Vertical Farming

In view of a steadily growing world population, increasing urbanization and the limited availability of farming land worldwide, coupled with the challenges resulting from climate change, the production of food in urban environments becomes increasingly important. Plant cultivation in vertical farming systems in particular has experienced a strong upswing in recent years. While existing studies have focused primarily on the crop cultivation itself, i.e. cultivation, lighting and nutrient supply systems for vertical farms, research at the IFL focuses on the automation of internal material flows within the farm. This includes, for example, the development of open hardware in order to operate small-scale, fully automated vertical farms economically, increasing the degree of autonomy in cultivation through the use of intelligent sensor-actuator systems, as well as conducting research into optimal operating modes that supplement the control of material flow technology with influencing factors that arise from the concept of the "storage good - plant".