Digital brain for the greenhouse

Digital brain for the greenhouse

"We offer growers a digital brain for their greenhouse," says Chief Executive Officer Ronald Hoek who, alongside co-founders Chief Product Officer Rudolf de Vetten and Chief Operations Officer Laurens van der Spek, is part of the Management Board of Blue Radix. "We are a Dutch high-tech company that specializes in the application of artificial intelligence for the greenhouse sector. Greenhouses provide an efficient way of producing vegetables, plants and flowers in a sustainable way. However, the number of people with crop expertise is declining year by year. At the same time, a huge amount of data is becoming available for crop management, and energy management is becoming more important and complex. We have solutions for these global challenges. Our algorithm-based Crop Controller steers the greenhouse installations autonomously. This enables growers to optimize their greenhouse climate, reduce water and energy consumption, and limit operational risks and their ecological footprint. They fully automate and achieve their planned crop strategy and benefit from financial optimization in all areas."

Autonomous growing with Crop Controller
Many companies offer data-driven growing and data platforms that provide growers with insights. Although offering dashboards, warnings and digital recommendations, these platforms still require growers to evaluate the data and perform the right actions themselves. Blue Radix is taking the next big step in this regard. Crop Controller truly understands the grower's crop strategy and carries out the required actions completely autonomously. This means that growers can increase their span of control and reduce the company's dependence on the availability of the 'human' grower's expertise for its success. The autonomous control also guarantees the continuity of their company in the event of business succession. The data models control the systems in the greenhouse 24/7 and growers are supported by offsite operators with in-depth knowledge of crops, energy and data. They provide a personal contact for customers and guarantee that the algorithms produce the right results. A grower does not need to purchase or install new hardware. "Our cloud-based solution instantly turns a regular greenhouse into a high-tech and data-driven one," says Ronald.

"At the moment, Crop Controller is operating in several leading companies with tomato and cucumber crops in the Netherlands, and we are receiving requests from various regions throughout the world, including Russia, China, Canada and the US."

See how autonomous greenhouse management works in this 1.5-minute animation

Formation of Blue Radix

Blue Radix has 15 employees with a great deal of experience and specialisms in AI, IT, energy and crop cultivation. Management board members Ronald, Rudolf and Laurens all come from AgroEnergy, where they acquired 7 years of experience with the application of AI relating to energy services in the greenhouse horticulture sector. AgroEnergy is a market leader offering smart energy solutions to greenhouses in the Netherlands. Because of the growth of Blue Radix, it will move to the Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam. "We established Blue Radix to apply our skills and technology to help the greenhouse sector scale up and improve operational activities in the greenhouse. Our independence is important, because we work closely together with many different companies in the greenhouse sector. Our solutions are fully integrated with the climate computer and receive data from sensors and energy systems installed in the greenhouse.

The idea of creating a new company emerged after the successful participation in the First Edition of the Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge. This international competition organized by Wageningen University & Research and Tencent focused on the question: can AI autonomously take over climate control and irrigation in a greenhouse from the grower? During the challenge, in competition with Tencent, Microsoft and Intel, we demonstrated that artificial intelligence is capable of doing far more than many thought possible. "As a result, the concept increasingly took on a life of its own and we realized that an autonomous greenhouse is a real possibility. So we started working on forming Blue Radix and the development of Crop Controller," says Ronald.

More information

Companies already using data from a climate computer are ready to start working with Crop Controller. We are convinced that the international greenhouse sector is ready for this next step. Would you like to know what autonomous growing can mean for your greenhouse or would you like to collaborate with us? More information on www.blue-radix.com.

Source: Goedemorgen