Wireless sensors for horticulture: 'Talking apples and pears'

Communicate with apples, pears, tomatoes and cucumbers? Joris Tenhagen of Venlo-based Pharox Logistics Intelligence is doing it: "With smart sensors we make things that can't talk, talk."

The Venlo-based company Pharox develops wireless sensors for horticulture. "With our sensors we let the products talk. We can follow the entire process: from the little plant in the greenhouse until the product is on the supermarket shelf. In this way we make the entire chain digital," explains Joris Tenhagen.

The sensors can measure almost anything and at the right moment. Based on this data, Pharox creates management information that allows an entrepreneur to optimize his production process and thus save costs. He can also share this data with other parties in the chain, so that they too can adjust their processes. "It ultimately saves the entrepreneur - and the chain - money," says Tenhagen.

Batteries

Through a sensor in the crate or container with fresh products, the entrepreneur can follow his product remotely and in real time. Tenhagen: "We have invested a lot of time, energy and money in developing a sensor that consumes little energy. The sensors can be set to transmit data at any time: from every second to once a day. At an interval of 10 minutes, our batteries, a kind of AAA battery, last two years. But there are also cases where we achieve 8 to 10 years."

Brightlands Campus

Pharox will soon move to Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo. "We function best in an ecosystem like Brightlands, where business, education, knowledge institutions and government work together. For example, for the development of our sensor platform we put students and senior programmers to work together. That way you get the the best of both worlds: students know the modern technology, the programmers know how to program robustly and we get a modern and scalable platform."

Tenhagen, as a newcomer to campus, expects even more of these kinds of smart combinations. The company is already setting up a Smart Packaging Lab together with another company housed on the Venlo campus and there are ideas for developing a Data Scientist learning line in cooperation with knowledge institutions.

Source: Brightlands