Vertical indoor farm

This invention

This invention is an indoor vertical farming system that stacks growing tiers to grow leafy greens year-round in urban warehouses. It pairs LED lighting tuned to plant-specific photosynthesis wavelengths with hydroponic nutrient delivery and AI-driven climate control for temperature, humidity, and airflow. It belongs to controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) — the corner where horticulture, energy-efficient lighting, and automated environmental management come together to maximize yield in compact spaces.

Where it fits

Your idea sits squarely in Horticulture & Forestry (A01G), which appears in 48 of the 50 results. That's a heavy concentration — roughly 416× the broader corpus baseline — and a sign this is a focused, well-developed area where many groups have actively built. It also touches Clean Manufacturing (Y02P) and Climate Adaptation Tech (Y02A), reflecting the energy-efficiency and sustainability angles of indoor farming. Filings appear steadily from 2013 onward, with a notable cluster around 2017 and continued activity through 2024–2025 — a healthy, ongoing direction. Active groups nearby include MJNN LLC, ROKEHA LTD, 2479402 ONTARIO INC, NEW YORK SUN WORKS, and INTELLIGENT GROWTH SOLUTIONS. The field also connects to AI & Machine Learning (G06N), which these results touch only lightly.

Closest related work

US-10306847-B2 — Environmentally controlled vertical farming system (MJNN LLC · 28 citations · 9-member family)

This patent describes a high-density vertical farming setup with an environmentally-controlled growing chamber and vertical growth columns supporting hydroponic modules. It shows how MJNN approached the core challenge you're tackling: combining stacked vertical growing with controlled climate and hydroponic nutrient support for high-yield crops. It's a strong example of the chamber-and-column architecture that underpins warehouse-scale leafy-green operations.

US-2017064912-A1 — Growing Vegetables Within a Closed Agricultural Environment (2479402 ONTARIO INC · 62 citations · 5-member family)

This widely-cited work covers a closed agricultural environment with multiple growing rooms, each managed by an HVAC system under an environmental control unit, with temperature and humidity tuned per plant type. It's a useful read for the climate-management side of your idea. It shows how per-plant environmental optimization works and how room-level control units coordinate conditions across a multi-room indoor farm.

US-2024397886-A1 — AI to manage and optimize energy across vertical farming and greenhouse hydroponic agriculture (PLANT CULTURE SYSTEMS INC · filed 2024, recent · 0 citations · 2-member family)

This recent filing focuses on AI software that manages and optimizes energy use across combined vertical-farm and greenhouse hydroponic systems, with heating and cooling tuned per plant type and growth stage. It maps directly to the AI-controlled climate side of your idea and shows how a recent entrant pairs machine intelligence with energy optimization. PLANT CULTURE SYSTEMS INC has 1 patent in this result set.

US-2016360712-A1 — Grow lighting and agricultural systems and methods (BIOLOGICAL INNOVATION & OPTIMIZATION SYSTEMS · 98 citations · 1-member family)

The most-cited entry here, this patent centers on improving efficiency and yield through LED grow lighting fixtures, including directional control and spectral considerations. It shows how this group approached the lighting half of your concept — the tuned-LED side — and is worth exploring to understand how spectrum and fixture design shape plant growth.

What you can do next

• Explore & build on it. Browse the related work above — new, differentiated ideas often come from combining or improving on existing approaches (a specific LED spectral recipe, a hydroponic nutrient-delivery mechanism, or an AI control strategy others haven't pinned down for leafy greens).
• If you'd like to protect it. Filing a provisional application (usually with a patent attorney) is a common first step. Most inventions can be protected in some form — what matters is how broad and defensible that protection is, which is where a patent attorney adds value (a very narrow claim may be granted but protect