I moved to NY 2 years ago from TX, after I got out of the military.
I have been wanting to grow most of my life and finally get a chance to start a buisness with it. (CBD for now, with in 12-18 months).
For the past several years I have been working on solving automation problems, on paper at least, for the growing of cannabis. I have finally reached a point to start testing, in very limited capacity, some of the key problems that need to be overcome in the system.
The idea is an automated process to start with a clone or seed and go from grow to harvest to curing and packaging.
Most of the labor would be for maintenance of the system.
This would include, eventually, automation of water recycling, testing, and monitoring to adjust accordingly.
As well as the introduction of commercially available air quality controls.
Then expansion into further waste management and energy production.
This will also help to start finishing the 40 acre outdoor system with full automation through harvesting and drying plans.
So, I’m here to figure out what knowledge gaps I have and hopefully start a small scalable test system for production and harvest in the next 18-24 months. Working out issues in the meantime.
(Not the best at writing. )
Hi Sean, welcome to GN and looking forwarding to seeing your journey in cannabiz.
Sounds like a very interesting and technology advanced industry you are getting involved in. Can you share more about the automation of the cannabis growing process, what you talking about robots/drones doing the work?
Good stuff! I am focused on the same kinds of aspects and made a career jump in 2020, going back to school to pursue an engineering degree to help me better solve those problems.
What kinds of issues are you working on at the moment?
Good stuff man, good luck with the project, sounds like quite the endeavor. I’ll tag along and watch the fun for sure. Let me pack the bowl and pull up the recliner. Welcome to GN and all that jazz man…
Well, all the technology is pretty much commercially available and will need modifications.
The whole facility would still require maintenance.
I would aim for, hopefully, no more then 20 people. That number is just an utter guess.
A key point in the design would be to still have a manual backup system.
That constant works as a constraint on the whole design. Which forces a simple as possible structure.
Focusing on the simplest form of machine design to execute the required exertion of force to perform the task. (That sounds weirder in words then it is.)
Something that has not been quantified in the designs would be needed power requirements.
In the ideal scenario air, wind, and whatever else would be implemented for power production. This I more a phase 2 thing.
Then the whole process keeps compounding to work towards a zero waste facility and reducing carbon footprint, and water recycling.
But, yeah. It just uses the most simple way I could think. Fully developed, it would use ground drones for planting/cutting, other pieces for transport, and monitoring, and then test out better farming practices as a whole. The pot automation is a way to raise capital to do other stuff.
