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Vertical Farming Design Challenge | Challenger List

Many thanks to all who applied for the Vertical Farming Design Challenge - there were a great many imaginative ideas on how best to build an energy efficient, small footprint,  vertical "layered" farm that is a true IoT solution. .
However, we could only have 15 sponsored competitors - and in this instance we've selected:
Ognyan Chikov | Keith Earns | John Henderson | Calla Klafas | Erik Lau | Jose Marques | James O'Donnell | Kowshik Patel | Michael Ratcliffe | Rick Reynoldsôa | Clem Martins | Ajit Singh | Shane Sissons | Joshua Tsai | Srinivasan Kanni Udaiyar |
imageOgnyan Chikov
Bulgaria
Project: Automated Farm
Synopsis:
My technical solution is made of few elements that in collaboration with each other will lead to build a complete system for operating vertical farming. The Solution is not only including software and hardware for automation and monitoring, but a new type of growing surface that will be used rather than overall footprint of the build.
Read Ogynyan's project blogs (tag automated_farm)
imageKeith Earns
United States
Project: Project EDEN
Synopsis:
EDEN uses aeroponic nutrient misting systems to grow indoors, without the need for soil. All self- contained, so no runoff. Vertical farming allows use of lateral space. With fresh produce less can be imported and thrown into the trash. Photosynthetically Active LED spectrum, CO2/pH automation, and humidity control will be active to ensure plants grow in near- optimal conditions.
Read Keith's project blogs (tag project_EDEN)
imageJohn Henderson
United States
Project: Ambient Growth
Synopsis:
The prototype shall incorporate a small scale environmental control module that shall be capable of modulating the ambient growth temperature of the plant growing area such that the plants will successfully grow.  Furthermore, the prototype shall utilize LEDs as grow lights such that the grow period can be extended significantly to optimize growth of the plants. It is also possible that a high voltage generator and grid lattice may be incorporated in the grow chamber to provide for ionization and additional plant growth stimulation.
Read John's project blogs (tag ambient_growth)
imageCalla Klafas
Australia
Project: Aquaponic Salad Garden
Synopsis:
This project aims to develop a design of a small form factor vertical garden that is setup as an easy picking shelf for fresh ingredients for the kitchen of an urban apartment in Sydney.
Read Calla's project blogs (tag aquaponic_salad_garden)
imageErik Lau
United States
Project: The Plant
Synopsis:
The proposed automation system will include methods to regulate pH temperature, water level, power usage, and feed for the fish. We will be able to regulate the system, either through the internet web page or on site computer connection.
Read Erik's project blogs (tag the_plant)
imageJose Marques
Portugal
Project: Modular Farm
Synopsis:
My goal is to develop a simple modular automated system to support indoor plant growing of fruits and vegetables. Simple means anyone with a minimum technological or botanic background should be able to install and operate it. Because it is fully automated, the human factor is minimized and we make sure the plants will have what they need when they need it. The modular approach is very important for scalability. In this way the system will be flexible enough to be used either as a domestic growing system or as an industrial production facility.
Read Jose's project blogs (tag modular_farm)
imageJames O'Donnell
United States
Project: Vertical Hyperponic Farm
Synopsis:
To demonstrate a vertical hydroponic farm, I will create a scale version that will demonstrate many of the required features. This will consist of four sections: water treatment, germination, seedling/microgreens, and nft channels. I will focus on measuring energy, water, nutrient, and other material use while controlling the nutrient solution, temperature, and lighting.
Read James' project blogs (tag vertical_hydroponic_farm)
imageKowshik Patel
India
Project: Cylindrical Farm
Synopsis:
Combining a cylindrical bottom for greater surface area, mystifying nozzle and automation controls. This build will use IoT applications to help increase biomass production in India.
Read Kowshik's project blogs (tag cylindrical_farm)
imageMichael Ratcliffe
United Kingdom
Project: Adapted Greenhouse
Synopsis:
This project will adapt the challenge of connectivity and power efficiency to an already established greenhouse.
Read Michael's project blogs (tag handheld_sensor)
imageRick Reynolds
United States
Project:Vertically Oriented Modular System
Synopsis:
My proposal consists of the design and implementation of a modular hydroponics based, vertically stackable, growing unit and wireless control and monitoring system. The concept of smaller stackable units will allow for small, home-based, installations as well as the ability for unlimited expansion to fully commercial installations. My proposal for this challenge is to build one complete stackable growing unit, a localized wireless control module and a remote wireless master control and monitoring module.
Read Rick's project blogs (tag modular_hydroponics)
imageClem Martins
United States
Project: Hydroponics Using Water Bottles & Control
Synopsis:
This build will be using recyclable materials like waterbottles and egg cartons to grow leafy vegitables. It will also document daily progress of this hydroponic, closed system using grpahs and pictures published on the cloud.
Read Clem's project blogs (tag hydroponic_water_bottles)
imageAjit Singh
India
Project: New Delhi Vertical Farm
Synopsis:
We are building a fully automated, low energy footprint, indoor vertical farm in New Delhi, India. Natural environment in Delhi is characterized by extreme temperatures not conducive for traditional techniques employed in vertical farming - hydroponics and aquaponics. The space we have at our disposal is 1,000 sqaure feet. The space will have artificial smart lighting and air conditioning - through water based coolers, misters, foggers and exhaust fans.
Read Ajit's project blogs (tag new_delhi_farm)
imageShane Sissons
United Kingdom
Project: Ferris Farm
Synopsis:
This project will use a motorized system which will provide light, water, food and air movement. The mechanical design will include a rotating platform with an integrated feeding system.
Read Shane's project blogs (tag mechanical_farm)
imageJoshua Tsai
United States
Project: Solar Farm
Synopsis:
This project integrates solar power technology into a sensor-rich, fully automated hydroponic vertical farming application.
Read Joshua's project blogs (tag solar_farm)
imageSrinivasan Kanni Udaiyar
India
Project:Simple IoT Based Plant, Soil and Water Management System 
Synopsis:
Each of the plant species (vegetable,fruit,herb) chosen will be arrayed up on a wall mountable tray / container(eco-friendly) with soil and necessary manure.The material chosen for the tray/container will be eco friendly or reusable.The supporting material will contain the plant seed, soil and manure.The containers will be mounted on a pipe in order to support DRIP IRRIGATION(efficient water utilisation).Nutrients will be passed on along with the drip irrigation.
Read Srinivasan's project blogs (tag simple_iot)
  • in reply to shanesissons

