Automation

Automated nutrient delivery systems can be expensive, and sticker shock can intimidate growers into putting off the upgrade. However, the vast majority of growers admit that the upfront investment pays off. Lower labour costs and reduced resource waste, along with saving time are enough to get many…

Compac’s UltraView produce inspection module has been recognized by the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards program as the 2020 winner of the Most Innovative Agritech Solution of the year.

UltraView was launched by Compac, which is part of the TOMRA Food family of companies, in late 2019.

UltraView maximizes the performance of Compac’s Spectrim, a powerful grading platform for fresh fruit and vegetables. UltraView’s advantage is its capability to reliably find defects in fresh produce that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to detect because of shape and/or location.

The UltraView module contains a set of high-resolution multi-spectral (color and infrared) cameras and LED lights which are located close to the fruit, parallel to its direction of travel. In this position, the UltraView cameras generate high-quality images for close inspection of the fruit’s stem bowl and tip regions.

This year is marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and the global confinement it has led to. This unprecedented situation impacts the agricultural production and further compounds the difficulties of a sector undergoing labor shortages.In that light, how can robotics provide an appropriate and…

This video features a fruit harvesting robot. It's more efficient and precise than a person. The robot uses artificial intelligence and the latest technology and is fitted with lights. So, it can navigate through large greenhouses and orchards, 24 hours/day. It can then detect which fruits are ripe…

Check out this video about a fully automatic unpackaging machine. The robot arm grabs 6 boxes at once, turns them upside down and places them on a conveyor belt. Could people move this fast?

Argus Controls invites you to watch the 'Preventative maintenance and environmental controls in the greenhouse' webinar that took place on September 18. The panel of experts explained how an environmental control system can help growers in getting ahead of potential issues with their equipment. In…

Industry has experienced a tremendous amount of change over the past decade, and then squeezed in another decade’s worth of change in the past seven months

During Wageningen University’s Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge team AuTomatoes applied the principles of Plant Empowerment in their winning AI strategy. Thus, the team’s strategy was focused on the plant and its balances, in order to create a balanced and empowered crop. So how did they do this?…

During Wageningen University’s Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge team AuTomatoes applied the principles of Plant Empowerment in their winning AI strategy. Thus, the team’s strategy was focused on the plant and it’s balances, in order to create a balanced and empowered crop. So how did they do this? This article explains all about the water balance and how team AuTomatoes kept it in balance at all times.

The water balance is the balance between the input to and output of water from the plants. Output of water is mainly caused by evaporation. Only a little portion of the total water uptake is stored in the plant and the fruits. Plants need to evaporate and thus take up water from the root zone for three reasons: the uptake of nutrients, for growth, and for cooling. In order to keep the water balance in balance, the uptake of water from the root zone must equal at least the evaporation rate. Thus, to ensure sufficient water availability, irrigation needs to be aligned with the plant’s evaporation rate.

Various algorithms were developed to support the tomato crop’s water balance in order to optimize the tomato yields. For example, some of these algorithms made use of a plant temperature sensor and pyrgeo sensor to calculate the net radiation on plant level. Based on this calculation the algorithms decided on the optimal screen position for the crop to receive the right amount of radiation to keep a steady evaporation rate.

Germination rate and vitality are important factors for determining the quality of seed batches. To this day, the measurement process is hardly automated, and therefore labor intense, expensive, and prone to errors. These errors can lead to costly claims for seed breeders or young plant growers when…

Funding will help commercialize technology that addresses major challenges faced by farmers

September 9, 2020 - Halifax, Nova Scotia – Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA)

Agriculture is one of Atlantic Canada’s biggest exports and sources of economic activity; however, today’s farmers face significant challenges getting their products to market. Labour shortages, pesticides and global warming have all changed the way agricultural products are grown, harvested and distributed to consumers. To help facilitate the search for better solutions, the Government of Canada is supporting businesses that are finding creative ways for farmers to more easily grow and harvest their crops.

The packaging sector is always looking for ways to help clients reduce labor. This video shows a semi-automatic spring onion packaging line in action.

