Hippo Harvest is an exciting new greenhouse prototype in Pescadero, California, which brings robotics and automated cultivation to an entirely new level in harvesting food.
Based on an existing traditional greenhouse, Hippo Harvest has been extensively remodeled and adapted to advanced robotics. Rather than using expensive specially designed robots, Hippo has adapted off the shelf warehousing robots to efficiently take over the main labor roles in growing lettuce.
These generic robots have been modified to handle most of the main functions in a greenhouse – transporting the plants throughout the greenhouse, watering, fertigation, pest control, plant monitoring, and harvesting. This has greatly reduced labor costs as well as water and fertilizer usage. This has also improved yield and plant health to the point where Hippo can compete with outdoor or traditional greenhouse production.
All data is accumulated by the sensors on the robots, and this is centralized in a cloud-based greenhouse management program. Exact information is collected on all plants and in many cases, send automated instructions back to the robots in cases where plants need more water, are facing pest issues or shows any sign of disease. Detailed statistics are also automatically gathered on crop yields, projected harvest volumes, as well as detailed results on varied cultivation techniques.
In addition to state-of-the-art robotics, Hippo has employed advanced lighting strategies from California Lightworks. This includes LED fixtures that use a central driver – taking all the fragile electronics and heat out of the grow space. This also cut installation costs to a fraction of traditional LED lighting. The slim linear fixtures which required no Unistrut cut the shadow effect also feature dynamic two channel spectrum control for the perfect light under all conditions.
Hippo Harvest is already supplying Amazon Fresh in Northern California, who is one of their major investors. As the current operation is expanded to the full facility, plans are already in the works to expand this robotics concept to other markets across the country.
The MegaDrive Linear 400 system is an excellent addition to any indoor grow operation. It offers features and flexibility not typically seen in LED fixtures, allowing for greater spectrum control from its easy-to-use app. Eliminating the need for power drops, it drastically lowers installation costs as well as getting rid of unnecessary complications that can result from individual power supplies on the back of each fixture, including those that are caused by humidity and other potential contaminants.
Even better, California LightWorks makes delivery and installation easier than ever, so you can start experiencing the powerful benefits of this system. Every MegaDrive system is custom-designed and computer-simulated to ensure the lighting will work as expected upon delivery. You can rest assured that all of your components will come simultaneously to allow for easy and fast installation so you can quickly get back to your normal operation.
To learn more about what our MegaDrive Linear 400 system can do for your crops and operations, reach out to us, and we’ll be in touch soon.
Contact us for information on which lights are right for your application as well as free complete computerized light plans and grow consulting.
California LightWorks
7949 Deering Ave
Canoga Park, CA 91304
(800) 575-3475, Inside USA
(747) 444-3380, Outside USA
