DOST-ASTI’s Gul.ai Project Team deployed a laboratory-scale prototype of the Gul.ai System at the University of Rizal System’s Tanay Campus last November 28, 2022. The prototype was deployed for real-environment testing after a successful in-house month-long integration testing of the system. The activity will allow for the validation of the design and implementation of the current version of the prototype of the system. The one-day deployment of the prototype was followed by a four-day real-environment testing of the system from November 29 until December 2, 2022.

The deployment and real-environment testing activity were conducted by members of the Gul.ai Project Team together with the technical working group of the University of Rizal System’s Tanay Campus composed of Mr. Abuela for IT-related tasks, Mr. Supilanas for logistic concerns, Engr. Din for agriculture engineering concerns, and Ms. Ruedas for the crop science component. The activity was also attended by Dean Abrazado of the College of Agriculture for general instructions regarding the placement of the system’s hardware component.

Figure 1. Components of the Gul.ai System’s hardware component were delivered and placed in the designated deployment room at the University of Rizal System Tanay Campus.

Figure 2. The Gul.ai Project Team’s hardware engineers assemble the Gul.ai System’s laboratory-scale prototype components in preparation for the succeeding real-environment testing.

The Gul.ai Project Team’s engineers assembled the system’s hardware component in preparation for the real-environment testing. The University of Rizal System’s College of Engineering provided the project team with lettuce seedlings to be used as subjects for real-environment testing. As part of the testing activity, the project team conducted a seven-day-long experiment on the system prototype. A network camera was set up by the project team for the remote monitoring of the system’s hardware component during its seven-day-long non-stop operation.

Figure 3. A screen capture of the video stream of the network camera used for remotely monitoring the operation of the Gul.ai System’s hardware component prototype in the University of Rizal System’s Tanay Campus.

Figure 4. The running experiment is set to expose the test plants to a magenta color for 16 hours per day. The LED lights are automatically turned off at night time and automatically turned on at 6 a.m.

On the last day of the week-long activity, the Gul.ai Project Team, together with Engr. Din, paid a visit to Dean Abrazado in the College of Agriculture for a brief discussion about the status of the deployment and real-environment testing of the Gul.ai System laboratory-scale prototype. Dean Abrazado suggested that the nutrient solution developed by one of their college faculty members can be used in the succeeding experiments in the system.

Figure 5. The Gul.ai Project team paid a visit to Dean Abrazado in his office at the College of Agriculture. The project team presented the status of the activity and discussed with Dean Abrazado some potential research activities that can be carried out in the Gul.ai System.

Figure 6. The Gul.ai Project team of DOST-ASTI with Engr. Inah Din of the University of Rizal System, College of Agriculture.