'Thanks to our extensive experience, we manufacture equipment for the agricultural and food, retail, industrial and commercial sectors looking for weighing, dosing, packaging, storing solutions etc. Our markets of reference are mainly Europe, central and southern America and north Africa,' reports Santo…

Jeff Neff, Senior Applications Technician at Argus Controls, discusses  irrigation techniques and automation, including considerations that can be important when deciding which system to choose advantages of automating this process, as well as key considerations for implementing automated irrigation by using irrigation solutions…

Convenience fruit sales have risen considerably in recent years. Mixed fruit salads containing grapes are very popular in supermarkets all over the world. Small wonder, then, that the Destemmer is one of the Dutch company, ZTI's, international best-selling machines. It's well-know that it destems grapes…

Crux Agribotics expands its SortiPack product portfolio by developing a Grading, Sorting and Packing application for sweet pointed pepper. Sweet pointed peppers are becoming more popular. Mainly due to taste and health value, the consumption by consumers is increasing. Sweet pointed peppers are available…

Consumers have been paying even more attention to food safety since the outbreak of Covid-19. At the same time, there is also a growing demand for sliced fruits and vegetables. The cutting up of fruits and vegetables is an important step in the processing of fruits and vegetables. This step is not just…

Around the world, countless potato and carrot producers have are choosing for optical sorting equipment for their packhouses. This enables them to ensure consistent quality output and provides the opportunity to optimise an entire crop’s value. One brand at the forefront of this technology is Newtec, an…

Optimum Sorting was founded in 2017. That makes this Dutch company the newest player on the market. “First and foremost, we want our company to build a technological lead,” says Steve. “First, with the new sorting platform, the Cloudsorter. Then with the introduction of a multispectral higher resolution…

Martin Bourgondiën, as Commtrad machines’ owner, sells Select machinery to fruit and vegetable companies.  close-up of the 6-legged finger rotor on the Arcus The client Martin just visited has a new Select Arcus optical sorter. It replaced the 16-year-old Agroselector that was standing in the company’s peeling…

Many optical sorting machines work by discarding subpar material or foreign matter from a batch of potatoes. But some sorters check products’ quality. “It’s a matter of good, bad, or repeel,” says Sjors Vullings of Marcelissen. “We've had a sorter on the market for almost a year. It can, however, do so…

Experts from British research institute Rothamsted Research are currently testing the latest in artificial intelligence for farming. It is the world’s largest agricultural robot, the Field Scanalyzer. This international research centre focuses on strategic agricultural science, and trials on the Field…

Broccoli, 3D-printed into unusual shapes to tempt a picky toddler. Beef stew, produced in the same way to make it easy to swallow for an elderly relative. Pork and potatoes, also rendered by a machine for a patient with oral cancer who can’t chew. Advances in 3D-printing mean printed food is becoming…

This bell pepper season, the Dutch company, PapriCo, is working with a new portal unloader. It's the first time they're using this machine from Burg Machinery. PapriCo growers are members of the DOOR cooperative. They deliver bulk bell peppers to a packaging site in the Netherlands. It belongs to this…

In a constant search for achieving more efficient processes, automated environmental controls have proven to be key for horticultural facilities as they help deliver a more consistent product, reduce costs, as well as meet production goals and desired quality of the product. Alex Fermon, Product…

Amazon executive Jeff Wilke, a 20-year veteran of the company, plans to retire next year, but not before completing one of his major projects — eliminating human cashiers at Whole Foods locations across the country.

“In some sectors - onions, apples, oranges, etc. - optical sorting has already been successfully established,” says Mitchel Bakker of Ellips. This Dutch company focuses on assessment technology. “It’s only with potatoes that that’s been more difficult. That’s because potatoes are never uniform in size.…

Autonomous greenhouse is an application of artificial intelligence (AI) in CEA, which will become critical for the future development of CEA technologies, including applications to low and high tech CEA.  Please sign up if would like to join the conversation. This will be the first step to build a community to identify R&D needs…

The first robotic cutting mechanism, or “end effector,” for a fully automated, computerized pruning system for modern apple orchards has been designed by a Penn State research team. This might be an early step in the creation of a technology aimed at easing challenges facing tree fruit growers.…

A California startup, Vinergy Inc., has equipment it says will improve vineyard efficiency by reducing a labor-intensive part of harvest — transporting grapes to the end of rows.

With the rechargeable Vinergy Cart and Vinergy Wheelbarrow, the Bakersfield, Calif., company promises to increase the amount of grapes that can be harvested by saving up two hours of labor for each team of pickers every day, according to a news release.

According to Vinergy, a standard 8-person crew can harvest about six boxes of table grapes an hour, at a labor cost of $4.33 a box over the course of a day. The Vinergy Cart can hold 16 boxes, increasing yield with a labor cost increase of 12.5%, but a real-world reduction of per-box labor costs that range from $1 to $2.30, according to the release.

“When we were picking significant volume we saw a tremendous cost savings during our trials with multiple crews and packing variations,” Rope Eddy, ranch manager for Bakersfield, Calif.-based Anthony Vineyards, said in the release. “Crews that were using traditional wheelbarrows were asking when they could begin using the Vinergy carts.  We are excited to begin working with the Vinergy team as we prepare for next season and scale more carts across our crews.”