Students, researchers, professors and company representatives gathered to share progress and ideas at the second half-year symposium of HiPerGreen at the World Horti Center in Naaldwijk. HiPerGreen is a Raak MKB subsidised research project aiming to bring value to horticultural growers. Cock Heemskerk, head of the HiPerGreen project and lector Robotica at InHolland University of Applied Sciences, welcomed everyone and gave an overall status update. Then Lucien, Fesselet project manager at HiPerGreen, talked about the minimal viable product (MVP) to make automated detection of fusarium in Phalaenopsis (a type of orchid) possible. Three consortium partners were invited to explain what they do for HiPerGreen and what their motives for participation are: Igno Breukers (DB2-Vision, start-up of a new type of multispectral camera for Precision Agriculture), Tim Brander (head grower at Hazeu Orchids) and Tom Kearny-Mitchel (plant biology advisor at Applied Drone Innovations). Next several students summarised their team’s work, findings and failures to the audience. During the live demo Lucien unveiled one of the team’s newly-built technologies: live stream thermal images of plants. The sympoium was concluded with a brainstorm session and drink.
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The two-year education programme HiPerGreen initiated by Inholland University of Applied Sciences came to a closure on Friday 27th September 2019 at the World Horti Center in Naaldwijk. The Final symposium gave consortium partners and other guests the opportunity to learn about the HiPerGreen’s team achievements and the various outputs the programme delivered. After the welcome word of lector Robotica Cock Heemskerk, Tom KerneyMitchell, biology researcher, summarized the efforts that the team made in plant monitoring (ranging from growth monitoring and prediction, chamber testing research to delivering fusarium maps to growers). Next Lucien Fesselet, project manager at HiPerGreen and CTO of Applied Drone Innovations) took the public through the team’s technology fails, trials and successes over the two-year programme. Sheelagh Bouvier, market researcher for HiPerGreen, shortly explained that she conducted desk research, field visits in greenhouses, interviews with growers and IP research. Then partner Roy van Rosmalen from Ter Laak Orchids, explained how crucial data was in order to run large orchid greenhouses. He saw HiPerGreen’s monitoring solutions such as the drone and the rail system as the answers to current data gaps. Mauro Gallo, lector Biomimicry at InHolland, announced HiPerGreens follow up project Flapping Wings. The symposium’s final speaker was William Simmonds, CEO of Applied Drone Innovations , a spinoff startup born from the HiPerGreen programme. The symposium was concluded with a drink.
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On April 12th 2019, researchers, students and consortia gathered at the World Horti Centre for an update on the overall status of the HiPerGreen project. The day consisted of presentations from a variety of the HiPerGreen students, staff and guest speakers. There were a variety of exciting updates from the technological and biological realms of the project, as well as an insightful presentation from Deliflor’s Geert Van Geest on Deliflor and their interests in imaging of chrysanthemums. Several new pieces of technology have arisen from the HiPerGreen project. The first being a rail-based imaging system capable of traversing the greenhouse using the heating pipes commonly found in Dutch greenhouses. The drone landing dock has also taken great steps forward and finally, HiPerGreen has partnered with drone manufacture Avular, a company working on the world’s first ‘ultra-wide band’ localized indoor drone. From a biological standpoint significant progress has been made regarding long-term plant monitoring with a focus on reducing fusarium occurrence in the crop. Students are working in climate chambers to model the symptoms of fusarium infection in orchids. Students are also working at Deliflor using the railsystem to measure uniformity in chrysanthemum test crops. Research with the multispectral camera continued and the team hopes to integrate the imaging into mass plant monitoring. The sympoium was concluded with a drink.
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