Robots grow and package lettuce year-round in Norway’s fully automated farm

Norway’s first fully automated facility for vegetable production was put into operation last fall. This spring, the first products hit store shelves.

“In this facility, no one touches the lettuce from the time it is sown, grown and packaged until it ends up on the store shelf and is finally opened by the customer at home in their kitchen,” says SINTEF researcher Ottar Bakås.

He and his research colleagues have studied the status of and opportunities for automated indoor vegetable production in Norway.

The facility is operated by Himmelgrønt AS, a collaborative partnership between the supermarket chain Coop Norge and the technology company Avisomo, and is located in Gardermoen, near Oslo. Its location enables the company to distribute goods quickly and efficiently to all the chain’s stores around the country.

Now SINTEF has analyzed the potential for further automation in Norway.

“It is still common for many tasks to be done by people, but technology has evolved to the point where we can automate manual tasks,” says Aleksander Lillienskiold, a former SINTEF researcher who also participated in the project.

Year-round lettuce harvesting

“We’ve looked at the degree of automation that exists today, what we can expect in the future and what technology we’ll need going forward,” says Lillienskiold.

The project has focused on “vertical farming”—a designation for indoor farming in a controlled environment where crops are grown in stacked layers.

“Growing indoors makes it possible to produce crops year-round. This means we don’t need to import from abroad. And there are no pesticides or insects, so when the lettuce is ready for harvest, it can just be cut and bagged right away,” says Lillienskiold.

In Avisomo’s facility, robots and automation carry out all the tasks. Light, air and water are automatically adjusted to create the best possible growing conditions.

The vegetables are grown in a multilevel shelf system. One seed is placed in a unit, and the roots grow downward, where they have good access to nutrients via flowing water. The plant grows on top. Within just over two weeks, the fastest-growing lettuces are ready for harvest.

“Vertical cultivation is most often done without soil. And in a fully automated process, like at Avisomo’s facility, the lettuce is also not in contact with human hands. This removes many sources of disease risk that could diminish product quality,” says Bakås, a SINTEF researcher.

Drastically reduces food waste

This growing model increases the shelf life of lettuce and herbs from 2–4 weeks to 12 weeks. In other words, the crops’ lifespan is tripled.

“This is an important factor for stores. It allows them to offer customers vegetables with a much better shelf life. And much less has to be thrown away,” says Bakås.

A longer shelf life on store shelves also makes it possible to offer more salad products.

“Research shows that the more you offer of a product line, the more customers buy. This can have a positive health effect on the population,” says Lillienskiold.

Fewer staffing problems

Another advantage of automation is that if robots do the harvesting, you don’t need a huge workforce.

“This will solve staffing challenges. Norway has a shortage of this type of labor,” Lillienskiold says.

“Jobs will also have fewer heavy and dangerous tasks, which is good from an HSE perspective. In addition, the tasks will be more varied, which will hopefully make working with vegetable production a more attractive option.”

This type of vertical farming is also suitable for other vegetables, such as berries, tomatoes and cucumbers. The researchers believe that more growers will now gravitate toward the technology.

“In the future, we hope to work on understanding how automation can contribute to this growing model being rolled out to a greater extent in Norway,” says Bakås.

What solution is best suited where?

The researchers have investigated how both Norwegian and international vegetable farms use automation for tasks that were previously done manually. They are looking at what would be applicable for various Norwegian players in the future.

The researchers have visited four other Norwegian vegetable growers in addition to Avisomo. These businesses are not fully automated but include a mix of automation and manual work.

“The degree of automation that is suitable will vary. It is also a question of investment. Therefore, we believe it will be important to develop solutions where the same equipment can be used for multiple production steps,” says Bakås.

The SINTEF researcher believes that a key factor for this growing model to be successful and economically sustainable is being able to scale up production volume.

“Ideally, we’d like to see more production facilities around the country,” says Bakås, noting that several Norwegian players have ambitious plans to grow and build more growing facilities.

A recent FFI report by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment points to the food supply as one of Norway’s greatest vulnerabilities in a crisis or war.

“Local and automated vegetable production is therefore also important for preparedness and total defense,” says Bakås.

Automation is at a crossroads

Regardless, the researchers believe that Norwegian players must, to a greater or lesser extent, commit to using automation.

“We are at a crossroads that will probably require a crucial decision for many businesses. We hope that our research can serve as a roadmap that will help stakeholders see what kinds of solutions exist and would be suitable for each individual case,” says Lillienskiold.

SINTEF has also worked on a similar project called AutoMeat.

“In both projects, we are looking at whether we can transfer knowledge about automation from the fishing industry, which has been faster to adopt this type of technology,” says Lillienskiold.

Who’s behind this story?

Swati Mestri

Swati Mestri holds a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space.

Full profile →

Andrew Zinin

Master’s in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X’s editorial success.

Full profile →