Isolated Plant Growth Units With Customized Nutrient Delivery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current hydroponic growth systems are limited in their ability to scale due to interconnected water supplies, leading to issues such as the spread of water-borne diseases, uneven nutrient distribution, and suboptimal nutrition for plants, as well as challenges in data collection and production optimization.
Innovation Solution
A non-interconnected growth system featuring a dynamic nutrient manager and central fertilizing system with unidirectional plumbing and robotic nutrient delivery, allowing for customized nutrient plans and independent nutrient delivery to each plant growth unit based on plant-specific data, including age, variety, and environmental conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If interconnected hydroponic systems are used to share water supply, then resource efficiency is improved, but disease spread and nutrient distribution uniformity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the grow space into multiple isolated growth chambers, each with its own water reservoir and nutrient solution. This segmentation prevents disease spread between plants while maintaining resource efficiency through individualized nutrient management for each chamber.
2Loss of energy
If interconnected hydroponic systems are used to share water supply, then resource efficiency is improved, but nutrient distribution uniformity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Each growth chamber has its own nutrient solution with independently adjustable composition and concentration, allowing optimization of nutrient distribution for specific plant needs in each local zone while maintaining overall system efficiency.
3Productivity
If individualized nutrient delivery systems are implemented, then plant nutrition optimization is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses standardized growth chambers that can be replicated and configured in various arrangements. Each chamber is a self-contained unit with universal components, allowing individualized nutrient delivery without proportionally increasing overall system complexity through modular design.
Data Source
AI summary
A non-interconnected growth system. The system includes a plurality of plant growth units. Each plant growth unit in the plurality of plant growth units is water and nutrient isolated from any other plant growth unit. The system also includes a dynamic nutrient manager configured to collect data from the one or more plant growth units and calculate a customized nutrient plan for each plant growth unit based on the collected data. The system also includes a central fertilizing system configured to receive the nutrient plan for each plant growth unit and deliver nutrients to each plant growth unit based on their respective nutrient plan.