“We’re quite out of the way,” Simone Keijzer warned us when we made the appointment for this interview. She wasn’t exaggerating when I drove down the gardeners’ lane in Maasdijk to Gearbox’s headquarters. Something wonderful is growing at this hidden location: R&D professionals and technicians are working on smart solutions for the horticultural sector.
The company was founded by Simone Keijzer and Johan Kreeft. The two combine their expertise in user experience (Simone) and robotics (Johan) in Gearbox. "We both come from Westland and wondered: why do we see smart solutions everywhere, but not in Westland horticulture? That's how Gearbox started. What you used to be able to put together yourself as a handy grower to make your work easier, you now need help with, thanks to all the new technologies. Growers sometimes literally arrive at our doorstep with a crate full of stuff, asking if we can do something with it. We turn it into a successful end product," Simone explains. In two and a half years, Gearbox has grown to 12 employees. "We have also started to develop our own products that can be widely used in the market."
Inspector
Robotics is very welcome at a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to find good staff and staff turnover is high. Especially in places where you have to inspect and sort tens of thousands of tomatoes every day, it is nice when a robot can take over that work. This also ensures consistent quality control. Gearbox therefore introduced GearVision: a digital inspector that is already being used successfully to assess and sort cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, bulbs and peppers.
“Our goal is to further develop it for other products. From string beans to young plants.”
Gearbox recently received an investment of €300,000 to adapt GearVision for more crops and products and roll it out to the international market.
LEGO
Each crop has different requirements, which sometimes complicates robotics, even though the questions are similar. "We work here using the LEGO method: with different hardware and software building blocks, we assemble the solution based on the customer's requirements. The first two or three building blocks are customised, and we supplement the rest with standard building blocks," explains Simone. In general, a robot can be delivered within six months. "But this 'new colleague' actually has to work for a whole season to learn everything. He regularly receives further training at our Academy."
The most important thing is that the software and equipment are user-friendly. "It should be as easy as operating your smartphone. Accessible and as language-free as possible. We are creating the colleagues of the future: our robots are easy to work with, they occasionally need to attend courses to learn new things, and they are very flexible," says Simone.
Charts
Another application developed by Gearbox itself is GearSense. This set of cameras and sensors is placed in the greenhouse to assess the crop and its growth. "In the past, growers would simply walk into the greenhouse, but the distances are getting bigger and bigger. What's more, every colleague has a slightly different opinion. GearSense records a huge set of data, which you can then convert into graphs and analyses," says Simone. "We help growers and breeders to take the measurements they need and to understand the graphs. Ultimately, you can also link this back to LetsGrow to adjust the cultivation. In this way, we are making horticulture a little smarter together."
Circular economy
In the field of robotics, Simone and Johan work with their team on customer-specific solutions. "Unfortunately, these assignments are confidential. Our customers don't want their competitors to run off with the same idea," says Simone. She also cannot reveal which growers are already working with GearSense or GearVision. "Everyone is very cautious about sharing that information. I think it's a matter of time and that in a year or two, everyone will be very open about it."
Gearbox receives questions from all types of cultivation. "We are working on harvesting solutions for both cut flowers and vegetable cultivation," Simone explains. "The trend is towards quality and sorting becoming increasingly important. Growers prefer not to throw anything away. A cucumber that is not perfect in the eyes of the consumer because it has some damage will not be sold. But it can be used in soup or tzatziki. It just takes too much time to sort it by hand. We can automate that. This brings the circular economy closer."
