AI in Horticulture: automating manual labour with Vision AI robots

Robovision partnered with ISO Horti Innovators to develop the world’s first fully automated machine that recognises, picks and pots plant cuttings for horticulture. The Robovision AI-powered robots work non-stop and make horticultural automation scalable: a leap forward for ISO and its customers.

AI and new challenges in horticulture

ISO automates labour-intensive tasks for the horticultural industry, engineering machinery that pots plants, cuts flowers or cultivates trees. They have seen the industry change in the last decade. With a new focus on sustainability, quality and efficiency, jobs in horticulture and agriculture have become more technical—and the people much harder to find. AI-powered automation can be the answer to that problem.

Automating labor-intensive tasks with AI

Florensis is a prominent grower in The Netherlands, growing over 4000 different species of cut plants. All their picking, sorting and cutting used to be done manually. But with good labor being scarce, Florensis turned to ISO for automation solutions. Robovision helped ISO develop a fully automated cutting and planting machine using deep learning and Vision AI. With planting speeds of up to 2,800 cuttings per hour, the machine helps Florensis reduce labor costs, produce more efficiently and increase quality. 

Horticulture automation made scalable

By leveraging the extensive product knowledge of planters and feeding that to deep-learning mechanisms, Florensis now has a head start on its competitors. The ISO Cutting Planter can handle diverse crops and processes. The planters at Florensis can operate it by themselves and train it for new species or varieties. They can also manage how deep cuttings are planted, where the cuttings are grabbed or which trays or pots they want to work with. The number of machines can easily be expanded.

A strategic partner for AI in horticulture

While the switch to AI vision machines has put Florensis at the forefront of the horticulture industry, it also meant a leap forward to ISO group. “Outsourcing the machine vision and deep learning part gives us room to focus on our core activities. For us as machine builders, the partnership with Robovision is a strategic one”, says Raymond Van Den Berg, International Sales Manager at ISO Group.