Project

JaNeth Onshitsu Robotto

Japan leads the world’s robotics and high tech industry. Robotics deployment specifically in agriculture is crucial for Japan mainly due to decreasing availability of greenhouse labour and aging farmers. The Netherlands, at the same time, masters high tech agriculture and leads the greenhouse tech industry. However, the mass application of robots is not at the expected level in both countries. Although Japan is leading the high-tech industry, the Netherlands has developed domain knowledge and would like to integrate the knowledge with the robotics experience of Japan to boost robotics applications in greenhouses in both countries. The need for both leading countries to join forces and develop hands-free greenhouse operations is evident. A long term collaboration between these two countries can enrol worldwide sustainable food production solutions for high value fruits and vegetables.

This seed money project will promote collaborations between Dutch ag-tech, high-tech and Japanese robotics and ag-tech industries, and find collaboration pathways. The main objective is to develop an R&D PPP project (>€1M) and explore opportunities to set several B2B projects that tackle (2-4) robotic applications leading to more autonomy in greenhouse horticulture.

The project will start with a brief state of the art technical application report from a global perspective. This will lead to increased industry interest and bring forward new markets to select application domains. Through the innovation mission, focus applications will be identified and pre-selected for the areas where industries can enrich each other. With matchmaking and business development support, the project will target applications and an execution plan.

The following activities are foreseen:
1. State of the art Technology Survey and Webinar (Jan-Mar 2022)
2. (Online) Match Making and Brokerage actions (Apr-Jun 2022)
3. Submission PPS Idea (April 2022)
4. Innovation Mission Japan (Apr-Jun 2022)
5. Business Development Support (building application specific project plans) (May – Jul 2022)
6. PPS submission and provide/support other access to finance (Sep 2022)

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