Automated growth system for floating aquatic plants and method

A hydroponic system for cultivation and harvesting of floating aquatic plants, comprising:

• an arrangement of a plurality of vertically-stacked cultivation trays, each tray containing an amount of fluent media on which floating aquatic plants are able to grow;
• a sonar-based sensor associated with each cultivation tray for determining a level of the fluent media within the cultivation tray by measuring a distance extending from the sonar-based sensor to a surface of the fluent media in the cultivation tray;
• a media reservoir in which the fluent media is contained, subject to treatment, and re-circulated to each of the cultivation trays;
• a harvesting reservoir for receiving aquatic plants grown in the cultivation trays and harvested from the cultivation trays;
• and
• an automated control system that manages flow of the fluent media into and from each of the cultivation trays and aquatic plant harvesting from the cultivation trays, the automated control system being configured to maintain the level of the fluent media within each cultivation tray at a substantially constant level defining predetermined media lines within the cultivation trays when exchanging the fluent media in the cultivation trays;
• wherein each cultivation tray includes a harvesting tube extending from a side wall of the cultivation tray such that the predetermined media line extends through a midsection of an opening of the harvesting tube;
• wherein each cultivation tray includes a normally-closed valve in the side wall of the cultivation tray that closes the opening of the harvesting tube;
• wherein each cultivation tray is associated with a camera for taking images of the floating aquatic plants in the cultivation tray;
• and
• wherein the automated control system is configured to open the valve during a harvesting procedure initiated based on automated image recognition of at least one image of floating aquatic plants within at least one of the trays captured by the camera associated with one of the cultivation trays.