Greenhouse cultivation has evolved from covered rows of open-field crops to controlled environment agriculture (CEA) facilities which paint the future of plant factories for urban agriculture. The advances and improvements in CEA have promoted scientific solutions for the efficient production of plants in populated cities and multi-story buildings. Closed-field agriculture is going through a radical transition driven by advances in precision technology, data processing, and smart farming. Protected cultivations have changed from simple greenhouses to high-tech plant factories that maximize the productivity of the plants and human labor.
Solidus AI Tech is on a mission to build an eco-friendly High-Performance Computing (HPC) Data Centre and an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform. We aim to assist Governmental Authorities, SMEs, Megacorps and Professionals by providing them with Artificial Intelligence Licensing services through our cryptocurrency token AITECH.
We have finished building our main Data Centre and are prepared to initiate the installation of our HPC infrastructure based in Europe (Bucharest). A big problem that many European companies were faced with was the lack of HPC facilities, making them seek their supercomputing needs overseas. After building and basing our Data Centre in Europe, we made it easier and more secure for companies to access their supercomputing needs. Our long-term plan is to build additional data centres nearby, thus increasing our revenue streams. Our facilities will be more efficient and of lower cost, consuming 40% less power than the industry average.
A modern greenhouse operates as a system. Therefore, it is also referred to as controlled environment agriculture (CEA), controlled environment plant production system (CEPPS), and Phytomation systems. These structures use natural and artificial light, within which optimum growth conditions are needed for horticultural crop production and plant research programs. Those facilities also offer greater predictability, reduce the cost of production, and increase crop yields.
The UN has predicted that, by 2050, more than two-thirds of the nine billion world population will live in the cities. Securing the fresh fruit and vegetable supply in this scenario will be a next-level challenge. If properly designed, managed, and operated, CEA, by means of agri-cubes and plant factories, can significantly contribute to this instance with the year-round production of fresh vegetables in urban areas.
The cultural and environmental factors that must be considered include cultivation techniques, plant characteristics, microclimate requirements, and growth responses, as well as morphological and physiological conditions such as “multiplication, rooting, transplanting, pruning, water and nutrient delivery, pesticide application, harvesting, post-harvest processing, etc.”
Research trends in this field are leaning toward innovative methods to shift from conventional greenhouses to smart controlled environments that benefit from natural resources and eliminate harmful external factors. The ultimate objective in this regard is achieving high yield and high-quality fruits at the least possible cost. Innovations in the low-cost and low-power consumption sensors and instrumentations, communication devices, data processing, and mobile applications, along with the technological advances in the design structures, simulation models, and horticultural engineering, have provided state-of-the-art facilities that shift the traditional CEA to plant factories for urban farming.
Urbanization and living in multi-story buildings request a redefinition of agricultural awareness for securing the food supply. The economic viability of traditional greenhouses is likely to disappear in the coming decades. Nowadays, researchers and greenhouse growers are more inclined toward smart controlled environment agriculture. Researchers are developing complex mathematical models to minimize energy inputs and are interested in finding innovative solutions for replacing the fossil fuel-consuming greenhouses with energy-neutral CEA systems that operate on solar and wind power.
The main aspect that requires improvements in this field is the task planning algorithms. Path planning is no news, but providing the CEA with an adaptive design and control strategy that forms the right shapes and performs the right tasks at the right time while increasing profits and remaining competitive in the market, is still a challenge.
Concerning the cause, Solidus Ai Tech’s platform will provide Governmental Authorities, Megacorps, SMEs, and Professionals with a wide range of AI services, the most important of which is Agriculture — Greenhouse Automation. Individuals and companies will be able to purchase the services they need through our customer self-service portal, in which the customer can select their resources and software add-ons.
Moreover, Solidus Ai Tech is a supporter of the Crypto Climate Accord, a movement whose goal is to decarbonize the global crypto industry by prioritizing climate stewardship and supporting the entire crypto industry’s transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
Last but not least, Solidus Ai Tech will be planting 128 trees around its premises as part of a volunteering program in partnership with the Ministry of Education in Romania. The top 10 National Olympics teenage computer scientists will be invited to join the Solidus Technologies Educational Awards Program.
