Meet LUNA AI, Greenhouse Grower’s 2023 Technology of the Year
December 10, 2023 
LUNA AI scouts the entire facility every day, autonomously searching for issues that could cause plant loss and alerting you early so you can take action. Photos: IUNU
It was just a few years ago when Adam Greenberg, the founder and CEO of IUNU, found himself walking the trade show floor at Cultivate, giving a select few industry members a sneak peek at a new technology he and his team had developed. The technology was a computer vision system that was designed to constantly track and analyze plant growth, with the goal of helping growers improve plant quality and cut down on labor through automation.
Fast forward a few years, and Greenberg’s efforts have paid off. This past summer at Cultivate, the LUNA AI system from IUNU was named Greenhouse Grower’s Medal of Excellence Technology of the Year winner.
LUNA AI tracks plants from start to finish of their growth cycle and provides growers with accurate counts and locations of all plants at all times. All data collected during the growth cycle is attributed to the specific inventory group, which means you know which variety and which specific batch data belongs to.
LUNA AI scouts the entire facility every day, autonomously searching for issues that could cause plant loss and alerting you early so you can take action. The computer vision automates and quantifies plant performance daily, offering comprehensive reporting on germination rates, daily growth rates, daily canopy growth rates, and more.
Broad Industry Capabilities
IUNU works with more than 75% of the leading greenhouse lettuce growers in North America, many of the leading ornamental producers, and recently began working with tomato growers. In the past year, IUNU launched LUNA AI for tomato growers with a brand-new imaging system, enabling growers to automate the data collection process and focus on strategic optimization around profitability and quality.
IUNU has made significant strides in horticulture over the past three years, making advanced technologies like artificial intelligence accessible to the horticulture industry. It has led to advancements in cultivation and management practices. This has set a new benchmark for the efficiency of the growing process, allowing growers to expand operations and manage larger areas effectively.
In the midst of a labor shortage, growers are expected to handle more tasks with less resources, and manage more square footage with less staff. IUNU’s core LUNA platform enables this scale.
LUNA plays a critical role in extending the capabilities of growers. By taking over time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks like inventory counting and scouting, it frees up growers to concentrate on designing and executing their crop strategies more efficiently.
LUNA offers the only closed loop AI system in horticulture. This means organizations get a complete feedback loop from planning to plant response and back. With computer vision, “growers can see exactly how plants respond to your decisions so that you can make the most optimized decisions for your business,” according to Greenberg.
Through IUNU’s advanced technology, the company is paving the way for high-tech infrastructure within the horticulture industry. This transition to cutting-edge infrastructure has significant benefits, including enhanced productivity, improved efficiency, and a higher return on investment. By leveraging these capabilities and focusing on strategic decision-making, growers can optimize their operations and drive financial success even amidst challenging labor market conditions.
Building for the Future
The LUNA platform, comprised of LUNA AI and LUNA CMP, are among the most advanced software platforms in the horticulture industry. Focused on automating both manual tasks and comprehensive data collection, they work hand in hand to enable growers to focus on profitability on a daily basis.
No other system images every plant in the greenhouse daily. LUNA uses this data to see how plants are responding to their surroundings and to automate manual processes like inventory counting. This provides growers with the ability to scale their operations and increase profitability.
Stichting Wageningen Research, Wageningen Plant Research (WPR), and IUNU entered into an agreement in August to work on closed-loop autonomous growing for the most common commercially grown lettuce varietals. This is the world’s first closed-loop, comprehensive autonomous growing solution developed for the greenhouse industry. The solution developed by IUNU uses computer vision to comprehensively monitor crop growth for every plant in the greenhouse and autonomously executes crop strategies based on how crops are performing.
“WPR has long served as a leader in the horticulture industry, and we are thrilled to work together to bring truly autonomous growing to the greenhouse industry. Having exclusive access to world-class research facilities and talent accelerates our ability to bring products to market and to drive value for growers around the world,” says Allison Kopf, Chief Growth Officer at IUNU.
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