Small vertical farms with an annual turnover of up to €50,000 and a working area of up to 50 m² offer greater flexibility and lower installation and operating costs compared to large farms. They provide the local community with food, which reduces transport costs. Setting up small farms requires significantly lower costs for renting premises, equipment, materials and personnel. This reduces the entry level into this technology and facilitates its wider adoption by start-ups, retirees, families combining part-time work and private business – for anyone who wants to increase their income. Worldwide, around 80% of high-tech agricultural companies with indoor cultivation are small farms. The goal of this project is to create high cultivation productivity for small farms, a high degree of automation with minimal installation and operating costs — that finally results in an autonomous farm with minimal human intervention.

Focuses of this project are: 

• cost-effective solutions, including 3D printing, for rack/shelf assembling, for autonomous irrigation, lighting and ventilation;
• usage of locally available resources and components;
• development of affordable power and sensor electronics to control all subsystems and for biological measurements;
• achieving highly productive growth strategies by leveraging plant biofeedback;
• using substrate-free cultivation;
• applying AI, automation and robotic systems to reduce production costs and potentially achieve fully autonomous systems;
• production of microgreens, wheat-/oat-/barley- grass, leafy greens and other plant species suitable for indoor cultivation.