Summary: The object is to make fruit cultivation more efficient, intelligent, sustainable, and future-proof. This requires us to be able to monitor, manage, and make decisions at the level of individual trees with the help of smart technology. The first example is the development of a precision sprayer that can spray at a nozzle level with sensors that detect the volume of the trees. Two prototypes were build and one needs further development and the other is ready for field trials. A later add on are camera’s that can detect pests and diseases. Precision spraying for fruit thinning showed that aiming on the trees with a high amount of flowers gave the best results on effects on return bloom. The second example is the development of sensor platforms that detects blossom in the orchard or a platform that can examine the fruit quality of a storage bin. Specially for pear an algorithm was developed to measure the size. Colour measurements will follow. The third example is the use of a non-destructive sensor to measure fruit quality like firmness and brix. The sensor Fresco showed reliable outcomes on a set of more than 20 samples. And finally the fourth example is the build of end effectors for picking and pruning to make robots multifunctional. The first end effector to pick pears was made and tested with success in the field. This winter red currant plants will be pruned with the pruning end effector.
