Agrilution

Updated communication architecture and firmware, and supported electronics development for the second generation of a home farming device
Agrilution-BatchOne-dunkler-Plantcube-Living LR-web

About

Max Loessl (co-founder & CEO) and Philipp Wagner (co-founder & COO) founded Agrilution in Munich in 2013. Inspired by the idea of bringing Vertical Farming to every home, they started to build the first prototype in Max’s parent’s garage. A team of scientists, engineers, and salespeople have since joined the team to develop an automatically watered, illuminated, and air-conditioned PlantCube with a connected app to grow microgreens at home. The Miele Group successfully acquired Agrilution at the end of 2019. 

Agrilution asked BatchOne for help to transfer features from their current, stand-alone PlantCube to a new, modular version that allows stacking up to four units. Users can control the PlantCubes from a smartphone app, monitoring things like temperature, lighting, water, and recipes for different types of plants.

To enable real-time communication between the PlantCube modules, multi-controller electronics with a communication protocol (ABus) between the cubes, wifi module, and cloud were necessary. BatchOne assisted with the design and redesign, testing, and implementation of the communication architecture.

To make sure that the service is user-friendly and reliable, BatchOne specifically helped Agrilution with these features:

  • ABus (customized protocol) communication architecture  

  • High-speed data transfer between PlantCube controllers

  • Setting up Wifi credentials over own HotSpot and WPS

  • Enabling updates via air for all modules

  • Receiving/sending  commands data over MQTT

  • Sending telemetry PlantCube data over MQTT

  • Chunked transfers of images

  • High-speed data transfer to PlantCube controller

What we worked on

Product

  • Revision of communication protocols
  • Implementation of ABus protocol
  • Implementation of WiFi connectivity
  • Implementation of controller-to-controller real-time communication
  • Revision and implementation of over the air (OTA) update process
  • Remote communication of the device over the cloud
  • Testing and debugging of new electronics
  • Using finite state machine to implement the solution on the firmware
  • Integration of MCUBoot Firmware OTA with rollback and verification mechanism

Who was working on the project

Hendrik Hendrik

Hendrik

Embedded Electronics & Software Development

With his in-depth studies of mechatronics, Hendrik first developed embedded software for medical devices. After receiving his MBA and founding his own company, he defines himself as an entrepreneurial engineer. Hendrik understands several core technologies – from sensors, over connectivity, to web-based software and apps – but also their business implications. This broad background and depth of knowledge makes it possible for Hendrik to think strategically from a number of angles.

In the recent years Hendrik has worked in the marine electronics sector, defining complex system specifications and taking a hands-on approach to product development.



Previous experience

Torqeedo | Roche | BoatOfficer, Founder

Contact
Based in Munich
Hendrik Hendrik
Hendrik
Steve Steve

Steve

Embedded Systems & IoT Software Development

Steve is an information and telecommunication engineer passionate and focused on developing electronics and embedded software. He worked as a software and electronic engineer in industrial IoT 4.0, medical devices, aerospace, and embedded systems.

With over six years of experience, he can design and develop real-time embedded software IoT systems with safety and performance requirements.

In addition, he applies agile and DevOps principles and practices modular programming, Clean-Code-Development (CDD), and Test-Driven Development (TDD).

Previous experience

Kumkeo | Airbus | GFT AG

Based in Hamburg
Steve Steve
Steve
Ara Ara

Ara

Electro-Mechanical & Embedded Systems

Aravinth is an interdisciplinary expert with 17+ years of global experience in science, engineering, arts and sustainability, with core expertise in research, development and production of electro-mechanical embedded systems and digital products.

As an engineer, he worked for two major corporates in the telecom sector and for eight tech startups in the sector of education, smart home, media, agriculture, energy, healthcare and water. He worked in Asia and Europe, where one of his hardware products was sold in 30K+ quantities and one of his software products reached 10M+ users.

As an entrepreneur, he co-founded 7 organizations across Asia & Europe in the sectors of education, sustainability, agriculture, consulting & engineering services.

Previous experience

araCreate, Founder | DreamSpace Academy, Founder | Zerosec Solutions, Founder | MotionLab Berlin | Next Big Thing | Senic | Tata Consultancy Services | Infosys

Based in Berlin
Ara Ara
Ara

“I am really happy that we had the chance to work with Ara, Hendrik, and Steve from BatchOne. We approached them to take over a project which was forfeited by another party beforehand. Taking an agile approach, we were able to structure the project and very soon had a prototype that other departments were able to work with. I would like to thank Ara, Steve and Hendrik for being so flexible and for their high availability!”

Jakob Oelkers, Head of Software
Agrilution-BatchOne-heller-Plantcube-Living-Wohnzimmer LR-web
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