Japan will build a large robot lettuce factory with a daily output of 30000 trees

Reference News Network reported on September 5 that US media said that indoor planting of lettuce is now popular, but the planned new factory will be run by robots.

The US "quartz" financial website reported on September 3 that in 2016, Japan's "spread" vegetable company plans to open a lettuce factory in Kyoto. The factory will adopt an almost fully automatic production mode, with a daily output of 30000 lettuce and an annual output of 10 million lettuce.

As of last year, the world's largest vegetable factory was also in Japan, transformed from Sony's abandoned factory in Miyagi Prefecture, according to National Geographic magazine. The factory's daily output is about 1/3 of the future robot factory, and most of the work is still done by humans.

The "spread" vegetable company just fills this gap: there are several stages in lettuce growth-planting, germination, transfer of seedlings to larger nurseries, growth and maturity of vegetables and final harvest. "Communication" said that the company plans to automate all the other stages except for the sowing and germination stages.

The US "Wall Street Journal" stated that the robot will transfer lettuce seeds from the stacking crane to the nursery, allowing them to grow freely to full maturity, and then harvest them and transport them to the assembly line for packaging. The company said that the temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, water and light during the lettuce growing and harvesting process will also be automatically controlled.

Due to its high population density and scarce arable land, Japan is at the forefront of the high-tech indoor agriculture movement. Compared with traditional agriculture, the advantages of indoor agriculture include higher yield per unit area, more water saving, less pesticide use and year-round cultivation.