As regular Electronics360 readers may recall, the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio is an integrated mix of engineering software, services and an application development platform, built around the concept of the digital twin. In October 2021, we reported on the company’s launch of Xcelerator as a Service (XaaS).
Now, as winter recedes into memory and our thoughts turn to springtime’s promise of new life, the caretakers of an underwater farm just off the coast of Italy are reporting that the Xcelerator digital twin is enabling them to design and test at a massively accelerated rate.
Nemo’s Garden, an Italian startup focused on underwater crop cultivation, is leveraging the power of the Xcelerator for design and testing. Source: OceanReefGroup/SiemensNemo’s Garden, a startup focused on proving the viability of underwater crop cultivation, was founded by Sergio Gamberini, president of scuba diving equipment manufacturer Ocean Reef Group, and his son Luca. Along with a team of engineers, divers and scientists, the Gamberinis have created a sub-aqua biosphere able to harness the positive characteristics of the ocean — temperature stability, evaporative water generation, CO2 absorption, abundant oxygen and inherent pest protection — to create an ideal underwater greenhouse environment. Their goal is to turn their prototype into a solution that can be deployed globally.
But the drawback of innovating in the real world is that there are many other factors that can serve as obstacles. Harsh winters, short summers and seafloor-use permit limitations limited Nemo’s Garden to one growth cycle per year, and that small window also needed to accommodate design changes, lengthy physical testing and heavy manual monitoring processes.
Enter the digital twin, with its ability to function in a world unfettered by these constraints. Siemens software enabled the building of a comprehensive digital twin of the Nemo’s Garden biosphere, simulating growing conditions and equipment impacts for multiple biospheres in the virtual space. Siemens also trained a machine-learning algorithm to monitor plant growth and environmental conditions within each biosphere’s domes. The plants can then be monitored via a cloud-based dashboard throughout the season, from anywhere, in real time.
“We have seen benefits in understanding the flow of water around the shapes of our biospheres,” said Luca Gamberini. “We have a greater understanding of the points of stress on the structure around the biospheres. We also understand how the different interactions of the solar radiation, the temperature and all the physical factors, act on the plants. All thanks to the ability of the digital twin to replicate our system.”
Next up, these industrial edge devices will be connected to actuators to automatically adjust air circulation, humidity, irrigation and nutritional dosing. This will be the foundation of a global agricultural service, optimized for subsea operations and tuned for each of the world’s oceans.
Click here for a video with more information about the use of Siemens’ digital twin in driving innovation for the Nemo’s Garden project.
