From Industry 4.0 to Smolt 4.0 - Current Status, Industry Challenges and Directions for Optimized and Sustainable Production

Abstract

The recent growth and development in salmon farming in Norway has led to a need for more robust and larger smolt/post-smolts. New and larger smolt production plants have been constructed to serve this need. However, these plants are still mainly run through manual labor, meaning that operations and management efficiency strongly depends on the experience of the farmers. This may effectually restrict the desired production growth. To enable the future sustainable growth of the industry, it is necessary to move from the experience-based production regime to knowledge-based and more objective methods. One way of achieving this is to implement solutions based on Industry 4.0 concepts. This paper outlines how Industry 4.0 can be adapted to smolt production through the Smolt 4.0 concept by targeting and analyzing the state-of-the-art within production methods in the smolt industry and evaluating how operations can be improved using Industry 4.0 principles. Three case studies demonstrating how this can be achieved are presented. The study concludes by discussing how more automation and autonomy in smolt facilities can counter challenges related to fish welfare, personnel risks, productivity, and profit.