Kind Technologies

In addition to developing the SortiPack® for beef tomatoes, (mini-)cucumbers, and sweet pointed peppers, Crux Agribotics launches a SortiPack® for chicory. The leafy vegetable which consumers can vary endlessly with in the kitchen and which, not unimportantly, contains lots of vitamins.

To efficiently weigh, sort and pack chicory in a system, Crux Agribotics developed a new SortiPack®. Typically, that process is currently done by many human hands and is prone to too much give-away weight.

SortiPack® assesses the individual chicory with computer vision and through weighing. The software algorithms create the ideal combination of the right number of products for a (flow-pack) package.

Chicory is a very fragile product. To create a sustainable system, Crux Agribotics developed a specific chicory gripper. This ensures that the chicory does not suffer any internal or external damage. The gripper is also smart. Depending on the location of the chicory and the approach of the robot, it determines whether the gripper approaches it from the left or the right. The packing of the chicory on the conveyor belt (infeed to the flowpacker) is also done in a very careful and product-friendly way.

The SortiPack® Chicory saves on labor costs, which is an increasing challenge for growers and cooperatives. Increasing labour cost and, more often, a shortage of (good) labour are becoming an increasing challenged for the industry. Besides labor savings, the SortiPack® offers the advantage of reduced give-away weight (the excess weight of chicory per package). After all, the robot picks the ideal combination of chicory from a selection of 36 products. In addition, all this data is available to the grower and he therefore knows exactly what his production was, and what is packed for which customer. This data can also be used off-line for process control analysis. Recurring customer recipes or specific packing requirements can be entered into the robot in advance via the graphical user interface.

The SortiPack® Chicory can weigh, sort and pack up to 3000 chicory per robot per hour. With an average head weight of 125 grams, this corresponds to 375 kg per hour. If more robots are used, this results in a higher capacity and vice versa.

Multiple robots can be integrated in the processing lines at growers. The chicory robot can also be used for similar crops parsnips, sweet potatoes and sweet pointed peppers.

The weighing solution that is part of the SortiPack® Chicory was developed by the Dutch Weighing Company (DWC). DWC is also the international reseller for this product line.

https://kindtechnologies.nl/crux-agribotics-launches-sortipack-chicory/

Family grower A&G van den Bosch worked closely with Crux Agribotics last year to deploy the complete robotic system, SortiPack®, for beef tomatoes. In this line, advanced Robotics, Computer Vision, Data & AI are combined to improve the grading, sorting and packing process.

Bart van den Bosch comments: ’We are very happy with the first results from this innovative robotic system. Besides significant savings in labor cost, we see that the system grades and packs our beef tomatoes much more uniform and consistently. The data derived from the system enables us to further improve and to differentiate on quality and service levels to our customers.’

A&G van den Bosch has deployed a SortiPack® Robotic system from Crux Agribotics with 7 robots handling up to 20.000 beef tomatoes and 14 sorting classes simultaneously per hour. The system handles the product much more gentle, reducing damages and extending shelf life.

In addition, the system is based on machine learning ensuring that it pro-actively provides suggestions to increase packing yields and to reduce waste.

SortiPack® grades, sorts and packs beef tomatoes must more accurately compared to traditional sorters, staffed with human labor, resulting in much lower give-away weight improving profits further.

In the attached video, Bart van den Bosch shares his experience with SortiPack® and Crux Agribotics.

‘We are very proud to have deployed SortiPack® at A&G van den Bosch, a renowned grower in beef tomatoes and always at the forefront of improving its quality levels and deploying innovative technology. The results and return of the system are beyond our expectations and we discover new possibilities together with A&G every day based on the data that our system generates. We can now record and manage the trajectory of individual tomatoes, packages and batches from its originating greenhouse row, to the designated package, to the final pallet position. In this way, we realize full track & traceability and quality assurance’ says Michel van Reenen, Sales manager at Crux Agribotics.

Crux Agribotics has sold multiple SortiPack® systems worldwide for beef tomatoes, mini-cucumbers, English cucumbers, sweet pointed peppers, chicory and is working on other crop types in parallel such as avocados and mangoes amongst others.

Crux Agribotics is a daughter company of Dutch AgTech scale-up Kind Technologies, who invests heavily in innovative Robotics, Computer Vision, Data & AI across its businesses.

‘We believe that, with these types of technologies, we can get much higher yields per square meter and minimize food waste. At the same time, growers and packing centers become less dependent on human labor and more flexible to scale-up in capacity 24/7. The real-time data and AI algorithms can optimize processes and quality control further. Besides labor cost reduction, shelf life and give-away weight optimization we get additional interest from growers for the track and tracing possibilities as well as from breeders for phenotyping’, says Richard Vialle CCO & Founder of Kind Technologies.

As the SortiPack® system is fully data based, it can assess in advance, the potential savings and optimizations for a grower. Based on simulations of historical sorting and packing data, the right robot configuration and business case is ensured for each grower’s situation.

https://kindtechnologies.nl/sortipack-beef-tomatoes-at-ag-van-den-bosch/