California’s grow houses are making use of applied intelligence and robotics to cultivate the time- and labor-intensive greens.

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Your next salad might include leafy greens grown by robots in California greenhouses. About 75 percent of the lettuce farmed in the U.S. comes from that state’s Central Coast and San Joaquin Valley. Cultivating it requires warm temperatures, not too much rain, and lots of time and labor. Startups such as Iron Ox, a maker of agricultural robots, and big players such as John Deere are investing in artificial intelligence to raise produce more efficiently.

At Iron Ox’s fully robotic grow house in San Carlos, Calif., an autonomous robot plants, cares for, and harvests crops.

The robotic arm is called the transplanter. Photographer: T.J. Proechel and Adam Golfer for Bloomberg Businessweek

A visualization generated by stereo cameras as the transplanter does its work; the system enables the bot to know the exact location and the needs of each plant. Photographer: T.J. Proechel and Adam Golfer for Bloomberg Businessweek

The Angus, a 1,000-lb. robot that transports 800-lb. hydroponic grow beds to and from the robotic arm. It employs lidar sensors over each wheel, the same technology that’s used in self-driving cars. Photographer: T.J. Proechel and Adam Golfer for Bloomberg Businessweek

One of a series of unique markers on the ceiling of the Iron Ox farm facility, which Angus reads with its upward-facing camera; it uses the markers to triangulate its position within the farm. Photographer: T.J. Proechel and Adam Golfer for Bloomberg Businessweek

A close-up shot of the robotic arm that cares for individual crops; it uses a gripper and stereo camera that allows it to “see” each plant in 3D. Photographer: T.J. Proechel and Adam Golfer for Bloomberg Businessweek

At John Deere Labs in San Francisco, Doug Sauder, director of applied intelligence, operates a combine simulator to test farming processes. Photographer: T.J. Proechel and Adam Golfer for Bloomberg Businessweek