Crop strategy optimization added to Autonomous Growing

Planning and monitoring the crop throughout the cultivation cycle is an important part of Autonomous Growing. Blue Radix is therefore introducing a new component in Crop Controller: Strategy Optimizer. The goal of integrating Strategy Optimizer in the Blue Radix portal is to help the grower focus on the crop cycle strategy and the cultivation process. Now, the day-to-day AI-driven, autonomous climate control will be even more aligned with the grower’s goals and targets. This article describes the features and the value it delivers to growers.

Features for crop strategy improvement
With Autonomous Growing, processes like climate, irrigation and energy management are executed by smart algorithms that continuously process all the available data to realize the grower’s strategy and goals. The Strategy Optimizer module therefore includes multiple features that work seamlessly together to provide growers with the best strategy for the crop and autonomous execution. Three important features:

1. Planning – For every new crop, a climate and crop plan is easily generated, based on available data. Strategy Optimizer predicts parameters like plant load and required energy. The energy balance module calculates the balance of the plant throughout cultivation and identifies the moments when there is a lack or abundance of energy. This enables the grower to finetune the planning.
2. Register & monitor – During the cropcycle,Strategy Optimizer displays the main climate averages. This enables the grower to track the outcome of Crop Controller on a day and week level. The crop registration module, in which a grower can register parameters regarding the crop development, completes the picture of the crop.
3. Short-term outlook – During the crop cycle, Strategy Optimizer combines crop registrations and climate realization over the past weeks, along with the planning for the coming weeks to provide a short-term outlook. Both the energy balance and the yield forecast are updated for the upcoming weeks with the most recent climate & crop realizations.
   
   

Extended value Autonomous Growing
The integration of Strategy Optimizer in Crop Controller extends the value of Autonomous Growing: re-use best practices, avoid mistakes and structure decisions within the greenhouse company.

Re-use best practices
A solid strategy based on experience creates a sense of calm and convenience. Strategy Optimizer enables a grower to use templates from previous successful crop cycles and compare them with crops from other owned locations. In this way, a grower can easily re-use previous decisions that paid off.

Avoid mistakes
Small errors can have a great impact on the crop and yield. Strategy Optimizer integrates the day-to-day control with the crop cycle planning. The grower can easily zoom in on performance during a day and zoom out to compare week-on- week performance. Crop Controller ensures that the crop cycle plan is executed in the day-to-day control on a 5-minute basis.

Structure decisions
With a plan based on a balanced strategy, the grower can make informed decisions during cultivation and align the expected yield and required labor for the coming weeks in the greenhouse company.