Although vertical farming is a rapidly-growing industry, the practice struggles to achieve profitable returns and provide the promise of affordable healthy food for future generations. To overcome those challenges, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Engineering (SOE) alumnus Chico Weber has invented GrowMotion, a robotic grow light, to enhance vertical farm profitability and help feed the world.
GrowMotion mimics the motion of the sun by slowly passing over crops, covering the grow space of three fixed grow lights. The moving grow light is designed for farmers and food service companies that wish to reduce energy use and the cost of running grow lights in a greenhouse or indoor vertical farm.
Weber graduated from the SOE in 2013 with a…