    Well they want us to "harvest and measure". Sounds like something edible don't you think.

    C

  • in reply to RWReynolds

    that is a good point and all i know is that element14dave has said that the kit will explain i just though i would bring up abit of a chat for us to ponder over

     

    and it seems like most people so far thinks an edible crop is what will be asked of us

  • in reply to RWReynolds

    I think the only restriction will be being a food crop. Going to try to get some more blog posts up.

  • in reply to shanesissons

    Yeah, design, design, design... And then do it again. lol...

    And again this is a perfect opportunity to get to know the development tools and the device documentation. I've had to read parts of the docs several times before I really understand what it's saying.

     

    On the cultivation side, that's my weakest point. I've done a little hydroponics and it worked well, but it was minimal. Here's what the challenge description says.

     

    "We’re going to be recommending the types of seeds to buy, the types of fertilizer and ranges to be aware of when you’re monitoring moisture, light and humidity."

     

    What I think what they are saying is that they will make recommendations for people like me who don't know what they're doing in the cultivation world. lol...

     

    I think ultimately it's strictly up to the challenges what they grow. Please correct me if you know otherwise. This is just the impression I'm getting. It would be hard to restrict it too much given the geographically diverse nature of the challengers pool. My thoughts anyway.

  • I know that the electronics are going to take up a lot of time with testing so I'm doing the same using this time to get the design ironed out that way when the parts do arrive (hopefully soon) I will have the physical design ready to use for testing aswell as bench top testing

     

    Just to start a conversation what plants do you think they will send us

     

    I'm gonna say that it will be a food yielding plant maybe something that will grow to about 50-70% over the testing period

     

    What are your thoughts?

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    No problem Joshua! image

     

    I asked about hydroponics early on they said that was fine!

     

    I would go download SimplicityStudio and go through the examples. And there are some tutorials on the SS site I think.

     

    http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/simplicity-studio.aspx

     

    And design is a good thing to spend time on. The more the better. I've worked out several problems just doing research and thinking bout them

  • in reply to RWReynolds

    Thanks. I feel kind of useless while I wait for my parts. Just twiddling my thumbs and working on designs, which in hindsight don't even matter, since I don't even know what plant/fertilizer I will use. Hopefully, they'll let hydroponic people choose water based fertilizer.... otherwise, I might have to break out some salt grinders for those pesty pellets...

  • in reply to RWReynolds

    I particularly like how they integrated their Application Notes in SS. One click and you can read all notes for your device, another click and an example project for that note is loaded in Studio, ready for build and test.

     

    I am rather impressed by that.

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    Shane is correct. SimplicityStudio is a development environment provided free by Silicon Labs. The IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is based on Eclipse. Bu it looks like SS has a lot more than just and IDE. There are a lot of really cool tools specific to Silicon Labs devices. As well as, once you've selected your device, full documentation for the device and example programs. The examples are C/C++.

     

    There are several other IDEs you can use that support the Silicon Labs devices. Keil is the one I know best. But frankly if you are not married to one of the other development tools then I would stick with SS. It really seems to have everything you need for this project, and then some. One interesting tool allows you to run an energy profiler against your code, while in debug mode, and it will analyse energy usage down to the function level. Now that's pretty cool. It utilizes the AEM on the controller board to do this. There are lots of other tools as well.

     

    I have installed it and compiled several of the example programs. Works great so far. But I don't have an actual device to try it on yet so I don't know how the debugger works. If you decide to use it and your going to use the EZ21WG wireless functionality then I would look at the following two examples first.

     

    SLWSTK6222A_ezradio_direct_tx

    SLWSTK6222A_ezradio_direct_rx

     

    On the EM32 device you might want to go over to ARM mbed and take a look at the onlineIDE.

    https://mbed.org/


    I've tested it out as well and it's not bad at all. Certainly much better than any other online dev environment I've ever used.

     

    Cheers,

    Rick

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    From my understanding you program in simplicity studio using c++ you can also use some other software simplicity studio has been designed to be an all in one solution for programming debugging and analysing data

     

    Shane