Farming With Light: Thorvald Wins TIME Recognition As Robot Crop Protection Expands
An agricultural robot that tackles crop disease with ultraviolet light has earned a place on TIME’s Best Inventions of 2026 list, putting a spotlight on an alternative to conventional fungicide spraying.
Saga Robotics’ electric Thorvald platform is already treating an estimated 30% of the UK’s tabletop strawberry production in 2026, according to the company. Saga says it works with 15 leading UK strawberry growers, supported by four operational hubs.
Operating at night, Thorvald delivers targeted UV-C light to control powdery mildew in strawberries and grapevines. The approach exploits a biological vulnerability: ultraviolet light damages fungal DNA, while darkness prevents the activation of a repair mechanism triggered by blue light in sunlight.
The science extends beyond company claims. A peer-reviewed study published in Plant Disease in 2021 found that night-time UV-C applications, delivered once or twice weekly, suppressed strawberry powdery mildew as effectively as, or better than, a commercial calendar-based fungicide programme under the trial conditions. That research used a tractor-drawn treatment system.
Thorvald is also becoming a platform for crop monitoring. Saga says onboard cameras count flowers and fruit and collect ripeness information during treatment, with its integrated data service providing farm-wide counts every four days. Its partnership with Bitwise Agronomy combines crop observations with weather and field conditions to support forecasting.
Commercial adoption is expanding beyond British berries. In April, Bonterra Organic Estates announced a California pilot involving six Thorvald robots across approximately 200 acres of vineyards, exploring how precision light treatments could reduce inputs in organic production.
The platform began as a master’s project at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in 2014, before Saga Robotics was founded in 2016.
“The team behind this technology believes the future of agriculture is far less dependent on chemicals,” said chief executive Sacha de La Noë.
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