Tomato News: Priva Group Developing Deleafing Robot For Tomatoes.
Together with a large group of tomato growers Priva has developed a robot, which removes leaves from tomato plants completely independently and in an economically profitable manner. Labour is indeed a significant cost item for a grower.
The lowest two to three leaves per plant are regularly removed in tomato growing. Amongst other things, this promotes ripening of the tomatoes. This crop cultivation is called deleafing or leaf cutting depending on the method used. It is important during this procedure that the leaf is removed as close to the stem as possible to prevent diseases, such as botrytis, from occurring in the crop.
A few years ago Priva faced a difficult challenge to develop a robot that could remove leaves from tomato plants in the greenhouse completely independently. The objective is not only to create a robot, which mimics the performance of a human, but the robot also needs to be economically viable. Nobody has yet been able to design and market such a robot.
Growers and Priva have taken this step to lay a foundation for automating various crop procedures in the greenhouse: deleafing is only one of the applications, and the tomato is only one of the crops.
A successful test model however still does not equate to a successful product. It was necessary to adapt the design. Important parameters such as cutting quality, speed and effectiveness now meet expectations. As a result the project has moved into the next phase.
Currently an initial production series of the deleafing robot is being built by manufacturer, VDL, on behalf of Priva. These first robots will be deployed amongst a number of participating growers.
