Wageningen University & Research is developing a simulated tomato greenhouse to support robot design and control testing. An April update describes a functioning environment created through collaboration among robotics, crop-physiology and three-dimensional modelling specialists.
Researchers measure real plants and generate virtual variants within observed ranges of height, leaf orientation and fruit position. The environment also produces labelled synthetic images for training detection models. It is being used in work with DENSO and its subsidiary Certhon, which are developing a tomato-harvesting robot.
The collaboration began in May 2024. Current work focuses on automating tests and improving robot–plant interaction models. Repeatable virtual scenes can make design comparisons easier because real plants grow and harvesting permanently changes them. The update reports a development tool, not evidence that simulation alone establishes safe or commercially reliable harvesting.
