Automated plant weight determination in hydroponic grow systems

An apparatus comprising a computer processor, a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the steps of:

• picking up a tipping module to allow water to move while being tipped until the water settles to a weight equilibrium;
• recording weight measurements once the water has reached weight equilibrium;
• determining a module tipping angle measurement;
• transforming the recorded weight measurements obtained at weight equilibrium into a deconfounded tipping module weight by using a machine learning model to remove the influence of the module tipping angle on the recorded weight measurements obtained at weight equilibrium;
• transforming the deconfounded tipping module weight into a predicted water amount using a machine learning model trained on reference water volumes;
• and
• obtaining plant weight by subtracting the predicted water amount from a total tipping module weight.

A computer program product disposed upon a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to carry out the steps of:

• picking up a tipping module to allow water to move while being tipped until the water settles to a weight equilibrium;
• recording weight measurements once the water has reached weight equilibrium;
• determining a module tipping angle measurement;
• transforming the recorded weight measurements obtained at weight equilibrium into a deconfounded tipping module weight by using a machine learning model to remove the influence of the module tipping angle on the recorded weight measurements obtained at weight equilibrium;
• transforming the deconfounded tipping module weight into a predicted water amount using a machine learning model trained on reference water volumes;
• and
• obtaining plant weight by subtracting the predicted water amount from a total tipping module weight.