As Osram has released on its website, the company has acquired a stake in the Montreal-based startup Motorleaf, an artificial intelligence company focused on bringing data-driven insights to greenhouse and indoor farm operators.

 

Motorleaf supports growers with hardware and software in order to supervise environmental and human and environmental aspects of plant growing in greenhouses and hence is able to predict much more accurately the yield of harvest. These aspects are of particular interest in the horticulture industry where profit margins are often tight and contractual obligations make a reliable forecast of growing results indispensable. Therefore it is another intention of Motorleaf to give growers a higher planning reliability within shorter time frames such as weekly operation results.

 

 

Osram has already engaged in the development of LED grow lamps since years and the new acquisition is meant to strongly enhance growing results through the collection of data which gives more insights into the specific needs and characteristics of specific plants. Motorleaf’s solution is furthermore based on artificial intelligence (AI) which makes the project even more promising for future applications.

 

Initial tries already have shown a significant increase do yield predictability by 50 percent in tomato growing. However, yield prediction is only one aspect of the new technology, the protocol is extended to other fields such as providing data for the prediction of crop diseases and detection of optimized growing conditions which can increase the ROI (Return of Investment).gm.