Thanks to the Greenhouse Competitiveness and Innovation Initiative of more than $3.6 million, the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers (OGVG) will select three vegetable greenhouses across the province to participate in autonomous greenhouse research. Blue Radix, an independent Dutch firm specializing in artificial information, is the selected partner. 

“Together with OGVG we introduce autonomous growing with Crop Controller to Ontario vegetable growers,” says Ronald Hoek, CEO of Blue Radix. “Crop Controller is a service: data models and algorithms control the greenhouse installations 24/7, supported by off-site Autonomous Greenhouse Managers with in-depth knowledge about crops, energy and data. With autonomous steering of the greenhouse installations, the crop strategy is put into practice with artificial intelligence. Crop Controller is not developed to replace growers. The grower is still needed to define the crop strategy. Ultimately, they can manage more hectares and worry less about repetitive actions and routine thinking. The algorithms do the work for them in their daily operations.”

The project looks to meet four main objectives:

1) To research the specific needs of Canadian growers (compared to Dutch growers) related to autonomous greenhouse management and translate these needs into product features.

2) To research and implement the adjustments that must be made to improve the match of Crop Controller with different Canadian (Ontario) climate conditions.

3) To demonstrate the working of the Blue Radix data models and algorithms. This helps growers to better understand the value and adopt this new technology in their company.

4) To share knowledge with market peers and help growers to work with this new technology in their day-to-day operations.

Source:  Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers April 14, 2021 news release