LUNA: Connecting Greenhouses to Artificial Intelligence

Founded in 2013, iUNU (“you knew”) is an industrial computer vision company headquartered in Seattle, with offices in San Francisco and San Diego. Connecting plants, facilities, and people through a single interface, Luna turns commercial greenhouses into precise, predictable, demand-based manufacturers. Luna is an AI born in the heart of Seattle; trained in Silicon Valley and the greenhouses of Skagit Valley; accessible from everywhere.

Luna works by using a rail-mounted, autonomous mobile camera that captures close-up, high-definition plant images, and high-definition emplaced cameras that watch and keep track of the total growing process. This, combined with visual information data points gathered from in-canopy sensors, tells you what is actually happening. At the same time, Luna is building models of real-time growth curves and proactively notifying the team if subsequent crops deviate from established standards. By coupling these alerts with workflow management dashboards, managers can easily assign tasks and track all the care required for a specific crop. Luna is easily accessed through any Internet-connected device through a native mobile application or a desktop browser.

During the product engineering process, the company discovered a serious challenge. Luna’s mobile camera needed to move along an aluminum track. The engineers hoped to design a light-weight aluminum track that could be relatively inexpensive because it would use less material. However, they discovered that using a standard extrusion profile for the rail would make it significantly weaker and lead to major deflection issues.

ALV suggested the perfect solution: a custom profile for the extruded rail that would cost 35% less to manufacture while maintaining the strength needed for a sturdy and durable track for the camera.

“The new set of profiles we suggested for the rails also helped them install their track faster,” said ALV Managing Director Thuy-Van Campbell. “Our profiles cut down the labor required to manufacture the rails as well as the cost of the hardware itself. We were also able to provide technical support to help their installers become more efficient and productive, giving them installation tips and even making a customized fixture to make installations go faster.”

As a bonus, ALV was able to provide unexpected assistance with the complicated logistics of getting the product from manufacturing facilities in Asia to customers in North America. iUNA, the new Seattle-based company, had little experience with the complexities of international shipping. “The company expected they would have to pay an expensive import tariff,” said Thuy-Van Campbell. “We were able to come in help the company clear customs without paying any tariff. We now expect them to be our partners for years to come!”