Job Wageningen UR (University & Research centre) - PhD student Development of a robotic system for sweet pepper production

· Within this project the PhD student focuses on the development of a robotic system for sweet pepper production (mainly harvesting) in protected cultivation systems.
· System requirements, functions and working principles must be defined. Concepts must be developed and evaluated. After building and testing of individual modules the system must be integrated and tested both in laboratory as well as in commercial greenhouses.
· Generic concepts that can be added to this platform to perform other functions like planting, attaching plant to supporting wires, pruning, monitoring yield and quality, and local crop protection will be investigated as well · The emphasis of the work of the PhD student will be mainly on computer vision, sensor data interpretation,algorithms and artificial intelligence and less on the mechanical aspects of the robotic system.

· MSc graduate in agricultural engineering, mechatronics, computing science (artificial intelligence and/or cognitive engineering) or other relevant study;
· High-quality knowledge in the field of computer vision and robotics, systems analysis, modelling and simulation;
· Experience with programming languages (C++, C#). Labview, Matlab, Halcon or other relevant simulation and computer vision software is an advantage;
· Excellent communication skills, proficiency in English (both oral and written);
· Willingness to travel to and to co-operate with the international project team;
· Affinity with greenhouse technology, interested in challenges of the horticultural sector; · An autonomously working creative, young researcher with good communicative skills who is open-minded and sociable.

Duration: 1 year with intention to extend to 4 years, 36 hours per week.
Gross salary: €2032,- per month in the first year, rising to €2.599, - per month in the fourth year.

· Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture is the co-ordinator of the EU funded project CROPS “Intelligent sensing and manipulation for sustainable production and harvesting of high valued crops, clever robots for crops”.
· With an average of 27%, labour costs ranks number 1 on the list of production costs in Dutch greenhouse crop production.
· The automation of the most tedious and repetitive tasks in horticultural crop production, both inside and outside greenhouses is a key issue today. However, agricultural robots are still hardly available due to the complex and often contradictory demands.
· Main objective of the overall project is to develop scientific know-how for a highly configurable, modular and clever carrier platform that includes modular parallel manipulators and “intelligent tools” (sensors, algorithms, sprayers, grippers) that can be easily installed onto the carrier and that are capable of adapting to new tasks and conditions.