In North West Europe the horticultural production of fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs is a successful and important component of the economy. Current horticultural practices still rely on intense pesticide use. One important disease in a variety of crops is mildew where chemical control also results in spray residues on the harvested product. However, research showed that UV-C light has the potential to be a sustainable alternative for the chemical treatments. The treatment with UV-C light has to be optimized and automated before it can be used in the horticulture. During this project, Octinion and its partners try to achieve this goal by developing the UV robot. We develop an autonomous vehicle (based on the Dribble technology) for the treatment of strawberries, lettuce, basil, tomatoes and cucumber.

This project is possible thanks to the subsidies of the European Union’s Interreg program. More information about the project can be found at the website: www.nweurope.eu/UV-ROBOT

Project number: NWE621

Total budget ERDF: €1,35 million

Total project budget: €2,26 million