Elevated vertical farming: Vaisala sensors and the story of Fifth Season

Vertical farming is looking up – quite literally. No sun, no soil, no vast expanse of land? No problem. At least not for indoor vertical farming company Fifth Season.

“When you don’t have to worry about outdoor conditions, you have the benefit of going vertical. We can grow plants year-round in urban areas close to the dense part of a city,” said Fifth Season Cofounder and CTO/COO Brac Webb

Using a sophisticated mix of artificial intelligence (AI), sensors, data modeling and robotics, Fifth Season’s technology tends to each plant’s individual needs at high levels of efficiency and precision. But sensors and their data play the most pivotal role. “The plants are telling us exactly what they want. We just have to adjust to that,’ said Webb. “Every minute, we’re collecting Vaisala sensor data to measure and maintain the conditions most important for plant growth and using that information to build something special.”

Background

第五季的故事非常是美国梦的故事。

这家初创公司始于三个朋友和企业家：联合创始人Brac Webb，Austin Webb和Austin Lawrence。该公司最初成立于2016年，当时是Robotany Ltd.，在卡内基·梅隆大学（CMU）Swartz创业中心孵育。

韦伯说：“我们真的是从科技公司开始的，一开始就研究了垂直农业问题，并想知道我们可以做些什么来帮助解决一些技术问题。”“我们的大部分进化都是由于HVAC传感器和LED灯的进步所致。我们已经有了编程。所以，我们说，哎呀，让我们做整个事情。”

Fifth Season is now a 60,000-square-foot, solar-powered vertical farm in the Pittsburgh borough of Braddock, PA. The company’s 25,000-square-foot grow room is equipped with 40 different robots and has 12 levels with more than 125,000 square feet of production capacity. Compared to conventional produce, which can travel thousands of miles by truck or plane, fresh produce grown in local vertical farms need only travel a few miles to reach consumers. The company produces an assortment of leafy greens, arugula and spinach as well as ready-to-eat salads that are sold to a local clientele including Giant Eagle and numerous other retailers. They have also launched a Direct-To-Consumer model on their website.

The company uses its small army of 40 robots to streamline almost every aspect of the verticalgrowing operation, including storage, retrieval, harvesting, integrated pest and disease management, scouting, seeding, media packaging, and more, according to Webb. Humans are minimally involved in the process, mostly to coordinate the robotic army to execute specific growing recipes or other tasks – which also cuts labor costs from 40% in traditional farms to just 20%.

“We have cutting-edge technology - not using traditional methods, using more of a robotics approach - and a ton of data collection with Vaisala sensors, not only for closed-loop control but also for alerting us to changes in plant growth or the environment,” Webb said.

Industry Overview

由已知和新兴技术管理的小空间中，对不断增长的环境的全面控制 - 24/7/365 - 农业经常与其他类型的耕作相比，耕种的竞争优势是耕作的优势。垂直农业也以有效的资源管理而闻名。例如，凭借其水培方法，在水和营养溶液中种植植物，Fifth Season uses 97% less land and up to 95% less water than traditional farming.

Vertical farming attempts to take the uncertainties of agriculture – pests, sunlight, soil, etc. – and makes them controllable through various combinations of AI, artificial light, sensor monitoring,climate control systems, etc. Crops are stacked in layers or rows sometimes 20 to 30 feet high. LED lights are used by all vertical farms to create a specific light recipe for each plant, giving the greens the exact spectrum, intensity and frequency needed for photosynthesis. LEDs offer several benefits, such as: exceptional color range, longevity, low radiated heat and energy-efficiency. They can also be recycled and don’t contain any toxic compounds or elements like mercury.Different types of crops prefer different types of lighting. For example, leafy greens and vegetative crops prefer light towards the blue side of thespectrum; whereas fruiting开花作物可能需要更多的东西光谱。

Vaisala Sensors

So, why Vaisala?“The peace of mind factor is huge. You get that from Vaisala. If we have issues with our growingenvironments, all our plants can die. I mean, it could kill our business,” Webb said. “I never once questioned the reading that I’m getting, or that it will be just as consistent tomorrow. But, more than that, it was also the support we received to quickly integrate your technology into our engineering and get everything up and running fast,” Webb added. In fact, tightly controlling and monitoring light, humidity, CO2 and temperature is critically important to Fifth Season. So, data, data, data….

“我们有，天哪，大概是Vaisala的360HMP110 humidity and temperature probes和36GMP252 CO2 probesdistributed throughout the entire growing environment. It’s not just about gathering data in real time. With post-analysis of big data, we can review the growth history of those plants and learn something about them. We may learn, for example, what we thought was the best growing environment for those plants to achieve optimal conditions for taste, quality and yield isn’t the best after all,” Webb said. “And we can course-correct.”

未来

As the world’s population expands, projected to reach 9 billion by 2050, so too does the amount of fruits and vegetables needed to sustain it. There is only so much farmland to accommodate the increase in fresh food required for life. The U.S. Department of Agriculture,投资者和企业家都承认垂直农业有可能加强全球食品体系。在大量风险投资的支持下，诸如第五季的初创企业正在为提供新的解决方案提供有效提供新鲜健康食品的新解决方案。

韦伯开玩笑地补充说：“我们学到的越多，我们就越能改善垂直耕作。

The story of Fifth Season is just beginning.

“We’d like to replicate these hyper-local farms. So, it isn’t just about solving the problems of having fresh produce available in Pittsburgh and making sure we can run it here. This farm is a product that we want to be able to deploy in multiple locations all over the United States, all over the world at some point, you know. That’s our grand vision.”

For Fifth Season and Webb, there’s also an underlying humanitarian goal of vertical farming thattranscends business.

“As a person and an engineer, I always like reading about how (US President) ThomasJefferson thought agriculture and engineering are intertwined: that agriculture is humanity’sfirst and foremost engineering problem to solve. You’re helping create jobs in that local area andwe have seen how important that is to the economy. Thanks to the technology from Vaisala, youcan create an environment that is perfect for the plants and help people too.”

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