Quantum in the top 3 winners of the Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge
As part of the VeggieMight team, our data science team completed the third edition of the Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge this month and took third place. Learn more about the technical side of the challenge.
We spoke with our awardees and gathered some insights into how they managed to succeed in the challenge and what are their further plans.
Achievements:
— “We had the synergy of sophisticated technical algorithm and domain experts’ knowledge. It was a real challenge to find common ground sometimes, but that let us pull the knowledge in horticulture into our Reinforcement Learning model and get an outstanding solution.”
— “Computer Vision. That’s what we were the first at. We found an accurate planting strategy, and the lettuce grew exactly as we expected.”
Future opportunities:
— The VeggieMight team does not say goodbye to you. We stay in touch with our friends in the challenge to solve new challenges and go to new victories.
— QuantumSoft is aimed to productize the technology invented and start the solution development as a startup.
— During the challenge, we negotiated opportunities to integrate the future solution with other greenhouse systems providers to be a part of the smart greenhouse control ecosystem.
— We have been noticed as a potential partner by the Dutch greenhouses operating company interested in a greenhouse automation solution. At the meeting, we discussed the possibilities of starting the pilot project and developed an implementation roadmap. We have much future work to collect data, connect sensors and implement our experience in their facilities.
Conclusion
The Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge is a competition that resonates in the modern world. Since greenhouses are an essential part of the current food supply chain, their efficiency is a matter of growing concern to manufacturers, including those interested in promoting automation. Our task is to apply the experience gained and help companies solve their difficulties in this area.
Many thanks to the organizers, Wageningen University & Research and Tencent, our team, and everyone who supported us.
You can enjoy the challenge event stream via the YouTube link.
Learn more of our articles on the blog.
