Warehouse automation specialist AutoStore and vertical farming firm OnePointOne have launched an progressive vertical farming system – supplying Entire Meals with recent greens grown sooner, smarter, and nearer to prospects.
In a warehouse exterior Phoenix, 1000’s of herbs and greens are rising in robot-powered bins, shifting easily by way of a towering, Rubik’s cube-like grid. That is Opollo Farm: a completely automated vertical farming system constructed by AutoStore and OnePointOne.
Robots transfer crops by way of a precision-controlled atmosphere, adjusting their place to ship the right stability of water and vitamins. The end result? Harvest-ready greens in simply 15 days – about half the time of conventional farming – and grown simply miles from the place they’re consumed.
Opollo Farm is designed to deal with among the largest challenges in agriculture right this moment: labor shortages, provide chain disruptions, water shortage, and the demand for brisker, regionally grown meals.
The system is already up and working, supplying leafy greens and herbs to Entire Meals Market shops within the Phoenix space below the Willo model.
Chris Petroulakis, class service provider for produce at Entire Meals Market, says: “At Entire Meals Market, we’re always exploring new methods to convey recent, sustainable meals to our prospects.
“Opollo Farm is an ideal instance of how superior expertise can revolutionize native agriculture, serving to to ship high-quality, regionally grown produce proper to our shops sooner and brisker than ever earlier than.”
Inside Opollo Farm
Crops are seeded mechanically, then instantly transferred to the grid for germination. All through their life, the crops transfer places to obtain optimum environmental circumstances.
The Opollo Farm is a completely built-in vertical farming platform that mixes automation, lighting, irrigation, and local weather management to create the right rising atmosphere.
Robots journey alongside the highest of the cubic-storage grid to handle watering, whereas superior software program repeatedly displays every plant’s standing and adjusts circumstances in actual time.
In contrast to conventional farms, the Opollo Farm operates solely indoors, offering full management over the crops’ atmosphere. Its compact, automated design permits it to be positioned near city facilities or co-located with distribution hubs, maximizing flooring house and minimizing meals miles.
When crops are prepared to reap, the robots convey every bin to the “Port” – the only entry/exit level for the grid, optimizing labor utilization.
These dynamic actions are on the coronary heart of AutoStore’s expertise, making farming sooner, smarter, and extra environment friendly. Automation permits Opollo Farm to function effectively across the clock, delivering constant, high-quality harvests year-round.
Parth Joshi, chief product officer at AutoStore, says: “Opollo Farm exhibits what’s doable when confirmed automation meets world challenges like meals provide resilience and sustainability.
“Our work with OnePointOne highlights the flexibility of AutoStore, shifting and storing items for everybody, in every single place, throughout numerous industries and use circumstances. From order success for main manufacturers to scaling city farming, we’re enabling smarter, extra resilient options.”
Sam Bertram, CEO of OnePointOne, says: “Conventional farming consumes huge quantities of water and land – assets which are turning into scarce.
“With AutoStore’s modular robotics and our plant-production expertise, we are able to develop meals nearly wherever utilizing a fraction of these assets.
“This collaboration helps overcome the associated fee and scalability challenges of vertical farming, lastly making regionally grown produce – the primary precedence for US shoppers – doable even in city areas.”
How Opollo Farm works:
- Hydroponic rising system: Crops are grown in bins inside a closed-loop system the place water is recirculated, radically decreasing water consumption.
- Excessive-density cultivation: Crops are grown on the highest doable density, enabling farms to be constructed inside present distribution facilities – eliminating the two,000 mile common journey from the farm to distribution middle.
- Automated plant motion: Powered by AutoStore’s dice storage system, crops transfer autonomously all through the ability. Every bin enters and exits the grid by way of a single Port, dramatically decreasing labor necessities.
- Scalable structure: Whether or not working at small or giant scale, Opollo Farm delivers constant efficiency and may be expanded seamlessly to fulfill rising demand.
- Managed atmosphere: The absolutely enclosed system protects crops from pests and contamination, eliminating the necessity for pesticides.
- Native provide chain: Proximity to city facilities permits for shorter provide chains and lowered transportation emissions.
Wanting forward
With a shared ambition to reimagine how recent produce is grown and delivered in cities, AutoStore and OnePointOne are piloting the Opollo Farm, which is already producing recent, greens and herbs with out the usage of pesticides with plans to scale and discover new crop varieties.
Whereas not but commercially accessible, the businesses are evaluating alternatives to scale the system in city environments.
