Flux IoT, a New York-based startup, has created a robot called "Eddy" that allows growing plants without the need of soil. Built with military-grade sensors and image processing technology, the robot measures less than a foot and is placed inside a transparent bio-dome. The users of the robot can stay updated on their plants' progress via a dedicated mobile app, which helps them know when to change the lighting or add nutrients.
Its inventors of the robot want to make it the industry standard for commercial and amateur indoor farmers who want to grow pesticide-free, water-efficient crops via hydroponics - a method of growing plants without soil.
The startup currently closed a $2 million seed funding to start manufacturing robots and is planning another financing round of as much as $8 million later this year, its size dependent on how many robots sell on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo Inc., said Chief Executive Officer Blake Burris.
Flux is also growing its U.S. team, primarily based in Colorado, while research and development will remain in Israel, which is led by the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Amichai Yifrach, who previously built "nano sniffers" to detect explosives and image processing tools to protect U.S. troops at checkpoints in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Burris plans to sell Eddy for $179, and also expects to sell anywhere between 10,000 to 25,000 robots this year. The importance of hydroponic farming is growing as government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture reflect on the potential impacts of industrial and conventional farming, including pollution, soil productivity decline and depletion of natural resources such as water.
According to the global market research firm IBISWorld, the US hydroponic industry is expected to reach $856.8 million by 2021, and the number of businesses will jump from 2,347 to more than 3,000.
Coming to hydroponics in space, Elon Musk plans to set up a Martian colony. Among others, NASA is trying hydroponics out in space, and the European Space Agency is collaborating with the Space Farm Collective led by a Netherlands Border Labs team to grow food on planets other than Earth.