About

SunDROPS is a multidisciplinary project supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) a research fellowship programme .

The aim of the programme is to boost research and innovation in Europe, to create strategic partnerships with leading institutions and to assist cooperation between industry and academia. All activities are dedicated to stimulate promising ideas and originality to be part of the driving force of future progress worldwide as envisaged by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union, to which the MSCA belong.

The project focuses on the development of an automated hydroponic cultivation system driven by the plant “itself” able to optimize the request of light, water and nutrients. The aim is to develop an automated system able to detect the needs of the plants by the interpretation of the electrical signals generated by the plants under specific stresses. For these purpose the project main objectives are to:

Develop a self-driven dynamic and manageable hydroponic system able to modify the flow and the nutrients compositions supply by monitoring the plant status.

Study and optimise light quality and quantity demand by using pulse width modulated-high brightness-light emitting diodes lights (PWM-HB-LEDs) capable of pulsing at high frequency, to investigate the different light spectra required and the optimum values of frequency/duty in the cycle of the flashes.