Scientists at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology have created a portable closed system for growing plants, the analysis of which will be artificial intelligence - trained computer neural networks. The results of the study were first published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Instrumentations and Measurements.
“The study will allow the creation of portable plant growing systems. Skoltech’s task was to assemble a plant that would constantly monitor the dynamics and growth conditions, as well as find the optimal additives to the base solution, ”the authors of RT reported.
Such a facility, equipped with a monitoring system, can be used, for example, in space, researchers say.
According to them, the priority was to train a computer to control the growth of seedlings. Also, artificial intelligence was to determine the best combination of biological additives necessary for plant life in space and in other closed systems.
The specialists of the German Aerospace Center were involved in the work - they provided a specialized base solution for plant nutrition, developed for the International Space Station.
Scientists also set out to find not only the most effective, but also the lightest supplements by weight, since the criterion of mass is extremely important when delivering goods to space stations.
In addition, during a large-scale study, scientists have identified the most optimal computer “vision” algorithms, which allows the machine to determine the surface area of foliage and thus control the growth rate of seedlings.