In June 2023, Ridder announced a GRoW harvesting-robot installation in Axia Vegetable Seeds’ demonstration greenhouses in the Netherlands. The robot was working with Axia’s XR tomato varieties bred for resistance to tomato brown rugose fruit virus.
Developed with MetoMotion, GRoW uses computer vision and machine learning to identify ripe tomatoes. Its two arms work on opposite sides of a crop row, after which tomatoes are boxed and placed on a harvesting trolley. The installation gave growers a setting in which to observe the equipment and allowed Axia to examine how crop characteristics influence robotic harvesting.
