Robotics & Automation News

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farms

Vertical farming: Professor Changhoo Chun discusses Samsung’s horticulture LEDs

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A ‘smart farm’ is an intelligent farming system that applies information and communication technologies (ICT) to agriculture.

One example of a smart farming system is vertical farming, wherein food is produced in vertically stacked layers.

Vertical farming has been attracting attention in recent times as a potential future agricultural model thanks to the advantages it offers, including its economical use of space and resources, environmental-friendly form of cultivation, and the reliable harvesting.

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Top 25 vertical farming companies

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The phrase “vertical farming” probably doesn’t need to be explained even though it’s quite new. But anyway, vertical farming refers to the practice of producing fruits and vegetables vertically, in stacked layers, perhaps on many floors inside a building, using artificial lights instead of the sun, and a whole range of relatively new technologies.

The two main reasons why it’s a much-discussed topic now is because:

  1. there are a number of startup companies emerging in the sector and attracting tens of millions of dollars in investment; and
  2. more people live in cities than do in rural areas, a global trend which seems irreversible, and this means that the demand for fresh produce will increase in urban areas, and bringing the production closer to the consumer would make sense.

The third thing we could have added is that there is the range of new technologies available now that make vertical farming in urban areas cost-effective and possibly profitable. But we already mentioned that.

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ASI autonomous vehicles piloted on California farms

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Autonomous Solutions, Inc. (ASI) technology will be used in two pilot programs with large scale commercial growers in California.

A partnership agreement has been announced between ASI, New Holland Agriculture, and E. & J. Gallo Winery, the largest family-owned winery in the world, to operate the autonomous vehicles in their vineyard operations.

Similarly, there has also been a partnership announced between ASI, Case IH, and Campbell Soup Company’s Bolthouse Farms, one of North America’s largest vegetable growers.

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