Intelligent Racking System Design for the Growing process of future NutraPonics Facility

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In a growing sector with a $1.17 billion farm gate value, the development of greenhouse vegetables in Albertaonly represents a 4% of the greenhouse vegetable production in Canada. This results into a situation wherethere still exists an opportunity to deliver significant benefits to the food industry in Canada through extensiveresearch. The proposed research project tackles the most labor intensive and critical component of modernsemiautomatic farms and addresses a key issue in the semi-automatic food industry: the racking process. Forindoor farms, where space is limited, the racking system determines not only the production rate of the farmbut also the quality of the products leaving the facility. However, the concepts behind "industry 4.0" have yet tobe implemented in most industries that are not related to digital manufacturing. The automation of such a keycomponent in the factory will suppose a big step forward in the upcoming revolution for the food industry.While RFID technology, biosensors or even robotics have been proven to possibly been implemented, the foodindustry has not taken to the technology with the same pace as other industries, i.e. automotive. The proposedproject will be a step towards securing an important relationship between the UofA researcher in sustainableautomation of the local food industry. The project will result in training of HQPs, generate know-how relatedto automation and industry 4.0, as well as strengthen the industry-academic partnership resulting in innovativeresearch and applied industry specific solutions.