News » 16.10.2026 - 4XROBOTS moves from validation to broader commercial deployment
After several years of development and a period of controlled market entry, 4XROBOTS is moving into a broader phase of commercial deployment. The company has focused initially on controlled-environment agriculture, with transplanting among its applications.
Nick Chambers, Head of Market Development & Insight at 4XROBOTS, says the company deliberately took time to develop a system suited to the operational realities of horticulture.
"We just wanted to make sure we had the right solution for our markets. There is a huge need, and it's growing now, mostly related to questions of labour availability and labour cost."
He also points to throughput, consistency, and production predictability as important drivers for automation. However, he sees a particular gap among greenhouse operations where production requirements change frequently, and volumes may not justify dedicated automation. Nick describes this as "the biggest white space in the market".
Nick Chambers and Maria Cravesen with 4XROBOTS at Greentech North America 2026
Automation without redesigning the greenhouse
A key consideration for these operations is how automation can be introduced without rebuilding the entire production facility. Nick describes the 4XROBOTS system as modular and adaptable to existing technical areas and transplanting lines.
"If your greenhouse already has a technical area where you do transplanting, for the most part we can make this robot work on that same line," he says.
However, he cautions that introducing one automated process can expose limitations elsewhere in the workflow. "If your upstream processes are not geared towards automation, where you automate it will only uncover your other bottlenecks."
This can lead growers to consider changes to conveyors, technical areas and material flow over time rather than treating automation as a single installation. He also notes that moving technical operations outside the growing area can potentially release valuable greenhouse floor space for production.
Learning from the first commercial installations
Experience from the first commercial installations has also provided feedback on software and integration. Nick says the company has deliberately scaled installations cautiously, recognising that commercial deployment can reveal issues that are difficult to identify during development.
"We have run into occasional hiccups, but our team is very responsive, and we fix those things very fast."
According to him, the mechanical platform has proved robust, while software development and interface improvements have been more significant areas of ongoing refinement. The approach has also involved incorporating customer feedback into subsequent software versions and improving stability and performance.
Lloyd Traven of Peace Tree Farm at Greentech North America this year (left), with a snapshot of the 4X robot at work at Peace Tree Farm in September (right)
Changing the role of labour
At Peace Tree Farm in Pennsylvania, the application illustrates another aspect of the technology: automation can allow existing employees to move from repetitive transplanting work to supervising the system and managing the wider production flow. Nick says employees previously involved in transplanting can instead take responsibility for tending and operating the robotic system.
"It's not that you're necessarily losing people. It's just that that same person who's doing a specific process within transplanting, for example, is the one that can now handle the whole thing."
For Nick, this distinction is important in a sector where labour availability is increasingly difficult to manage.
Building a repeatable installation model
The next stage for 4XROBOTS is to make commercial deployment increasingly repeatable. Through system-integrator partners such as FGM, the company provides the robotic platform while the wider system, including conveyors, grippers and integration with upstream and downstream processes, is engineered by the integrator around it.
Evan Sharpies with FGM. FGM and 4XROBOTS integrated four collaborative robots into a hydroponic moving gutter system at Goodness Gardens to automatically remove harvested plant roots and plugs
Nick says that many installations share a common architecture. "Largely, the systems that FGM has already designed are about 80% the same between customers," he says.
That standardisation can shorten engineering and installation times while still allowing adaptations for individual production systems. The objective is therefore not simply to demonstrate that a robot can transplant plants, but to establish a practical route for integrating robotic automation into existing greenhouse workflows.
Source: www.floraldaily.com
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