Theodore tirelessly toils during weekdays, weekends, and evenings without ever complaining about a painful back, even though he spends countless hours performing physically demanding tasks in the Dutch tulip fields, a job that would normally be considered grueling for a typical farm worker.

The mechanized robot, called in honor of a former worker at the WAM Pennings farm located near the shores of the Dutch North Sea, is a modernized tool in the fight against illness in the flower fields as they burst into a stunning array of spring hues.

On a windy spring morning, the robot trundled Tuesday along rows of yellow and red “goudstuk” tulips, checking each plant and, when necessary, killing diseased bulbs to prevent the spread of the tulip-breaking virus. The dead bulbs are removed from healthy ones in a sorting warehouse after they have been harvested.

The virus impedes the growth and development of plants, resulting in smaller and weaker flowers. It also has a negative impact on the bulb, ultimately preventing it from producing flowers.

To combat the virus, 45 robots are currently monitoring tulip fields throughout the Netherlands as the temperature rises and the agricultural season reaches its peak, transforming the bulbs into breathtaking displays of color that attract visitors from across the globe.

Previously, this task was performed by people known as “sickness spotters,” according to Allan Visser, a tulip farmer for three generations, who is now in his second growing season using the robot.

Visser stated on Tuesday that for the price of the robot, one could purchase a high-end sports car, according to the robot’s creators the cost of the robot is 185,000 euros, equivalent to $200,000.

“I personally favor having the robot rather than a sports car because the car cannot remove the sick tulips from our field. Although it may be costly, there are fewer and fewer individuals who possess the ability to properly identify the sick tulips,” he remarked.

The vehicle moves much slower compared to a sports car. It slowly traverses through fields at a speed of one kilometer per hour (0.6 mph) while searching for the distinct red stripes that appear on leaves of diseased flowers.

Visser described the process as “precision agriculture,” where cameras capture multiple images of tulips to determine if they are diseased based on its AI model.

He stated that the robot has been taught to identify and handle this.

According to Erik de Jong from H2L Robotics, their artificial intelligence technology enables the robots to detect diseased flowers while their highly accurate GPS system allows them to precisely locate and eradicate the affected flowers.

The core of the machine lies in the information that we feed into the AI model. This knowledge is sourced from tulip farmers, and we integrate it into our AI model,” he explained.

The farmer at WAM Pennings farm, Theo van der Voort, who spent over 50 years detecting diseased plants and eventually retired, is amazed.

He exclaimed, “It’s amazing! It has the same visual capability as I do.”

___

Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence

Source: wral.com