HelioCORE™ Light Control System
HelioCORE™ empowers growers to deliver highest-quality crops and business results year-round with reliable yield forecasts and consistent production cycles
We are proud to announce the commercial release of the company’s new HelioCORE™ light control software.
HelioCORE includes three control modules—the DLI Controller, On Target Controller and Schedule Controller—so growers and operations teams can easily customize lighting strategies, build and replicate light schedules, and integrate real-time sensor data with lighting controls to ensure that plants receive the precise and consistent daily light requirements needed across all stages of growth.
“Processing big data is speeding up the artificial intelligence (AI) development in Horticulture. HelioCORE is our AI platform helping our growers with making decisions in a more informed way. As part of company’s vision, we will continue to build on this platform enabling growers to improve the quality of their crops, reducing production cycle, and making accurate predictions on yield,” said Ali Ahmadian, CEO Heliospectra AB.
For any commercial size operation knowing and predicting the exact yield is key for success. Accurate forecasting plays a critical role in operations from price negotiations to buyer relationships and labor management. HelioCORE brings a unique solution to the market by combining industry-leading light control with automated response so growers see faster time to market and tighter inventory control.
“With HelioCORE, growers are delivered actionable, data-driven insights and are able to automate and gain control over every single parameter of their lighting. This has a huge impact on growers’ revenue cycle and business performance,” said Peter Nyberg, CTO Heliospectra AB.
Proven and Tested in the Field
During 2018, the HelioCORE control software was field- tested and verified by leading commercial growers and research institutions around the world.
One of them is the John Innes Centre, an esteemed plant science institution in the United Kingdom. Known for having demonstrated the ability to accelerate harvest cycles for food staple crops, the research facility is using the HelioCORE On Target Controller in their speed breeding project. Research teams at John Innes grew wheat from seed to seed generation in just 8 weeks—57 percent faster— as part of a glasshouse wheat speed breeding project using Heliospectra’s adjustable LED lighting solutions. Further, they are also testing the Schedule Controller for ongoing research trials.
Dr Brande Wulff, who leads the speed breeding research in the John Innes Centre, Norwich, states: “Many aspect of plant research are limited by the time it takes to go from seed to seed, or to obtain adult plants for measuring certain traits, such as plant height or flowering time. Our speed breeding program with LED lights allows us to obtain results twice as fast, and reduces operation costs. HelioCORE will help us to push those boundaries and give us more reproducible data and control of our environment”
Greenbelt Microgreens of Ontario, Canada also implemented the HelioCORE control system in a large-scale food production greenhouse during the seasonal low light winter months to ensure that the specialty microgreens the business delivers to retailers and restaurants across Canada received the constant and consistent light intensity needed for highest-quality crops, flavor, and taste.
“We want to use supplemental light and energy in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible, while also maintaining summer season crop yields and product quality with optimal light levels,” said Ian Adamson, founder and CEO of Greenbelt Microgreens.
The HelioCORE system dynamically adjusts light output based on natural light conditions and energy prices to ensure businesses use only the energy and supplemental light required to minimize costs.
- Read the full product announcement
- Review Greenhouse Grower’s March 2018 feature on HelioCORE
- Contact us to learn more
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