input data classified as that input type.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the application input comprises a request for the application output and/or output data and the method further comprises:

select one or more of the plurality of input types based on the request; and

generate the application output and/or output data based on the standardized input data of the selected input types.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein each output device receives data in a format specific to the output device.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the application input comprises input from at least one of a user and a third party application.

20. The method of claim 14, the method further comprising:

determining, by the one or more processors, correlations between the standardized input data, wherein the application output and the output data are generated based on the determined correlations.