Norwegian AgTech SME developing autonomous robots that cut herbicide use by 95% through precision weed targeting.
ADIGO AS is a Norwegian agricultural technology company that develops autonomous robotic systems for precision farming. Their core product is a field robot capable of identifying and targeting individual weeds with herbicide, achieving a 90-95% reduction in chemical usage compared to conventional broadcast spraying. They successfully commercialized this technology through the EU SME Instrument program, progressing from a feasibility study to a fully funded product development project. Their work sits at the intersection of computer vision, robotics, and sustainable agriculture.
Both ASTERIX projects (2016–2020) are centered on developing and commercializing a robot designed for autonomous weed detection and targeted herbicide application in arable fields.
The ASTERIX system's defining capability is spot-spraying individual weeds rather than whole fields, reducing herbicide use by 95% as demonstrated across both project phases.
Both projects are classified under the Food pillar and target the agrochemical waste problem that is a central challenge in modern sustainable farming.
ADIGO AS has a narrow but deep trajectory: both H2020 projects address exactly the same technology (the ASTERIX weeding robot), making this a focused, single-product company rather than a broad research organization. The progression from a €50,000 SME Phase 1 feasibility study in 2016 to a €1.69 million SME Phase 2 development grant in 2018 shows a company moving from concept validation to full-scale product development. There is no visible diversification in the available data — their expertise is concentrated and intentional.
ADIGO AS followed the textbook SME Instrument path to commercialize a single deep-tech product; any future collaboration would likely be with partners seeking to integrate, scale, or distribute precision weeding robotics technology rather than co-develop new concepts from scratch.
ADIGO AS has acted exclusively as project coordinator in both H2020 projects, which is unusual and signals a company that drives its own agenda rather than joining others' initiatives. No consortium partners are recorded, which is consistent with solo SME Instrument grants where the applicant company is the primary beneficiary. Working with them likely means engaging them as a technology provider or licensing partner, not as a collaborative research team.
ADIGO AS has no recorded consortium partners or cross-country collaborations in the H2020 data, consistent with the solo-applicant nature of the SME Instrument funding scheme they used. Their network, if any, is commercial rather than academic or consortium-based.
ADIGO AS is one of the few SMEs in Europe to have completed the full SME Instrument Phase 1 → Phase 2 progression with the same precision agriculture product, which indicates both technical credibility and commercial readiness. Their robotic weeding technology addresses a specific, high-value pain point — herbicide overuse — that is under increasing regulatory and market pressure across the EU. For a business or consortium looking for a proven AgTech product rather than a research prototype, ADIGO AS represents a rare combination of EU validation and real-world applicability.
