Mjnn LLC

Other

Michael Peter Flynn

Alexandre Le Roux

Brice Leon Klein

Gage Goodspeed Coffin

Matthew James Matera

Nathaniel R Storey

Tamara Tahir Hasoon

Merritt Jonathan Jenkins

Alan Colbrie Schoen

Anna Olson

Alex Ibrahim

Maria Alexandria Malone

Loren Raymond Pilorin

Andrew Keith James

Nadav Sahar Hendel

Mark Cuson

Theodore Howe St George

Timothy Michael Murcko

Nicholas Robert Kalayjian

Frank Spiteri

Michael Bennett Hamilton

Charles Dylan Karr

Kelly Catherine Casie LaBuff

Andrew Dubel

Meaghan Fitzgerald

Arvind Sankaran

Juli A Satoh

Damon Henry Smith

Paul Baron Guerra

Nate Mazonson

Travis Callahan

Paul Bryan Kreiner

Taylor Brooke Wollert

Allison Marie Maclellan

Kevin Kai Morris

Grant Thomas Lindblom

Frances Willcox Esparza

Roger Lee

Aidan Patrick Barry

Casey Bennet Call

Danielle Meredith Fallon

John Whitworth

Michael Ryan Baldwin

A controlled environment agriculture system including multiple environmental grow zones through which plants and/or lighting or other equipment that influence environmental equipment are cycled during the growth phase of farm production. In one implementation, the system includes multiple grow zones through which plants are cycled during the growth phase of farm production. The system may include a first environmentally-controlled growing chamber, a second environmentally-controlled growing chamber, and one or more interfaces to allow a conveyance mechanism to transfer grow containers between the chambers. Each growth chamber may include environmental control systems, and associated sensors, for regulating at least one environmental condition, such as air temperature, airflow speed, relative air humidity, and ambient carbon dioxide gas content.

Controlled environment agriculture system including multiple grow space condition zones

Mechanisms that facilitate location and alignment of grow towers for one or more processing operations. In one implementation, the alignment mechanism comprises a track including an alignment feature and one or more engagement actuators. The alignment feature is configured to engage features of a track-contacting face of a grow tower. The engagement actuators press the grow tower against the track, causing the alignment feature to engage the grow tower and align it along the track to facilitate processing operations.

Grow tower alignment mechanism

An apparatus for releasably grasping a grow tower. The apparatus comprising a beam, gripper assemblies attached to opposite ends of the beam and an actuator mechanism for controlling the gripper assemblies.

Pickup and laydown station systems for grow tower production

Facility layouts and configurations for an automated crop production system for controlled environment agriculture. In particular implementations, the core of the facility comprises a controlled growth environment and a central processing system. The controlled growth environment includes systems for exposing crops housed in modules, such as grow towers, to controlled environmental conditions. The central processing system may include various stations and functionality both for preparing crop-bearing modules to be inserted in the controlled growth environment, for harvesting crops from the crop-bearing modules after they have been extracted from the controlled growth environment, and for cleaning or washing crop-bearing modules for re-use. The controlled growth environment may include vertical farming structure having vertical grow towers and associated conveyance mechanisms for moving the vertical grow towers along one or more grow lines. The conveyance mechanisms may include a return transfer mechanism that creates a return or u-shaped path for each grow line.

Production facility layouts for automated controlled environment agriculture

Facility layouts and configurations for an automated crop production system for controlled environment agriculture. In particular implementations the core of the facility comprises a controlled growth environment and a central processing system. The controlled growth environment includes systems for exposing crops housed in modules, such as grow towers, to Controlled environmental conditions. The central processing system may include various stations and functionality both for preparing crop-bearing modules to be inserted in the controlled growth environment, for harvesting crops from the crop-bearing modules after they have been extracted from the controlled growth environment, and for cleaning or washing crop-hearing modules for re-use. The remaining aspects of the crop production facility—such as seeding stations, propagation facilities, packaging stations and storage facilities—are arranged to achieve one or more desired efficiencies relating to capital expenditures or operating costs associated with an automated crop production facility.

