Light Science Technologies (LST) has announced the launch of sensorGROW, an all-in-one growing intelligence tool aimed at giving indoor farmers better environmental control while saving costs and reducing waste.
Ideal for any controlled growing environment including greenhouses, polytunnels, vertical farms and containers, sensorGROW is designed to make profitable year-round growing a reality using the latest smart technology. It brings together real time environment, crop performance, third party and key business data to provide instant actionable insight to growers, helping them to make business decisions with confidence.
sensorGROW enables growers to monitor and control their environment by measuring key airzone and rootzone parameters. Overtime, sensorGROW’s analysis of the growing environment is expected to arm users with knowledge of their crops’ health far in advance of when would be humanly possible through traditional observation. This deeper insight to performance means results can be forecast.
Actionable growing intelligence also enables customers to identify problems or opportunities, the clear benefits being reduced food waste, decreased energy and increased yield. It also saves money, by allowing growers to spot trends with big data via interactive dashboards,
Made up of sensor nodes and a physical gateway, the sensors transmit data packages via LoRanWan (low frequency radio) offering less interference, low battery power and a long range of up to 10km. The sensors connect to a defined gateway which then sends data to the cloud. The data coming from the gateway then connects via ethernet or wireless.
The real time sensor data and historical data can be viewed on mobile devices or desktops via any chosen web browser.
Craig Price, Operations Director at Light Science Technologies, said: “sensorGROW provides a solution for a multitude of crops across numerous environments – from berries to tomatoes to leafy greens. Our tailored solution is specifically for a growers’ growing area and creates a starting point to collect environmental data in real time.
“Key growing decisions are often based on an individual’s experience; however, insufficient data or covering large areas can lead to growers not getting a complete picture of their environment or missing something that only data can show. We use data and insight from all aspects of a growing environment so that in the future, sensorGROW can make smart, autonomous decisions allowing growers to deliver more profitable yields and de-risk.”