On Wednesday, July 4th from 15:00 to 18:00, growers, suppliers and the press can see the first live demonstration of the SWEEPER pepper harvesting robot. This demonstration will be given at the commercial greenhouse "De Tuindershoek" in IJsselmuiden, one of the partners in this international research project. The BU Greenhouse Horticulture of Wageningen University & Research, coordinates the project in which partners from Sweden, Israel and Belgium also participate.
The SWEEPER robot is the first sweet pepper harvesting robot in the world to be demonstrated in a commercial greenhouse. SWEEPER has been concentrating on harvesting peppers for the past three years, with 1.3 million tonnes being produced annually in Europe. The consortium expects that the outcome of their research will lead to a market introduction of the robot within a few years. The results confirm the leading role of Europe in the field of high-tech agro-robotics research and strengthens the competitiveness of the European greenhouse horticulture sector.
SWEEPER is a partnership between Wageningen University & Research, pepper grower De Tuindershoek BV, Umea University in Sweden, Ben-Gurion University in Israel and the Research Station for Vegetable Cultivation and Bogaerts Greenhouse Logistics from Belgium. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644313.
For those not able to attend this demonstration, a second demonstration will be held at the Proefstation voor de Groententeelt in Sint-Katelijne-Waver (Belgium) on September 12th.
For those not able to attend this demonstration, a second demonstration will be held at the Proefstation voor de Groententeelt in Sint-Katelijne-Waver (Belgium) on September 12th.