Production facility layout for automated controlled environment agriculture

An irrigation system for a vertical farming structure having vertical grow towers and associated conveyance mechanisms for moving the vertical grow towers through a controlled environment, while being exposed to controlled conditions, such as lighting, airflow, humidity and nutritional support. The present disclosure describes a grow tower conveyance system that moves vertically-oriented grow towers to select positions along a grow line. An irrigation line having apertures at the select positions provides aqueous nutrient solution to the grow towers, while a gutter structure captures excess solution. In a closed loop system, the excess solution returns to a recirculation tank.

Irrigation system for vertical grow tower crop production facility

A vertical farming structure having vertical grow towers and associated conveyance mechanisms for moving the vertical grow towers through a controlled environment, while being exposed to controlled conditions, such as lighting, airflow, humidity and nutritional support. The present disclosure describes a reciprocating cam mechanism that provides a cost-efficient mechanism for conveying vertical grow towers in the controlled environment. The reciprocating cam mechanism can be arranged to increase the spacing of the grow towers as they are conveyed through the controlled environment to index the crops growing on the towers. The present disclosure also describes a tower shuttle mechanism that provides operational flexibility by decoupling the loading and unloading operations of the grow towers from the vertical farming structure and, therefore, allowing multiple grow towers to be extracted for harvesting in a batch process before loading new grow towers into the vertical farming structure in a separate process.

Vertical grow tower conveyance system for controlled environment agriculture including tower shuttle

An automated crop production system for controlled environment agriculture that includes a horizontal-to-vertical grow tower interface between a vertical grow structure that includes vertical grow towers and associated conveyance mechanisms for moving the vertical grow towers through a controlled environment, and a processing system that performs one or more processing operations&#x2014;such as harvesting, cleaning and/or transplanting&#x2014;on the grow towers in a substantially horizontal orientation. The present disclosure also describes an automated crop production system for controlled environment agriculture that selectively routes grow towers through various processing stages of an automated crop production system.

Grow tower processing for controlled environment agriculture system

A multi-piece hydroponic tower comprised of a tower body defining a tower cavity, where the tower cavity provides a passageway for a water/nutrient mix, and a tower face plate hingeably coupled to the tower body. The tower face plate is positionable relative to the tower body in a tower cavity closed position and a tower cavity open position. The tower face plate includes a plurality of plant container cut-outs configured to accept plant containers. A fastener temporarily latches tower face plate to the tower body when the tower face plate is in the tower cavity closed position.

Multi-piece hydroponic tower with hinged tower face

A hydroponic tower cleaning and debris removal system is provided that is configured to automatically clean and remove plant and material debris from within a hinged, hydroponic tower as well as the plant containers contained within such a hydroponic tower. The hydroponic tower cleaning system utilizes a drive system to force the tower through the apparatus; an alignment system to ensure that the tower remains in proper alignment throughout the cleaning process; a brush system that initiates separation of plant debris from the tower/plant containers and ensures that the plant roots are torn apart; a plunger system to eject plant debris from within the plant containers; an air delivery system to blow away the debris; and rollers to maintain tower face alignment during the cleaning process.

Cleaning apparatus for use with a plant support tower

Facility layouts and configurations for an automated crop production system for controlled environment agriculture. In particular implementations, the core of the facility comprises a controlled growth environment and a central processing system. The controlled growth environment includes systems for exposing crops housed in modules, such as grow towers, to controlled environmental conditions. The central processing system may include various stations and functionality both for preparing crop-bearing modules to be inserted in the controlled growth environment for harvesting crops from the crop-bearing modules after they have been extracted from the controlled growth environment, and for cleaning or washing crop-hearing modules for re-use. The remaining aspects of the crop production facility&#x2014;such as seeding stations, propagation facilities, packaging stations and storage facilities&#x2014;are arranged to achieve one or more desired efficiencies relating to capital expenditures or operating costs associated with an automated crop production facility.

A vertical farming structure having vertical grow towers and associated conveyance mechanisms for moving the vertical grow towers through a controlled environment, while being exposed to controlled lighting, airflow, humidity and nutritional support. The present disclosure describes a reciprocating cam mechanism that provides a cost-efficient mechanism for conveying vertical grow towers in the controlled environment. The reciprocating cam mechanism can be arranged to increase the spacing of the grow towers as they are conveyed through the controlled environment to index the crops growing on the towers. The present disclosure also describes an irrigation system that provides aqueous nutrient solution to the grow towers.

Vertical grow tower conveyance system for controlled environment agriculture

Growing community of inventors

Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Michael Peter Flynn