AI-powered robot looks to perfect cannabis grows

Automation and artificial intelligence have garnered quiet a following across industries in recent years – and cannabis is no exception. Now a Boston-based startup is looking to bring automated, “set it-and-forget it” cannabis cultivation into homes with a high-tech growing system disguised as sleek furniture.

Boundless Robotics’ flagship product, dubbed Annaboto, is an AI-powered hydroponic growing device that looks like a stylish floor lamp but can produce cannabis plants with minimal user input, according to founder and CEO Carl Palme.

“We wanted to build beautiful furniture that also produces food for you,” Palme said in an interview with Green Market Report. “That way, it could be in your studio, it could be in your two-bedroom apartment. It provides value, like in this case, it’s a lamp that provides lighting to your home. It’s beautiful, but it also grows something that you’re going to be able to consume.”

The fully hydroponic system uses computer vision and AI to monitor plant health and automatically adjust nutrients and other inputs. An app on the user’s phone provides guidance to users throughout the growing process.

But Boundless Robotics doesn’t plan on stopping with the consumer home grow market. The company is also exploring systems for commercial greenhouses.

“We can go from direct-to-consumer to the B2B space,” Palme said. “We can use the data collection from the consumer space to supplement the AI that we’re selling to the greenhouses.”

Right now, Annaboto now collects data from grows across the U.S. and Mexico, which it has already entered to improve its AI system throughout each 90-day harvest.

“Different temperatures, different humidity; these all do different things to the plant water composition,” Palme said.

Where it started

Palme noted the company pivoted to focus on cannabis after initially exploring food production and seeing demand from consumers who want to control what goes into their cannabis, especially for health and wellness uses.

Initially, Boundless took an innovative approach to prototype and test their product.

“We 3D printed our units,” Palme explained. “When you build hardware, you really want to test it and make sure that it works before you actually commit to buying tooling.”

The method allowed for rapid iteration and valuable user feedback, but it was also time-consuming.

“It would take about seven days to print the machine,” he added. “I never want to do that ever again.”

An AI-powered camera takes a picture every 15 minutes to analyze the plant’s health and needs. Peristaltic pumps, typically used in medical devices for their accuracy, precisely dispense nutrients as needed.

“We’re looking at the plant, we know exactly what it needs, and then we can adjust the recipe to give it exactly what it needs,” Palme said.

Annaboto also factors in environmental data like temperature, humidity, and even local water composition based on zip code to optimize growing conditions. It also includes a carbon filter system to mitigate odors.

“We have customers who live in large apartment buildings where they’re very densely packed, and we’ve never had a complaint from people smelling it,” Palme said.

In addition, the company has partnered with North Atlantic Seed Company to provide seeds to users.

Where it’s going

As more U.S. states and countries legalize cannabis cultivation, Palme envisions Annaboto helping “level the playing field” for smaller cannabis producers competing against large corporations and to support the home grower.

“I mean, if you think about these smaller companies, maybe they can’t afford a botanist, or maybe they have a botanist kind of on staff that’s a friend or something like that,” he said.

“We have this dashboard, and they could see how all the plants are performing and if they have to add a little bit more of their special sauce, they have that capability.”

Palme hopes to expand to Europe, particularly Germany, where he sees strong market potential. The startup has faced challenges raising capital from traditional tech investors due to cannabis’ legal status, Palme said. However, Boundless isn’t chomping for more funds – unless it’s coming from Europe – after it raised nearly $400,000 through equity crowdfunding.