Overhead Conveyor Cultivation for Harvest-Stage Plant Sorting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for cultivating indeterminate plants in indoor farming are inefficient due to the need for manual labor, slow and complex automated robots, and cumbersome logistics, particularly when dealing with plants at varying harvest readiness stages.
Innovation Solution
A method involving an overhead conveyor device that suspends plants from a ceiling, scans parameters in a central operating area, characterizes harvest readiness stages, and sorts plants into growing zones based on these parameters, allowing for automated harvesting and pruning in the central area, reducing manual labor and improving productivity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If mobile robots are used to travel through the greenhouse for harvesting and pruning, then automated tasks can be performed, but the system becomes slow and complex with poor visibility and reachability
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of moving robots through the greenhouse to access plants, the invention inverts the approach by bringing the plants to a stationary processing location via overhead conveyor. This eliminates the complexity of mobile robots while maintaining automation, as the stationary setup allows for simpler, more reliable harvesting and pruning equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces the mechanical mobile robot system with a combination of overhead conveyor transport and stationary processing equipment. This substitution eliminates the need for complex propulsion and navigation systems, focusing automation on the harvesting and pruning functions at fixed locations.
2Extent of automation
If mobile robots are deployed for harvesting, then manual labor is reduced, but an entire mobile logistics chain is required for produce transport
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the logistics function from the mobile robot and integrates it into the overhead conveyor system. Plants are transported to a centralized location where harvesting occurs, and produce can be directly transferred to stationary logistics equipment, eliminating the need for mobile logistics chains.
3Area of stationary object
If plants are cultivated in dense arrangements, then space is optimized, but visibility and reachability for automated robots deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of having robots navigate through dense plant arrangements, the invention inverts the approach by transporting densely packed plants via overhead conveyor to a stationary processing area. This maintains high space utilization while providing excellent accessibility for harvesting equipment.
4Device complexity
If manual labor is used for harvesting and pruning, then system complexity is low, but labor costs and productivity efficiency are poor
Solution Approach 1:
The invention achieves automation not through complex mobile robots but by inverting the system: plants are moved to a stationary location where simple, efficient harvesting and pruning equipment can operate at high speed, dramatically improving productivity while keeping device complexity low.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of cultivating indeterminate plants, for example tomato plants, bell pepper plants, cucumber plants and/or eggplants, that are suspended from an overhead conveyor device, in a cultivation area of an indoor farming location with multiple growing zones, e.g. in a greenhouse, a vertical farm or a climatized warehouse, includes the steps of: scanning one or more parameters of the plants with a scanning device arranged in a central operating area of the farming location, characterizing the plants into multiple different harvest readiness stages on the basis of the scanned parameters, moving the plants towards the cultivation area, and sorting of plants into the multiple growing zones on the basis of their harvest readiness stage, where the plants are sorted in a number of groups, and where each group of sorted plants is moved into a respective growing zone.