ISO Group
Plant small plants with robot arms
The ISO Robot Plug Planting Machine is a machine with robot arms that can plant small plants in the ground from a plug tray. This method of planting plugs in the ground with robot arms is completely unique anywhere in the world.
The current machine, which is specially designed for Lisianthus plants, can handle 6,000 plants per robot arm, and the maximum capacity can be increased to 18,000 plants per hour with a third arm. It can all be operated by one person. Up to now, the plants have been planted out by hand. With the humidity and warmth in the greenhouse needed to grow Lisianthus, this is a very tough, labour-intensive job. The machine is designed to enable the operator to control the plants as they are being planted.
www.iso-group.nl
Stand number: 11.307
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ISO Group unveils combination machine for cutting planting and transplanting
At the coming World Trade Fair for Horticulture at IPM in Essen, scheduled for 23 up to and including 26 January 2018, the ISO Group will unveil a new machine. This machine is a combination of the already well-known ISO Cutting Planter 2500 (automatic cutting planter machine) and the ISO Vision Planter (transplanter).
The Cutting Planter 2500 is now a well-known name in worldwide horticulture. Globally, more than 80 of these ISO Cutting Planter 2500 machines are in the field. Considering the fact that many nurseries have a limited season for sticking cuttings, ISO Group has developed a machine that, in addition to the cutting planting, also has the ability to transplant rooted plants.
Interchangeable head
Through the easily interchangeable head it is possible to use the machine as a transplanting machine after the cutting planting season. Because the gripper head is interchangeable, it is also possible to process different sized plants and different tray and pot sizes. For instance, in consultation with the ISO Group, it is possible to design one or more heads with 1, 2 or multiple grippers, which, depending on plant and pot size, can ensure the right plant handling and speed.
More flexibility
In this way, the machine can be used for a longer period of time, in multiple seasons and for multiple plant varieties. Besides the ISO Cutting and TransPlanter, the ISO Cutting Planter 2500 will also be at the show at IPM in Essen. The ISO Cutting Planter 2500 makes it possible to carry out cutting planting automatically. The ISO Cutting Planter 2500 is operational at multiple reputable grower locations worldwide and is capable of planting many types of cuttings automatically.
Photo: ISO Group.
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Deleafing Robot by Priva wins GreenTech Innovation Award 2016
Priva won the GreenTech Innovation Award 2016 yesterday at the international trade show in Amsterdam. The company was the winner in the category Equipment as well as the overall winner, beating a total of 73 entries. With the robot, christened Kompano at the Priva stand, deleafing tomato plants can be done completely automatically and profitably for the first time.
The prize was awarded during the opening of the GreenTech on 14 June by the chairman of the jury, Aalt Dijkhuizen. In the jury’s opinion, the robot is an innovative solution for tomato growers for the difficult work of deleafing. The robot is able to do it entirely independently. In addition, it is an economically appealing alternative. Because it very accurately removes the leaves from tomato plants, viruses do not get a chance to spread.
Development
The development of the robot took at least 15 years. Priva developed the robot in cooperation with a large number of growers, so the product has received ample field testing. The jury views Priva’s innovation as the start of a large series of robots, which will be developed for horticulture in the coming years to efficiently take care of strenuous work. They therefore identified the Priva deleafing robot as heralding the beginning of a new era for international horticulture.
Thanks to the most up-to-date vision technologies, the robot can work day and night. This allows the robot to work, on average, just as fast as a human. The accuracy of deleafing is about 95%. Three growers from the consortium that developed the robot - Lans, Prominent and Vereijken Kwekerijen - will be the first to start working with the robot. From June of 2017 on, the robot will also be available to growers outside the consortium. Pre-orders may be placed online.
Priva will put the robot on the market as a service, so that growers will be able to benefit from the innovation immediately, without incurring high investment costs. With this first generation of the deleafing robot, 0.75 to 1 hectare of tomatoes can be serviced. For larger growing surfaces several robots will be needed, or it can be combined with manual labour.
Two more winners
In addition to Priva, the international jury also awarded two nominations with a category Award. ISO Group won a prize in the category Production and the HortMax-Go! by Ridder HortiMax Group won in the category Automation Solutions. The ISO Plant sampler is able to independently take samples from leaves and collect the DNA material on a microplate. In the jury’s opinion, the ISO Plant sampler offers a great, automated technique that enables work to be carried out fast and with precision.
According to the jury, the HortiMaX-Go! is a modern, user-friendly, affordable climate control and greenhouse irrigation computer. The modular system uses smart switches that can be installed in a plug-and-play manner. The innovation is intended to be entry level, so that growers all over the world will be able to use this technology.
Photo: Mario Bentvelsen.
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GreenTech Innovation Award 2016 nominees announced
A shortlist of nominees, all but two of them Dutch, has been announced for the GreenTech Innovation Award 2016. An international jury has selected a shortlist of 15 nominees from 73 entries in three categories: Production, Equipment and Automation Solutions. One of these three winners will be chosen as the overall winner on June 14, during the opening event of GreenTech Amsterdam.
“As jury, we are very pleased with both number and quality of the applications for the GreenTech Innovation Award 2016. It shows the high level of innovation in the greenhouse horticulture sector”, said jury chairman Aalt Dijkhuizen, former president of Wageningen UR and appointed by the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs as figurehead of the Topsector Agri & Food in the Netherlands.
Shortlisted in the Production category are:
- RootmaXX by Saint-Gobain Cultilene - a new stone wool cube which claims to give a 5-25 per cent higher root mass thanks to a newly patented fibre.
- ISO Cutting and Planting robot 1800 by ISO Group - which automatically analyses the geometry of a stem, cut the stem to the right length and plants it in a pot.
- ISO Plantsampler by ISO Group - which automates the gathering of DNA material from the leaves of trial seedlings.
- GrowCoon by Maan BioBased Products - a biodegradable plug casing which help keeps the root ball together.
- Biospreader by Royal Brinkman - which provides a uniform distribution of predatory mites in the crop.
Shortlisted in the Equipment category are:
- 2SaveEnergy covering by 2SaveEnergy - a twin-skinned glasshouse covering claimed to combine high insulation and light transmission with an affordable.
- Triton Bioreactor by Van der Ende Groep - a biological treatment which yields clean irrigation water rich in oxygen and microbial biodiversity.
- AntiReflect by Mardenkro - a glass treatment which can be applied to existing greenhouses.
- NUF water recycling by NUFiltration (Israel) - which enables purification of irrigation water without use of chemicals, thermal or biological treatments.
- ValkScreenVision by Van der Valk Horti Systems - a quick, clean and safe system for inserting glasshous screens.
- Priva Deleafing Robot by Priva - a robot which removes leaves from tomato plants completely independently and in an economically profitable manner.
Shortlisted in the Automation Solutions category:
(with one remaining undisclosed)
- Paskal Growth Analyser by Paskal Technologies (Israel) - a wireless weighing system to continuously monitor plant growth in the glasshouse.
- C.H.I.M.P (Crop Health & Information Monitoring Platform) by Phenokey - which measures control and plant health parameters for remote monitroing and decision support.
- HortiMaX-Go! by Ridder Hortimax Group - a user-friendly and affordable horticultural computer for controlling both greenhouse climate and irrigation.
All nominated products will be on display at GreenTech's InnovationLAB.
Source: GreenTech. Photo: Mario Bentvelsen.
