US 11,856,902 B2
Production facility layouts for automated controlled environment agriculture
Gage Goodspeed Coffin, Los Altos Hills, CA (US); Michael Peter Flynn, Palo Alto, CA (US); Nicholas Kalayjian, San Carlos, CA (US); Alan Colbrie Schoen, Los Gatos, CA (US); Andrew Keith James, San Francisco, CA (US); Arvind Sankaran, San Francisco, CA (US); Alexandre Le Roux, Redwood City, CA (US); Nadav Sahar Hendel, San Francisco, CA (US); Anna Olson, San Mateo, CA (US); Michael Bennett Hamilton, Pleasant Hill, CA (US); Theodore Howe St. George, San Francisco, CA (US); and Loren Raymond Pilorin, Palo Alto, CA (US)
Assigned to MJNN LLC, South San Francisco, CA (US)
Appl. No. 17/639,893
Filed by MJNN LLC, South San Francisco, CA (US)
PCT Filed Sep. 12, 2020, PCT No. PCT/US2020/050593
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 2, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/055257, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 25, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/987,149, filed on Mar. 9, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/903,573, filed on Sep. 20, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0338431 A1, Oct. 27, 2022
Int. Cl. A01G 9/029 (2018.01); A01G 31/04 (2006.01); A01G 31/06 (2006.01)
CPC A01G 31/06 (2013.01) [A01G 31/045 (2013.01)] 7 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A crop production facility for controlled environment agriculture, comprising:
a nutrient and thermal corridor;
an array of one or more grow rooms adjacent to the nutrient and thermal corridor, the array having a first end and a second end, the array extending substantially parallel to the nutrient and thermal corridor; wherein each of the grow rooms comprises
one or more grow lines, each of the one or more grow lines comprising a grow conveyance mechanism; and
a plurality of grow towers, each of the plurality of grow towers vertically attached to, and moveable along, a respective one of the one or more grow lines;
wherein each of the one or more grow lines comprises a first path section, a second path section, and a return mechanism operative to transfer grow towers from the first path section to the second path section;
wherein the grow conveyance mechanism conveys grow towers along the first path section in a first direction, and along the second path section in a second direction opposite the first direction;
a conveyance mechanism that injects and ejects grow structures from a side of the one or more grow rooms opposite the nutrient and thermal corridor;
a propagation space adjacent to the first end of the array and interfacing with the nutrient and thermal corridor; and
a central processing system comprising one or more grow structure processing systems adjacent to the array of grow rooms and opposite the nutrient and thermal corridor;
wherein one of the one or more grow structure processing systems is a harvester station, and wherein the crop production facility further comprises a post-harvest processing facility located adjacent to the central processing system and proximal to the harvester station;
wherein the harvester station comprises a crop harvesting machine, and a feeder mechanism to receive a grow tower in a horizontal orientation and feed the grow tower through the crop harvesting machine in a horizontal orientation; and wherein the crop production facility further comprises
an automated laydown station comprising a first robot including an end effector adapted to releasably grasp a grow tower, and control logic operative to cause the first robot to pick the grow tower from a pick location in a vertical orientation, rotate the grow tower to a horizontal orientation and place the grow tower on a conveyor for loading into the harvester station.