Mixed-Integer Linear Programming for the Scheduling of Seedings in an Industrial Adaptive Vertical Farm

We present a new concept of industrial vertical greenhouse, called adaptive vertical farm, based on the possibility of adapting the distance between the shelves to the growth of the plants cultivated therein. This is possible through a set of sensors able to measure the crop height and a set of actuators to automatically move the shelves. A scheduling approach of seedings is proposed that requires the solution of a mixed-integer linear programming problem to fully utilize all the available vertical space and maximize the production yield. Simulation results obtained when cultivating various types of crops and for different greenhouse configurations in terms of total height and number of shelves are reported. The goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed scheduling approach and of the adaptive vertical farm concept in general, as compared to a vertical farm with fixed shelves.