Beltech B.V. core business within Crux Agribotics project is to automate the handling of organic products, crops and vegetables, and the data derived from the process – starting by cucumbers as a primary target market segment. This value is delivered through the combination of high-end vision, robotics and mechatronics technology, with machine learning and Big Data, providing smart and autonomous systems. The system offers them flexibility to deal with changing demand in terms of product variety and capacity. Crux Agribotics started with the aim to increase productivity within the agro-food industry in a sustainable and environmentally friendly and compatible manner. We have worked on the automation of cucumber production, with the multinational company Bayer, as our key collaborator. As a result, we have already developed a prototype of Crux Agribotics project, consisting of an autonomous robot for harvesting, quality checks and packaging cucumber high-wire cultivation, in high-tech greenhouses. Concerning the cucumber market, current circumstances such as scarce labor resources along with increased labor costs, mainly in developed countries, cucumber production is inefficient, with neither yield control nor quality, being affected by human capacities. Manual harvesting and crops handling harm growers’ business at the time of retailing, with prices fluctuate depending on production volume and crops weight/size per unit. Currently cucumber grading, sorting and packaging are done manually by human operators, or through semi-automated traditional sorters handling one type of product or class of product. However, at the end there still humans to load the sorters or to package the cucumbers. Though manual packaging allows high flexibility towards retailers’ demands, it is inefficient management of labour costs and time. Overall, current automated packaging solutions lack flexibility and cost reduction. Through Phase 2, we aim to 1) finalize design, upgrade, optimization and adaptation of the industrial target version of the machine. 2) Internal validation of final design through software simulation and functional testing for the system calibration. 3) External validation in a cucumber greenhouse. 4) CE Marking. 5) Start of the commercialization into the EU market by 2020. Through Crux Agribotics sales, Beltech B.V. is expecting to generate, by 2024, €31.7M of revenues, €21.9M of cumulative EBIDTA and ROI of 5.13.
