ing. EJ (Erik) Pekkeriet

ing. EJ (Erik) Pekkeriet

Programme Manager Vision + Robotics

Erik Pekkeriet (1970) is Program Manager Vision + Robotics. He studied Mechanical Engineering at the NHL-Stenden University of Applied Sciences in Emmen. He specialized himself in Maintenance Technology and Management. After he finished his BSc he started his career at Philips as a project employee in maintenance management. In 1996 he started a new position within innovation management in a Greenhouse Horticulture Association. He started as a single consultant, but built and led a department with 5 innovation consultants. After 7 years he made a change to Wageningen University & Research, building great robots, vision sorting systems and new greenhouse production systems for, and together with farmers and machine manufacturers. Main projects he developed and worked on vision sorting systems for pot plants, cut flowers and vegetables in X-ray-, NIR-, Fluorescence- and RGB-technology in 2D and 3D; robot harvesting systems for cutting roses, gerberas, cucumbers, sweet peppers and tomatoes and new moving greenhouse production systems for chrysanthemum, pot plants and vertical farms. Erik coordinated the € 12M EU-project PicknPack (flexible robotic packaging systems). Erik is also the founding father and network coordinator of the European Digital Innovation Hub network on Robotics agROBOfood

The last decade Erik broadened the robotic scope from greenhouse horticulture to open field, livestock, marine, food and other Wageningen agri-food domains. Erik is now leading the agilie team of the Agro Food Robotics Program which consist of 45 experts from Wageningen Reserarch. Erik is also an IPMA-C certified project manager. Other positions

  • Boardmember of the topicgroup on Agricultural Robotics at EU Robotics
  • Chair of topicgroup Greenhouse Horticultuire at the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Techniek in de Landbouw (Dutch Society of Technology in Agriculture)
  • Network coordinator at the European agROBOfood network
  • Advisory board member of the European Machine Vision Forum