Communications of the ACM
Robots Take Vertical Farming to New Heights
Fifth Season is a vertical farm growing greens indoors by stacking racks of plants on top of each other.
Credit: Fifth Season
Fifth Season, a vertical farm in Braddock, PA, uses robots to grow greens indoors, from seed to harvest.
Co-founder Austin Webb said, "What we have built is the industry first, and industry only, end-to-end automated platform."
Plastic trays with unique IDs are stacked throughout the 60,000-square-foot facility, and every plant can be traced from any point in the growing process.
Proprietary software directs the robots to stack and remove trays of plants.
LEDs are used to replicate sunlight, and sensors are used to monitor the nutrient mix, carbon dioxide levels, and light spectrum.
Compared to conventional farming, Fifth Season uses up to 95% less water, 98% less land, and no herbicides or pesticides.
Moreover, a half-acre indoors is equivalent to almost 100 acres of farmland in terms of production.
From Governing
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