Projects - dr. J (Jochen) Hemming

The Multifunctional Robot project, paret of The Next Fruit 4.0, is expanding the functionality of existing orchard robots and of orchard robots currently under development. The focus of the work is on two topics, namely the development of a sensing system and a gripper for picking pears and on a sensing system, robot control and end-effector(s) for robotic pruning of fruit trees and red currant bushes. On the longer term additional tasks such as automatic thinning, removing weeds and precision spraying will be targeted

Harvesting robot for apples. The objective of this project is the development of a harvesting robot for large fruit in orchards such as apples and pears. The development started in January 2020 together with the Dutch companies Munckhof Fruit Tech Innovators (Horst) and RIWO Industrial Automation (Oldenzaal). WUR realized in the first months a robust deep-learning based fruit localization system. After a successful proof-of-concept that showed fully autonomous harvesting, the current activities focus on improving the performance of the system and build a more industrial prototype.

Robs4Crops is an EU funded project that researchs AI, robotics, and automation for open field operations, specifically mechanical weed control and precision spraying. The project will accelerate the shift towards large-scale implementation of robotics and automation in European farming to reduce mundane, repetitive, and unhealthy labour tasks. The project works on smart implements, autonomous vehicles and planning and scheduling software for field operations. Next to technical development also socio-economic and ethical issues are addressed.

The TrimBot2020 was an EU funded project that will researched the robotics and vision technologies to prototype the first outdoor garden trimming robot. The robot will navigate over varying terrain, approach rose bushes, hedges and boxwood topiary, to trim them to an ideal shape.

EU project SWEEPER (Sweet-pepper harvesting robot). SWEEPER’s main objective is to put the first generation greenhouse harvesting robots onto the market. SWEEPER optimises the cultivation system by simplifying the harvest through the use of a robot. In order to improve the level of the robot’s cognitive skills, crop models will be used to determine the approximate location of the peppers. This ‘model-based vision’ will improve and accelerate fruit detection.