Introducing: ISO Horti Innovators joins the Club of 100

As a supplier of automation processes in greenhouse horticulture, ISO Horti Innovators wants to be at the ‘vanguard of innovation’, says CTO Henk-Jan van Ooijen. “That was the main reason for us to join the Club of 100. We had collaborated with WUR before, for example to develop an application for taking leaf samples for DNA analysis. Through the Club of 100, we will now also be working more intensively with other actors in the supply chain. This will keep us abreast of the latest developments in the market and enable us to join forces. We now have direct lines of communication to the places where fundamental development is taking place.”

Automation solutions

ISO Horti Innovators focuses on the automation of labour-intensive processes in horticulture, particularly for indoor horticulture, says Van Ooijen. “There’s increasing demand for automation in greenhouse horticulture, partly due to labour becoming scarcer and more expensive. We develop machines to perform the work that is currently mostly done by hand. We do this for three groups: the flower sector, the food sector and for carbon & fibre. Most of our machines are focused on the front end of cultivation, meaning the planting, grading and grafting of seedlings. But we’re increasingly moving towards tools that can be used in greenhouses, such as harvest robots.”

New opportunities and insights

Van Ooijen gives an example of what collaboration within the Club of 100 ISO can lead to. “Many of our machines and systems have cameras and sensors built into them. If the developers and manufacturers of these products come up with new innovations, we’ll naturally want to know about them as soon as possible. Because then we’ll be able to use those innovations in our machines. We’re also hoping for interesting insights from scientists. The best thing would be if WUR raised issues that we ourselves had not thought about at all.”

Translating technology into practice

Van Ooijen stresses that ISO itself also has something to offer the Club of 100. “Our strength lies in translating technology into practical solutions. That practical approach is what we’ll be bringing to the Club of 100. For example, we can provide input when it comes to the capabilities and limitations of a robot gripper, such as in the way that it grabs a plant. But we can also help think about everything you need for good image processing (vision technology). That input can help deliver practical solutions for growers. Automation is developing at a very rapid pace right now. We want to support the sector in this.”

Colleagues rather than competitors

According to Van Ooijen, there’s no sense of competition between members of the Club of 100. “Greenhouse horticulture has always been a very collaborative sector. Everyone knows what everyone else is up to. So we feel like colleagues rather than competitors. Of course we're not going to share our algorithms, but we can show what we’re doing. And that works both ways. If an agriculturalist develops a new type of tomato, we have to respond to it. In the end, that’s how we all help each other. So I’m really looking forward to collaborating as part of the Club of 100.”