Presently, agricultural products have been produced in centralised protocols and due to dependency on location and climate, it is managed in a centralised and grower-driven manner. N.THING’s Cube is an indoor modular vertical farm that does not affect or change the surrounding environment.
Engineered to reduce using earth resources, it enhances the production of clean and safe yields that are free from pollution and pesticides and cultivated in a sustainable environment. By saving energy, and creating a sustainable ecosystem, Cube is elaborating a decentralised farming solution that can be set up in any city without relying on imports and logistics for easy access to a traceable food supply.
N.THING’s key concept, called Farm as a Product, had won the Best of Innovation award at CES 2020, and recently received an honouree award at CES 2022 Innovation Awards for Sustainability, eco-design, and smart energy.
Geographical operations
N.THING launched operations in the UAE in 2019 after completing its proof of concept in Abu Dhabi with Smart Acres, the UAE’s latest vertical farm, with the mission to improve food security, develop farming capabilities, and provide a solution to potential socioeconomic threats such as the pandemic and climate limitations. Utilising the PoC process; four vegetable types were produced; then discovered the capacity to produce crops of up to 12 tons annually.
N.THING is currently undergoing tests to begin operations in Asia, India, Taiwan, and Singapore. Through the use of the Cube, N.THING’s vision is to eventually provide global food security and contribute to the food value chain using the decentralised farming software.
Currently, N.THING holds various partners from online, offline, and commerce players in Korea. N.THING generates revenues by selling crops, farms, and solutions. The Korean partnerships include Emart, a leading retailer in Korea, and value chain partnerships Cube Icheon. This is located in Emart Fresh Centre’s parking lot, the main logistics centre of Emart covering Seoul and Kyungki area in South Korea, and is directly distributed to Seoul and Kyungi branches, reducing footprint and food miles.
Markets and partners
N.THING’s individual partners include high-end restaurants and fine diners in Korea. N.THING has a goal for the Middle East to adopt a similar model where retail and individual partners implement a sustainable and local farming solution.
N.THING’s end customers are from diverse industries, including food manufacturers, logistic companies, and retail customers. A technician from South Korea visits the end-customers site to work on the installation and implementation of the solution and ensures that the customers are provided with thorough training on how to operate the N.THING Cube.
The training provided also includes how to fully control the growing environment, growth duration, and product quality with IoT technology and dedicated OS. In order to facilitate the farm, N.THING requires the end customer to either source the container locally or opt to import the container from South Korea.
IT operations
N.THING’s centralised dashboard provides its customers with an operating system and full access to the Cube Farm. Although it is a cloud-based OS system, stability is the priority for cultivating yields in the Cube hardware. The software is also designed to effectively detect emergencies, and swiftly switch to emergency mode, whether it is due to a loss of power, AC breakdown, or water suspension.
Cube OS will automatically switch to avoid downtime and continue functioning at full capacity. Overall, the OS governs the farm and provides customers with full access to monitor in real-time.
N.THING’s farming system has a similar growth pattern to that of an autonomous vehicle. Similar to a self-driving vehicle, the N.THING Cube aims to reduce the farming sector’s human element and rely on advanced technology to produce quality crops.
The Cube is fully managed by IoT, cloud computing, and stability data mining, and the OS and dashboard allow customers to grow crops professionally regardless of their agricultural experience. Furthermore, using cultivation analysis, development of the new crops, and cultivation environment research via artificial intelligence and machine learning, profits can be estimated more accurately.
N.THING’s operating system aims to produce crops of the highest quality. Provided that the farm has been managed sustainably, the OS offers farm owners the ability to cultivate quality crops and retrieve an estimate of the overall productivity and forecasted profits. The OS provides users with complete control over the growing process and is designed to add smart solutions that will impact the growth stages, unlike what is available with traditional farming.
Ultimately, the end goal is to achieve 100% automation of the farming process, and N.THING’s operating system is designed to effectively achieve this.
