The five international teams participating in the final rounds of the 3rd Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge have completed the first try-out experiment. The teams tested their algorithms and gained experience during a first crop cycle with lettuce. The goal of the 3rd Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge is to grow lettuces in two crop cycli fully autonomously with an AI algorithm on a cloud platform with good quality and little resource and energy use and without any human interference in the experimental greenhouses of Wageningen University & Research (WUR) in Bleiswijk. The first crop cycle of the 3rd Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge started on February 2nd with the planting of cultivar Salanova. Five teams (Team CVA, Team digital_cucumber, Team MondayLettuce, Team VeggieMight, Team Koala) participated in the first try-out experiment to test their algorithms and gain experience.

Growing lettuce with artificial intelligence (AI) in autonomous greenhouses, by algorithms developed in different parts of the world: today the young lettuce plants of the five international teams that compete in the two final rounds of the Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge were planted in the experimental greenhouses of Wageningen University & Research in Bleiswijk. The goal is to grow these lettuces fully autonomously with an AI algorithm on a cloud platform with good quality and little resource and energy use and without any human interference. The competition and teams' performance can be followed live on an online dashboard. Will the computer be able to complete a fully autonomous growing cycle? Five international teams located around the world will produce a lettuce crop using a fully autonomous algorithm during two growing cycles.

In 2018, five teams grew cucumbers in a ground-breaking Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge international competition. The twist: only one of the teams consisted of experienced human growers operating their greenhouse compartment manually. The remaining four teams consisted of international experts in the fields of horticulture and artificial intelligence (AI). They worked to develop AI solutions to manage their crops remotely and autonomously. The goal of the competition, the world's first Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge, was to drive breakthroughs in sustainable food production.