Systems and methods for measuring water usage in an assembly line grow pod

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10905052-B2
Application number	US-201815985142-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 21, 2018
Priority date	Jun 14, 2017
Publication date	Feb 2, 2021
Grant date	Feb 2, 2021

Abstract

An assembly line grow pod includes a track extending between a growing region and a sanitizing region, a cart movably engaged with the track, a sanitizer system that applies a sanitizer solution to the cart at the sanitizing region, the sanitizer system including a gray solution tank for storing sanitizer solution runoff collected from the sanitizing region, a watering system that provides water to plant matter on the cart at the growing region, the watering system including an untreated water tank for storing water runoff collected from the growing region, and a flowmeter fluidly coupled to at least one of the sanitizer system and the watering system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for growing plant matter within an assembly line grow pod, the method comprising:
moving a cart carrying plant matter along a track;
dispensing water to the plant matter on the cart;
collecting water runoff from the dispensing of the water to the plant matter;
moving the collected water runoff to an untreated water tank that is fluidly coupled to a treated water tank;
moving the cart to a sanitizer device of the assembly line grow pod;
dispensing a sanitizer solution to the cart with the sanitizer device;
collecting sanitizer solution runoff from the dispensing of the sanitizer solution to the cart;
moving the collected sanitizer solution runoff to a gray solution tank that is fluidly coupled to a cycled solution tank;
measuring at least one of a flow rate of the sanitizer solution dispensed to the cart and a flow rate of the collected sanitizer solution runoff moved to the gray solution tank; and
based at least in part on the measured flow rate of the sanitizer solution dispensed to the cart or the measured flow rate of the collected sanitizer solution runoff to the gray solution tank, moving water from the treated water tank to the cycled solution tank.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising filtering the collected water runoff in the untreated water tank to obtain filtered water, and moving the filtered water to the treated water tank.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising increasing a volume of the filtered water moved to the treated water tank based at least in part on the at least one of the measured flow rate of the sanitizer solution dispensed to the cart and the measured flow rate of the collected sanitizer solution runoff moved to the gray solution tank.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising filtering the sanitizer solution runoff in the gray solution tank, and moving the filtered sanitizer solution to the cycled solution tank.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein dispensing sanitizer solution to the cart comprises moving the filtered sanitizer solution from the cycled solution tank to the sanitizer device.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising measuring the flow rate of the sanitizer solution dispensed to the cart and measuring the flow rate of the collected sanitizer solution runoff moved to the gray solution tank.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
determining that the measured flow rate of the sanitizer solution dispensed to the cart exceeds the measured flow rate of the collected sanitizer solution runoff moved to the gray solution tank by a predetermined threshold; and
in response to determining that the measured flow rate of the sanitizer solution dispensed to the cart exceeds the measured flow rate of the collected sanitizer solution runoff moved to the gray solution tank by the predetermined threshold, moving water from the treated water tank to the cycled solution tank.

8. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
measuring a flow rate of the filtered sanitizer solution moved to the cycled solution tank from the gray solution tank;
determining that the measured flow rate of the filtered sanitizer solution moved to the cycled solution tank is below a predetermined threshold; and
in response to determining that the measured flow rate of the filtered sanitizer solution moved to the cycled solution tank is below the predetermined threshold, moving water from the treated water tank to the cycled solution tank.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising, in response to determining that the measured flow rate of the filtered sanitizer solution moved to the cycled solution tank is below the predetermined threshold, filtering water in the untreated water tank and moving the filtered water to the treated water tank.

10. A method for growing plant matter within an assembly line grow pod, the method comprising:
dispensing water to plant matter on a cart;
collecting water runoff from the dispensing of the water to the plant matter;
filtering the collected water runoff and storing the filtered water in a treated water tank;
dispensing a sanitizer solution to the cart;
collecting sanitizer solution runoff from the dispensing of the sanitizer solution to the cart;
measuring a flow rate of the sanitizer solution dispensed to the cart;
filtering the sanitizer solution runoff and storing the filtered sanitizer solution in a cycled solution tank;
increasing a volume of the sanitizer solution runoff filtered based at least in part on the measured flow rate of the sanitizer solution dispensed to the cart.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein filtering the sanitizer solution runoff comprises moving the sanitizer solution runoff from a gray solution tank through a filter.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising, in response to determining that the measured flow rate of the sanitizer solution exceeds a predetermined threshold, reducing a volume of the sanitizer solution applied to the cart.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
moving water from the treated water tank to the cycled solution tank;
measuring a flow rate of the water dispensed to the plant matter on the cart;
determining that the measured flow rate of the water dispensed to the plant matter exceeds a predetermined threshold;
in response to determining that the measured flow rate of the water dispensed to the plant matter exceeds the predetermined threshold, reducing a volume of the water moved to the cycled solution tank from the treated water tank.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising, in response to determining that the measured flow rate of the water dispensed to the plant matter exceeds the predetermined threshold, increasing a volume of the sanitizer solution runoff filtered and moved to the cycled solution tank.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein dispensing the sanitizer solution to the cart comprises moving the filtered sanitizer solution to a sanitizer device and dispensing the filtered sanitizer solution with the sanitizer device.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein dispensing the water to the plant matter comprises moving the filtered water runoff to a watering system, and dispensing the filtered water runoff to the plant matter.

Assignees

• Grow Solutions Tech Llc

Inventors

• Millar Gary Bret

Classifications

• G06Q50/02

  Agriculture; Fishing; Forestry; Mining · CPC title

• A01G31/065

  with means for recycling the nutritive solution · CPC title

• Y02P60/21

  Dinitrogen oxide [N2O], e.g. using aquaponics, hydroponics or efficiency measures · CPC title

• C02F2303/18

  Removal of treatment agents after treatment · CPC title

• C02F2303/04

  Disinfection · CPC title