21 months into the Interreg Hy4Dense project and many prototypes are being made and tested with the project partners. This is the result of a couple of different phases.
Studying all about hydroponics and taking guided tours throughout the greenhouses of high and low tech farmers in Belgium, the UK and the Netherlands, was the first one.
Followed by getting all the needed information and participation of the stakeholders, multiple co-creation sessions were developed and performed in cooperation with the Innowiz team. The goal of these sessions was to get a sense of what the existing installations are capable of and what is expected from the stakeholders.
With the first information gathered, the prototyping started. In parallel with the prototyping, more information kept coming in, through iterations and feedback moments.
Currently more than ten different prototypes with different specifications have been tested. Focusing on a uniform germination, we are also looking at how the system can support fully grown crops, harvesting and a bit of automation.
For the latest prototypes, we are using different materials such as organic substrates and different kinds of synthetic meshes. All of this gets put together using different prototyping techniques such as 3D-printing and lasercutting.
Following steps will be looking at up-scaling the prototypes, how these can be produced for further development, with the goal of getting everything ready for agriculture material producers.
