AGRIST and welzo Begin Joint Cucumber-Growing Trial, Integrating Crop Control and Automated Harvesting

AGRIST and welzo announced on October 15, 2026, that they had begun a joint trial at a cucumber test greenhouse in Shintomi Town, Koyu District, Miyazaki Prefecture. The trial covers about 2a of greenhouse space and runs from September 1, 2026, to August 31, 2027. The companies will combine welzo’s crop-control system with an automated harvesting robot developed by AGRIST to test the process from cultivation through harvesting as an integrated system.

welzo said the trial will assess a crop-control system and an automated harvesting robot as an integrated system. This indicates a focus on designing automation around growing conditions, rather than testing a machine on its own. With labor shortages and the transfer of expertise among the challenges facing greenhouse horticulture, a framework that measures harvest rates, causes of missed harvests and operating hours can help determine whether the system is suitable for deployment.

What is new about this trial is that it connects a crop-control system and an automated harvesting robot in the same greenhouse and cropping cycle, allowing the companies to refine growing conditions and operating requirements for the machinery at the same time. The test area is small, at about 2a, but the key issue is not its size. It is the plan to handle data on temperature, humidity, CO₂ and sunlight, as well as irrigation, fertilization, crop growth, harvest rates and mistaken harvesting, as part of a single process. The focus is not only on the harvesting machine’s performance, but also on shaping the plants and setting up the aisles so the machine can harvest more easily. An earlier article by this newspaper, [AGRIST to Rent AI-Powered Automated Harvesting Robots at Three Hokkaido Sites, Including Remote-Control Experience at a Fukagawa Elementary School](/news/agrist-hokkaidou-3-kyoten-de-ai-tousai-jidou-shuukaku-robott-fb98bc) (2026-09-10), covered efforts to expand the robots’ presence in the field. This trial differs in that it focuses less on where to place the robot and more on what growing conditions will allow it to operate reliably. In other words, it is more naturally viewed as a step toward defining the conditions for integrating cultivation design and machine operation than as a trial focused on expanding the customer base. The broader industry implication is that greenhouse automation is moving beyond robots alone toward integrated system design that includes crop control, greenhouse layout, and the collection and analysis of harvest data. AGRIST is responsible for harvesting, while welzo handles crop control. Because the companies will measure factors including missed harvests and the number of stops, the focus will be not only on machine accuracy but also on how reproducibly growing conditions can be standardized. Given the stated goal of management that does not depend on individual experience, another question will be whether the settings and procedures developed in the trial can be maintained at other greenhouses. Unresolved questions include what harvest rates and improvements in mistaken harvesting the trial will achieve, and whether the same conditions will work beyond a greenhouse of about 2a. The announcement did not specify the robot’s model, number of units, target performance or yield, so those details will require further announcements.

According to welzo, the trial will collect and store environmental data, including temperature, humidity, CO₂ and sunlight, along with information on irrigation, fertilization and crop growth, and analyze the relationship between growing conditions and crop development. The companies will also examine fruiting positions, leaf growth, aisle width and robot operating conditions. Their analysis will include harvest rates, mistaken harvesting, causes of missed harvests, robot operating hours and number of stops, as well as work hours. welzo said it aims to establish a crop-management system that does not rely excessively on experience and intuition, while also creating growing conditions that make automated harvesting robots easier to operate. Data from the trial will be used to develop future case studies, improve products and services, and inform proposals to agricultural operations.

In Japan’s greenhouse horticulture sector, it is likely to be important to connect crop control and automated harvesting in the same greenhouse, rather than advancing them separately. For crops such as cucumbers, where plant shape and aisle conditions can affect harvesting performance, the interfaces among control systems, greenhouse design and robot operation may become a competitive differentiator. Japanese companies’ accumulated expertise in horticultural materials, environmental-control equipment and technologies related to harvesting robots will be put to the test.