‘It’s fantastic’: Dutch farmers rely on this €185,000 robot to keep their tulips in bloom
Theo works weekdays, weekends and nights checking Dutch tulip fields for sick flowers. The boxy robot - named after a retired employee at the WAM Pennings farm near the Dutch North Sea coast - is a new high-tech weapon in the battle to root out disease from the bulb fields as they erupt into a riot of springtime colour. On a windy spring morning, the robot trundles 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 a...