Dutch Tech Students Tackle Greenhouse Drones
September 20, 2016 
A group of Dutch students involved in aeronautical engineering were recently recognized for a greenhouse drone project, taking home a trophy and a check for 2,000 Euros from We Inholland, a program from Inholland University.
For their project, Dutch students Bram Sanders, Chris Ramsey, Lucien Fesselet, and Will Simmonds developed a drone to check plants in greenhouses for diseases.
“Our drone has only one camera and can check the entire greenhouse in no time,” Fesselet says. Together with the other students, Fesselet invented the drone after they found that producers had great difficulty monitoring the health of their plants. “Five to 25% of the plants are lost through disease, bacteria, fungi, damage, and other causes,” he says.
“We are very pleased that we now have the opportunity to take our project further,” Simmonds says. “There are a lot of costs associated with a drone. I hope that this inspires our team to keep going.”
Simmonds says he has big plans for the future and wants to develop more of these engineering projects together with his teammates.
According to Fesselet, the Inholland University of Applied Sciences played a major role in the development of the drone, and the team has become more close-knit as a result.
“Inholland not only offered us financial support, but also brought us into contact with growers at the start of our project,” Fesselet says.
We Inholland is a program that gives students the opportunity to work on independent technology projects that are considered innovative, healthy, sustainable, and creative. The projects must be multidisciplinary and should indicate an added value for the region. The students involved must work together with a company, institution, or municipality. This year, 11 projects competed for the coveted award, with the winning project receiving support in various fields to keep it moving further.
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