CORRECTION – 1135 CST – November 9, 2018 – the original version of this story incorrectly referred to Iron Ox’s indoor farm as a greenhouse.
The first fully automated robotic farm has started operations in the United States, hoping to help address the labour shortage problem facing many operations.
Iron Ox, based in California, said its indoor farm can produce 30 times more food per acre than a traditional farm thanks to its artificial intelligence software, hydroponics and increased efficiency.
This farm grows greens and herbs in individual pots grouped together in an eight-foot by four-foot module in a 2,000 sq. foot structure.
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The farm is in full production, using two key robotics systems: a robotic arm and a mobile transport system. Both these systems work together with the latter using sensors and computer vision technology more typically seen in a self-driving car.
Robotic arms are used to lift and transport the modules from one growing zone to another using the sensors and software.
The plants are harvested by the arms, which grip the pots and recognize the plants automatically via sensors at a sub-millimetre scale.
Each robotic arm has four LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) sensors and can visualize the plants in 3D thanks to two cameras, which also allow it to identify diseases, pests and abnormalities, according to Iron Ox.
Iron Ox’s cloud software monitors all the data produced by these systems, while a plant science team operates behind the scenes to ensure plant health, crop growth and food safety, as well as implementing standard operating procedures.
The company plans to begin selling its produce to some San Francisco Bay area restaurants and grocery stores later this year.
Brandon Alexander, a co-founder at Iron Ox, said the entire process was designed with a robotics-first approach.
“The indoor farm is currently focused on increasing the availability, quality and flavour of leafy greens including romaine lettuce, butterhead lettuce, and kale, as well as culinary herbs including basil, cilantro, and chives,” said Alexander.
Jon Binney, Alexander’s partner, said Iron Ox is not only growing sustainable produce, but it is also capturing huge amounts of data.
“This trove of data means that we can make sure every plant leaving our farm is perfect, and we will have the world’s largest data set of plants in addition to highly accurate algorithms for disease identification.”
