The Applied Science Centre (ASC) for Smart Indoor Farming of the HSWT
The Applied Science Centre (ASC) for Smart Indoor Farming is the first of its kind at the HSWT. This ASC aims to establish an infrastructure in the field of indoor farming that serves as an interface between research and industry. It links scientific questions with concrete applications and interdisciplinary projects contribute significantly to making this innovative technology ready for practical use.
What is Indoor Farming?
Applied science to lettuce & vegetables
Indoor farming is the cultivation of plants in a closed cultivation system excluding sunlight, whereby a precise regulation of all cultivation parameters is possible: light, air, temperature, water and nutrients. Compared to conventional cultivation methods, indoor farming has considerable advantages in ecological issues such as resource consumption and environmental impact. Through year-round production with multiple harvests, Smart Indoor Farming also greatly contributes to economically important issues of product quality and yield maximisation.
The arrows in the following figure compare the systems within a specific parameter.
Collaborations of the ASC for Smart Indoor Farming
The Applied Science Center works closely with these business partner companies:
- Gemüsering Stuttgart GmbH
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The current container, converted into an indoor farm, was made available on permanent loan by Gemüsering Stuttgart GmbH. The Gemüsering also finances a student assistant who works in the indoor farm within the framework of experimental work.
- Dr Thomas Wilke
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Dr Wilke has many years of experience in the food industry and is a key supporter of the HSWT in establishing industry cooperations and in project acquisition.
Research projects
The ASC for Smart Indoor Farming focuses its research on:
- The recording and optimisation of material flows - energy consumption in particular
- The use of lighting strategies to influence the quality of plant raw materials
- The use of sensor technology and automation
- The production of pharmaceutically used plant parts with high demands on consistent quality
- The application of Vertical Indoor Farming along supply chains
- The linking of interdisciplinary questions for holistic optimisation
- Networking with other culture systems (insects, fish, algae)
