TAKO - Technology for monitoring biomass in commercial seaweed farming

Technology for monitoring biomass in seaweed farming

How do you monitor growth in large seaweed farms far out at sea? The project is developing digital technology that makes it possible to measure biomass efficiently—even in challenging environments where manual methods are ineffective.

Why this project?

Seaweed farming is an important part of sustainable food and material production in the future. But today, monitoring growth often relies on manual methods—which require traveling out to the farms by boat.

It works on a small scale near the coast, but quickly becomes ineffective and, in some cases, impossible as farms expand or are moved further out to sea, for example in connection with offshore wind power. Exposed environments and long distances make it difficult to determine whether the seeds have actually taken root and how much they are growing over time.

To scale up seaweed farming, new ways of collecting data are needed—without having to be on site.

Purpose and Objectives

The aim is to develop and test digital technology that makes it possible to measure growth and biomass in seaweed farms more effectively.

The goal is to:

• enable measurements in exposed and hard-to-reach environments
• replace or supplement manual methods
• provide growers with a better basis for making decisions about cultivation and harvesting

The project helps make seaweed farming more scalable and data-driven.

In the long run, this could lead to:

• more effective tracking of growth over time
• less time spent and fewer manual tasks
• greater precision in harvest planning
• increased opportunities to establish farms further out to sea

The role of Innovatum Science Park

Innovatum Science Park is a partner in the project alongside IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Nordic SeaFarm, VisionAir, and Deepoid.