LATERALSYSTEMS LLC — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.13

Description

NIFA Grant Proposal Project SummaryLateral.Systems: An Optimized Intelligence Platform Feasibility StudyPrinciple Investigator: Jennifer Wells Ed.D. Chief Executive Officer Lateral.Systems LLCCo-Investigator: Ed Lisle Chief Technical Officer Lateral.Systems LLCLateral.Systems is an Agricultural Technology startup company. Our mission is to accelerate promisingadvancements in sustainable food production by offering modularized hardware and software computingcapabilities for monitoring detecting and maintaining Novel Indoor Growing Farming Systems. Our OptimizedIntelligence Platform will support data-driven agricultural efficiencies using novel edge solutions. Our platformwill advance USDA strategic goal 2 maximizing the ability of American agricultural producers to prosper byaccelerating controlled agricultural growing systems that protect plants against abiotic and biotic stresses (NIFApriorities Topic 8.13) and allow for precise control of use of water energy and plant phytochemical properties.The purpose of this feasibility study is to advance critical enabling features of our conceptual platform to thepilot pre-production phase. The research question is: What is the feasibility of extending an open-sourcesoftware approach for productization of our "on-premise" edge solution that does not require internet servicesto bridge the digital divide for rural and urban farmers?To determine if the EdgeX software stack is robust enough for our platform we will develop open interfaces fora suite of sensors to enable and test the data flow and ensure modularity integrability and interchangeability ofthe individual components describe the operating principle of our computer aided intelligence programs andprovide visualization of the data. We will also begin designing the Private Cloud database. Finally we willperform a gap analysis to determine if EdgeX is an effective solution approach to size the level of workforcerequired to commercialize our edge agriculture platform.