The professional jury of GreenTech has named the GRoW tomato harvesting robot by Ridder and MetoMotion as the winner of the Robot Challenge. According to the jury, the robot platform will have a great impact on the horticultural sector and the highest chance of being successfully implemented in the market.
The robotic platform was developed to reduce harvesting costs, increase picking quality and to become less dependent on available labour. It is the first robot with two arms that can bidirectionally harvest vine tomatoes and automates the handling of the produce in crates.
Currently, committed to saving 80% of picking labour, the robot is at work at two large Dutch tomato growers.