LONDON — Wireless mesh networking startup GreenPeak Technology (Utrecht, the Netherlands ) has partnered with Kronos to develop a terminal to manage greenhouse harvesting.
The project also involved Kronos value added reseller Hortimax for the management system that will monitor the activity and location of individual mobile harvesting carts.
The wireless terminal uses GreenPeak's wireless mesh technology to transmit data from individual mobile harvesting carts to routers, which enables the data to be gathered and analyzed in a central coordinator unit and, the companies say, will monitor individual pickers' efficiency.
Compared to the existing set-up, where only the average picking weight per corridor and not per individual picker was known, the latest system increased overall greenhouse productivity by 15 percent, the companies say.
They add the ability to track quickly which areas have been harvested and how much has been picked also enables greenhouse operators to implement quicker corrections in spraying and fertilizing patterns and scheduling, allowing for a richer harvest.
Kronos says one reason for choosing GreenPeak's wireless networking technology was its performance in radio unfriendly environments.
The mesh technology is self-healing and self-forming, making the approach easy and inexpensive to install. And each device in the GreenPeak network can act as a repeater for other wireless devices, letting the network span larger distances.
Unlike competitive mesh solutions, which require battery power or cabling for the main routing nodes, GreenPeak says networks using its technology tap smart power-up/power-down and synchronization techniques that enable all mesh nodes to operate in low-power mode.
"We first tested WiFi, but the radio coverage in the greenhouse was not satisfactory," said Alain Van der Hoeven, VP Marketing and Business Development, Kronos Western Europe. "We also tried a ZigBee solution from one of GreenPeak's competitors, but that failed because transmission from mobile devices (the harvest carts) was not supported."
Formed through the merger of Xanadu Wireless and Ubiwave, GreenPeak focuses on battery-free communication technology for wireless sense and control applications based on IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee wireless networking standard.
The company is backed by venture capitalist groups DJF Esprit (UK), GIMV (Belgium), Motorola Ventures (US) and Allegro Investment Fund (Belgium).
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