Harvesting cucumbers in a greenhouse may seem simple, but the crop is anything but consistent. Think of leaves that cause occlusion, the white crop wire that you absolutely must not cut, heating pipes or greenhouse structures you have to avoid, or cucumbers located behind the main stem that still need to be harvested.

It’s a real challenge to achieve a 100% score – and a unique opportunity to gain experience with AI and robotics, boost your resume, and connect directly with a network of leading companies.

The challenge will take place in the new robotics compartment in the WUR greenhouses in Bleiswijk. In the compartment, cucumbers are grown on a high-wire trellis, which means the plants will reach heights of up to 3.3 meters.

Each team will be assigned its own row of crops for both the detection and harvesting challenges. To ensure a level playing field, there will also be one row of crops with fake produce. This means teams will have to harvest both real and fake cucumbers!

Would you like to get involved? Please get in touch with the contact person at your technical university to join a team:

The winner will receive a trophy, an interview, a post on the website, and promotion on LinkedIn. Of course, participating is more important than winning, so all participants will receive a certificate of participation.

Kick-off in Bleiswijk: team videos, explanation of the growing sections and rules, a visit to the polytunnels and a visit to high-wire cucumber growers.

Two days of testing per team in the greenhouse with the mock crop, in demo mode.

Two consecutive days of testing per team in the fully grown crop.

The challenge! Detection & harvesting, judging and announcement of the winners. Round off with a BBQ.