Modular Lighting Module for Plant Cultivation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional plant cultivation apparatuses face issues with uneven light distribution, maintenance complexity, and moisture-related damage to lighting components, leading to reduced growth rates and aesthetic concerns.
Innovation Solution
A modular plant cultivation apparatus with a lighting module that includes a light source part with adjustable light source arrangements, a drainage structure to prevent moisture accumulation, and sensors for environmental control, allowing for even light distribution and easy maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If a lighting device with multiple light sources is used to evenly provide artificial light to plants, then light distribution is improved, but the amount of light becomes uneven in overlapping sections versus non-overlapping sections
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces reflective surfaces positioned at specific angles (45 degrees) to redirect light from light sources that would otherwise emit in unwanted directions. This adds a spatial dimension to light control by using vertical and horizontal reflective surfaces to bounce light downward onto plants, converting peripheral light emission into useful illumination and achieving more uniform light distribution across the cultivation space.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs reflective surfaces as intermediary elements between the light sources and plants. These reflectors act as mediators that capture light emitted in various directions and redirect it toward the plant cultivation area, ensuring that light from multiple sources combines uniformly rather than creating hot spots or dark areas.
2Device complexity
If lighting devices are integrally formed with the plant cultivation apparatus, then structural integration is improved, but maintenance complexity increases and usability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the lighting system into separable modules - the lighting device can be removed as a distinct unit from the cultivation apparatus. This segmentation allows the lighting component to be independently maintained, replaced, or upgraded without affecting the rest of the system, thereby reducing maintenance complexity while preserving structural integration during normal operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The lighting device is designed with dynamic characteristics, allowing it to be positioned, removed, and repositioned as needed. This dynamic design enables easy access for maintenance while maintaining functional integration during operation, resolving the contradiction between structural integration and ease of repair.
3Area of stationary object
If light sources emit light more widely to cover more area, then light coverage is improved, but lighting efficiency decreases and aesthetic sense is reduced due to light reflection on peripheral walls
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts what would normally be wasted light - the peripheral emission that hits walls and reflects uselessly - into beneficial illumination by introducing reflective surfaces. These surfaces capture the previously harmful peripheral light and redirect it downward onto the plants, transforming energy loss into useful light coverage while maintaining lighting efficiency and aesthetic appearance.
Data Source
AI summary
A plant cultivation apparatus has a lighting module that is provided above a bed in a cabinet, and the lighting module includes a light source part including a plurality of light sources, a lighting case in which the light source part is provided, and a lighting cover coupled to the lighting case and covering the light source part. The lighting module is removably mounted to the cabinet in a removable manner.