Robot development company inaho Europe has been undergoing trials of its snack tomato harvesting robot for loose cherry tomatoes in the Netherlands. Inaho Europe is a subsidiary of inaho, also active in robot development in Japan. Trials with the robot started with Dutch growers in May 2023. The cooperated grower agreed to pay the fees for the robot's harvesting performance since November 2023.
inaho's snack tomato harvesting robot in action in the greenhouse this summer
The latest trial in June-July 2024 just finished in the Netherlands and inaho's robot demonstrated its improvements and performance.
Improvements
Compared to last year, the robot has doubled its harvesting speed in similar conditions, thanks to a new chip, new camera and improved AI software. Improved image recognition has decreased the number of errors associated with dropping tomatoes and picking green ones. Moreover, its body has been slimmed down by approximately 17%, making it more practical in the greenhouse for avoiding damage to the plants and fitting smaller lanes.
Collaborations with future-looking Dutch growers
The owner and grower Nick Duijvestijn from Kwekerij Duijvestijn who closely cooperates with inaho says: "Preparing for the higher labour costs and the labour shortage is one of our priorities and cooperation with inaho gives us an opportunity to get used to working with harvesting robots. inaho's robot is easy to operate for the employees and our tomatoes are harvested safely without any damage to the fruits and plants."
Nick Duijvestijn and inaho's development team
Looking for partner growers for commercialization
He actively embraced innovations and demonstrated a strong commitment to improving production efficiency through forward-thinking initiatives, stresses inaho's COO Sohya Ohyama. The COO emphasizes the collaborative vision of inaho's robotics:
"We want to expand the scales of our trials to get ready for commercializing our robots and we are actively looking for some growers with a clear vision for the future. The growers can take advantage of becoming familiar with collaborative operations with robots at an early stage and getting ready for rising labour costs and labour shortages. We are willing to work together with growers to develop a concrete business model and robot arrangements to maximize the co-performance between humans and the robots."
Growers who collaborate with inaho at an early stage can be offered benefits such as early discounts and priority use.
Yu Mizuki, Managing Director: "If you would like to know more details about the latest development of the robot and the result of the latest trial in the Netherlands, please contact us and we will respond to you shortly for more details and to discuss potential collaboration."
Video of inaho's robot after update of last year
For more information:
inaho Europe
[email protected]
https://en.inaho.co/