AUTOMATED VERTICAL FARM

ABSTRACT

Nourishment is one of the necessities for human survival. The farming of vegetables, fruits, and spices provides for a large portion of this need. There are, however, mounting concerns over the traditional farming practice. Much of the land available for farming is already in use and, its estimated that, by 2050 ten giga hectares of new land will be required to support the population using traditional farming methods. Another concern is the environmental damage caused by deforesting the land to grow crops, greenhouse gas emissions and flood risk to name a few.

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 The goal of this project is to design an automated vertical farming system that can grow fresh produce, while providing solutions to the above concerns. The system will also have a relatively small footprint allowing more plants to be grown in a smaller area. Another goal is sustainability, and to this end, the plant substrate will be a reusable type and water will be used as minimally as possible. In addition, the system will be of interest to those with limited or no place to grown plans using traditional methods. The system will be as automated as possible requiring minimal upkeep once a crop is planted until it is ready to harvest.