Ridder Adds Robotics to Its Portfolio with MetoMotion Partnership
Dutch technology supplier for horticulture Ridder has invested in robotics for greenhouses and signed a partnership agreement with Israeli agrotech startup MetoMotion.
“Our goal is an autonomous greenhouse. Over the past few years, we have built a portfolio of greenhouse technology products that help achieve this goal. Robots can also play an important role in this development”
The partnership makes Ridder responsible for the global distribution of the MetoMotion robotic platform and greenhouse robots. For the company, this means an important addition to its greenhouse technology portfolio and a unique opportunity to help growers make greenhouse production more autonomous. Thanks to this partnership, MetoMotion joins Ridder's global sales network and can use its technical support teams to install and service GRoW robots.
The Path to Autonomous Growing
Labor automation is one of the key components that make greenhouse production more profitable and help the home agriculture industry expand faster. Human labor has become a limiting factor due to rising hourly wages for greenhouse workers, but the availability and reliability of staff to do the work under the required conditions is considered an even bigger constraint.
The companies' shared interest in helping farmers address these challenges has led to joint efforts to make robotics accessible to the greenhouse industry.
Commercial Solutions
Ridder has supported the development and testing of the MetoMotion GRoW robot in greenhouses since providing the first part of funding in 2019. In 2021, the Dutch company further strengthened its commitment by adding additional investment.
In addition, Ridder strengthened its robotics business by teaming up with Navus Ventures, a private investment fund linked to Lely, a Dutch agricultural innovator with extensive experience in robotics for agri-food. This helped MetoMotion further improve the development of its robotic solution. After extensive trials in the Netherlands, the company will launch its tomato-harvesting robot commercially in 2022.
“MetoMotion GRoW is the first example of what the future will look like. Greenhouse robots handle routine tasks, while supervision and support are mostly carried out remotely. This is better for our planet, better for preventing greenhouse diseases, better for the overall social impact of foreign labor and, of course, more profitable for growers. The partnership with Ridder will allow us to make this cutting-edge technology available to commercial high-tech greenhouse companies around the world”
The World's First Tomato-Harvesting Robot
Since its founding in 2017, MetoMotion has been helping growers address labor shortages in horticulture. In recent years, the company developed its first robotic solution by combining existing vision and robotics technologies from other industries and adding deep learning technologies and horticultural expertise.
This has resulted in a precise, robotic solution that can now compete with human workers on price and performance. The first application of MetoMotion GRoW is a tomato-harvesting robot. The device not only detects and picks tomatoes in the greenhouse but also takes care of handling the containers.
Using GRoW can reduce harvesting costs by 50% and save 80% of labor. Future applications of the robot will include performing additional labor-intensive tasks, data collection and analytics.
“Growers need to do more with less. Labor automation is a key component of this. By adding greenhouse robotics to Ridder's product range, we lower the barrier for growers entering the age of robots and integrate the generated data with all other Ridder systems in the greenhouse environment”
Ten years ago, Ridder was actively developing intelligent drive systems. Through extensive investment in innovation and business development, the company has added many products to its portfolio.
“Growers' green ambitions will not be replaced by technology. Rather, technology will amplify them: if they currently manage 10 hectares, with the right tools and technology they will be able to manage 100 hectares. To achieve this, technology, data and artificial intelligence need to be better integrated into the greenhouse. This is what we are investing in: robotics can be a tool that helps farmers work more autonomously”
For Ridder, it is important that the MetoMotion solution be economically viable. The GRoW robot is equipped with two manipulators that pick tomatoes from both sides of the row. In the central aisle of the greenhouse, a worker will supply the device with new harvest containers and direct it to a new row. However, another important task is training gardeners and farmers to work with robots. Integrating robotics into existing workflows is a priority goal.
