Cannabis cultivation is steeped in technological innovations for a nearer future than you might think.
The future of farming is not as far as some imagine, robots in greenhouses are not just an idea from science fiction novels. Robotic farmers and total greenhouse automation have been making their way through crop rows across North America for quite some time now, and they are poised to break into the cannabis industry of an important way.
Back in the past: the sun hunter robot
Hexa, the sun hunter robot takes care of your plant, on its head ...
Plants are "heliotropic", that is, they grow towards the light. A plant that wants to live, will always go towards the light… As a playful device, Hexa the programmable robot, can only sympathetically walk the plant in the sun. Equipped with on-board sensors and intelligent programming, this robotic application says itself: "accessible to the greatest number and not to a few". Can we consider this feat, with our favorite plants? This is now a possibility, thanks to the work of Tianqi Sun, whose company Vincross makes Hexa , the robot in question. Hexa is a programmable robot intended to make robotics user-friendly “accessible to many people and not just. Sun recently redesigned one of his Hexa robots to become a very, very chic mobile flowerpot, The Verge has reported , as part of a project he calls "Sharing human technology with plants."
A little more recent: The Greenbox
The new automatic machines "budtender Are ATMs at weed.
The green box is the invention by Zack Johnson, CEO of the company and former Massachusetts music industry executive who envisioned a kiosk
to weed.
This is the idea behind the green box, a true “Legal Dealer” or Bud Tender, a kind of hybrid between an ATM and the trendiest ATM in town.
The stylish kiosks have a touchscreen with an interface that divides the products for sale into sections like flowers, oils, and edibles. Consumers can browse the product selection and choose the item (s) they want to purchase. Once payment has been made (on a smartphone via Apple or Samsung), a robotic arm chooses and distributes the desired products. The whole process takes less than three minutes from start to finish.
The design period took two years of work, with Senior Engineer and COO Peter Boyle leading the research, development and testing.
Automation is already making its way into the greenhouse
A robotic takeover of the marijuana industry should come as no surprise given the technological advancements the industry has made in just a few short years. Many forget that just ten years ago, recreational cannabis was taboo, with farmers focusing on secrecy rather than technological improvements. Today, marijuana is a multi-billion dollar industry in North America alone. It is already setting records as a cash crop, with its profits helping to fund technological innovations that push the boundaries of conventional culture.
The automation of cannabis can be less shocking than robotics. Many mid-to-large commercial operations already rely on some level of automation to handle the logistics of growth. Companies like Priva work with other companies to eliminate manual management of the cultivation process. Priva designs greenhouse systems that eliminate the need for constant human monitoring of vital systems like irrigation, lighting, CO2, temperature.
Most systems, such as Priva's line of automation systems, allow the grower to control the harvest in real time. Routine climate adjustments are automatically managed by predefined algorithms and comprehensive sensory systems. Priva allows producers to take a step back from the micromanagement of a crop by collecting and analyzing data area by area. Priva designs systems where the farmer can “view, manipulate, modify and make real-time decisions about factors influencing his greenhouse climate, irrigation and heat management operations”.
Priva is by no means one of the only companies to automate indoor cannabis operations. Braingrid, Urban Grow and others are making names in the field of automated greenhouse climate control and data-driven crops. These systems pave the way for full-fledged robotics that enters the field and the grow room.
Future vision?
What is the place of robots in the modern exploitation of cannabis? If you can imagine an army of robots useful for weeding and hoeing as they go through growth, you won't be that far. Naio Technologies already has a team of four robots in its small army, which weave their way through rows of crops, weed and turn the soil quickly so employees can focus on more crucial and complex tasks. They currently have four models (Oz, Bob, Ted and Dino), two of which are specifically intended for the wine industry. In an hour, a small machine like their Oz model can weed 1000 yards of a crop, perhaps more efficiently and effectively than unskilled labor.
It makes sense that companies like Niao, with robots already adapted to a vineyard, will eventually turn to cannabis. Indoor and outdoor cannabis cultivation operations can expect financial and productivity gains from a team of robots that take on the many mundane and repetitive tasks of cannabis cultivation. marijuana.
Introduction of robots in the culture room
Even if robot weeders don't fit your vision for the future of cannabis cultivation, there are other systems focused on indoor grow room logistics that may seem more realistic today. Stackable, space-saving models are increasingly used in industry to maximize grow room productivity, but what if integrated robotics and automation make every plant accessible and more productive?
Hove has a long history of designing custom solutions for the greenhouse industry, solutions that have naturally attracted the cannabis industry. They have developed a system of cannabis rolling trays, called the Cannabench System, which maximizes space, improves operational efficiency, reduces labor costs and increases profits.
It is important to note that they have adapted to systems already used in cannabis. Their special space-saving rolling trays integrate perfectly with ebb and flow trays, trellising systems, as well as height-adjustable systems so that workers are always working at an optimum height.
As robots are already making their way through the rows of other greenhouse crops, they will surely be entering the cannabis industry soon. Automation is also likely to take over commercial spaces, becoming the norm rather than the exception. With the level of investment flooding the industry and open access spreading around the world, cannabis cultivation is filled with technological innovations straight from the future.
Source : cannabistech
