Zordi uses the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin AI technology to innovate greenhouse hydroponic strawberry cultivation methods

Founder of the startup Zordi, Gilwoo Lee, is a PhD in artificial intelligence and robotics from the University of Washington. She even presented her ambitious AI automated hydroponic cultivation project to investors before completing her doctoral degree.

Gilwoo Lee co-founded Zordi with Casey Call, founder of vertical farming startup Plenty, in 2020. The harvested strawberries have been listed in Wegmans supermarket and are currently expanding in cooperation with farms in New Jersey and California.

There are two types of robots in Zordi's hydroponic system. One is a reconnaissance robot that uses AI-based models to collect data on plant health. The other is a harvesting robot that delicately picks and places fruits and performs other tasks.

Zordi's engineering and technical team is located in the suburbs of Boston, with farms in southern New Jersey and western New York. Zordi uses NVIDIA GPU on the cloud and desktop to train AI models, analyze crop health, evaluate fruit quality, and collect data.

Lee's goal is to deploy AI fully automated greenhouse systems globally, support local markets, reduce carbon footprint, and provide fresher, more delicious sustainable fruit cultivation.

Zordi introduces Nvidia AI automation system for indoor hydroponic cultivation, enabling parallel development of production manufacturing and warehouse operations.

NVIDIA Jetson robots achieve sustainable farming and energy efficiency

Zordi builds AI models and robots to achieve large-scale sustainable agriculture. Zordi uses NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin modules to test and collect sensor data and run its models to identify the health status of plants, flowers, and fruits, early signs of pests and diseases, moisture and nutrient requirements, as well as light and temperature management.

Lee said that Jetson's energy efficiency and Nvidia's low-cost, high-performance cameras provided to partners are very attractive features for Zordi. Zordi has installed multiple cameras on each robot to collect data. Jetson has developed many low-cost cameras to allow Zordi to use different cameras and provide better battery power management.

Zordi also hopes to solve the impact of global farm labor shortages on operations through scouting and harvesting robots. Sometimes fruits and vegetables are unattended or cannot be harvested at all.

Zordi is planning to expand its growing business to meet consumer demands. Facing labor challenges, Zordi expects to do more through artificial intelligence and robotic automation.

Omniverse Isaac Sim and Digital Twins promote agricultural operations

Zordi researches how to optimize indoor cultivation using artificial intelligence, just like industrial manufacturers. They use Isaac Sim in NVIDIA Omniverse for simulation and optimization of operating systems with Digital Twins.

The company views all the data collected from robot sensors, and the AI platform provides a real-time dashboard with a spatial map to view an overview of each factory in the facility, making it easy to remotely monitor production. In addition, it also uses basic models to analyze plant health and provide crop care recommendations, so that inexperienced farmers can manage their farms like agricultural experts.

Zordi is studying the simulated cultivation period of strawberries, cucumbers, and tomatoes, and expanding it to other farming categories. For strawberries or other crops, skillfully managing the cultivation system can help extend the shelf life.

Lee believes that the most important thing is to have an artificial intelligence that can think, and to make decisions for farm management through a large amount of automation.

The simulation in Isaac Sim not only improves Zordi's yield performance, but can also perform different tasks in other application scenarios. Artificial intelligence can recommend crop care decisions, while robots are responsible for heavy-duty farming. Zordi's goal is to create a fully automated AI farming system, making harvesting fruits and vegetables simple and profitable.

This article Zordi uses NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin AI technology to innovate greenhouse hydroponic strawberry cultivation methods. It first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.