PHOTO: STAN VERSTEGEN
PHOTO: CERESCON
PHOTO: AVL MOTION
expected in 2020. Tumoba is also looking into the possibilities to harvest cauliflowers using the same principle. Other projects include a project of Wageningen University & Research.
Chicory
Rolan Robotics and chicory grower De Boer showed a harvesting robot in 2016, after five years of development, that empties trays with chicory plants and puts the plants on a con- veyor belt to be cut afterwards. This way, the heaviest part of manually harvesting is auto- mated. Just one operator can operate the cutting and the companies are looking to automate this as well. The trays have 24 chicory plants of which the roots are drilled or rather grasped by 24 6mm to 8mm drills normally used for drilling in wood. This way, the roots are fixated and sepa- rated from their trays. Finding the right type of drill, speed and pressure proved to be a chal- lenge, but the robot can harvest six to seven trays with each 480 roots per hour. This equals 3,100 roots per hour compared to 2,500 – 3,000 roots per hour manually. The companies expect to eliminate the cost of one and a half to two employees.
Asparagus Two Dutch companies are working on robots for harvesting asparagus: AVL Motion and Cerescon. AVL Motion has been testing its ro- bot for a year to validate its working principle. The robot detects the asparagus heads that are protruding above the ridges. This is done vis- ually for now because the company wants to further develop the cutting module. After test- ing next year, it will focus on detecting the asparagus underground. The number of cutting modules can vary from 8 to 16 and the harvesting method is compara- ble to manual harvesting. Two grips hold the asparagus while a knife rotates horizontally to cut the stem after which the grips pull the stem out of ridge. In future the harvested as- paragus will be put on a conveyor belt below the knives that conveys them to a tray. The autonomous harvester currently runs at 1.8km/h whilst doubling this speed is antici- pated. The speed is corrected for the number of harvesting modules that are at work. The plastic can either be lifted and put back or put
AVL Motion has been testing its robot for a year to validate its working principle. The robot detects the asparagus heads that are protruding above the ridges. This is done visually for now.
aside on the next ridge. In 2019 a 0-series will be tested at a grower and AVL Motion targets to manufacture 30 machines in 2022.
Cerescon Cerescon delivered its first 1-row selective harvesting robot Sparter to a French grower earlier this year, but the company has done some important changes – apart from the looks and the patented subsurface detection principle. That principle consists of 19 advan- ced proximity sensors per unit that detect the asparagus subsurface without contacting them. The sensors respond to water (up to 90%) in the stems. Depending on the depth setting of the sensors between -3 and 10 cm aimed at the head of the asparagus, the stems are harvested. Shorter stems are left to grow. The latest Sparter version has two robot units instead of one to increase the capacity. The proximity sensors are no longer placed hori- zontal and are individually operated to avoid missing ripe stems. Two knives cut the select- ed stems and the robot arm shakes off redun- dant sand and puts the asparagus in a gutter that drops them onto an elevator that trans- ports them to a platform where an operator puts them in a box. Cerescon doesn’t put the plastic aside, but lifts it and puts it back after harvesting the stems. The company is working on further improvements including better shake-off of sand and an improved product transfer from gutter to elevator and a bigger knife at the season end to better cut non- vertical stems.
Strawberries Belgian company Octinion is working hard to in- troduce its strawberry harvesting robot for in- door use next year. It thinks that if the technolo- gy works in strawberries, it will work for any type of fruit. That was also the reason to start devel- oping a strawberry picking robot in combina- tion with the innovative mindset of growers. The company first focussed on determining the way humans pick strawberries in order to devel- op there picking robot. As of 2014 it started the development of a completely new and special- ised robot that premiered in 2016. It aims at picking the fruits at the same cost as manual picking and can pick one straw berry every 4 sec- onds. With an average weight of 12g, this adds up to 10kg/h. Octinion aims to commercialise complete harvesting automation including transport and packaging. Camera’s guide a gripper towards the fruit de- pending on the location, the status (ripe or
The patented subsurface detection principle from Cerescon in close up. The 19 advanced proximity sensors detect the asparagus sub- surface without contacting them. They respond to water (up to 90%) in the stems.
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 1 November 2018 33
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