In 2002, Rob Baan established Koppert Cress in the southern Holland town of Monster. Rob’s mission was to grow delicious healthy food that would be inspired by and inspiring to chefs around the world. He had a sprawling estate of the art greenhouse built to grow the finest cresses, or microgreens, to make a plant-based diet something customers become excited about. The cresses grown in Rob’s greenhouse can be found in restaurants and shops all over the world. One of the cornerstones of Rob’s beliefs in growing food, is that it needs to be done sustainably in a way that ensures clean eating.

To grow healthy sustainable greens, Rob has always embraced cutting edge technology like LED lighting systems, underground heat storage, geothermal energy, and solar power. In August of 2019, Koppert entered into an agreement with indoor drone solutions company, PATS, to tackle common greenhouse pests: moths. Some insects like bees are crucial to the growth of plants, but moths can wipe out entire crops in a matter of days. The tender green leaves on newly growing crops are ideal food sources for moth caterpillars. One moth can lay up to 1,000 eggs that hatch into hungry, crop-devouring caterpillars. More and more growers are looking for alternate ways to combat crop pests that do not involve the spraying of harmful chemicals.

For Koppert, using any type of chemical pest control is unacceptable. “I have unique products where you don’t get certification to spray chemicals and I don’t want it,” Rob said. This is where PATS steps in. After being annoyed by the buzzing of mosquitoes while trying to sleep, brothers Bram and Sjoerd Tijmons with Kevin van Hecke came up with an idea to use drones to eliminate annoying mosquitoes. In 2018, they founded PATS in Delft, Holland. PATS is a bat-inspired micro drone that hunts down specified insects before they can lay eggs on crops.

At first, the trio was excited to build a drone system that could be used in homes to attack mosquitoes and other flying insects. However, they kept running into the problem that the drones were too noisy to be used in a private residence. A friend suggested they reach out to the horticulture market, specifically indoor greenhouses. After meeting with Rob and some of his senior staff, PATS was invited to set up a trial in one of the Koppert greenhouses. Koppert was already using some defensive pest management systems like predatory insects, pheromone traps, and zapping lights. These systems work, but only to a small degree while being time consuming and expensive. The PATS system is set up to work autonomously while minimizing costs and time wasted.

The PATS drone is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and is safe to use around people. The drone itself is simple, but it is fast and has a camera and GPS to locate moths while avoiding obstacles. “A system consists of a camera system, a drone, and a charging platform,” Kevin explained. “These three things work together to fight the moths. The camera detects the moth, the system calculates the flight and then the aim is for the drone to fly autonomously against the moth to disable it.” PATS strategically place 10 charging/landing platforms throughout Koppert’s greenhouse. Around the perimeter of the greenhouse, they set up the base stations that constantly scan the environment for flying insects. The base station can be programmed to register certain species, such as moths. If a bee is flying through the environment, the base station will not alert the drone. If a moth flies through the greenhouse, the base station instantly alerts the drone and sends coordinates to the moth’s location. The drone lifts off from the charging station, zooms to the moth, decimates it with its rotors, returns, and lands on the charging station. The drone and base station never turn off, they are always ready to intercept a moth before it can cause any damage.

On January 28, 2020, Koppert and PATS had a chance to share their sustainable indoor pest controlling system with United States Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue. Accompanied by Pete Hoekstra, United States Ambassador to the Netherlands, Secretary Perdue was on a mission to discuss agricultural advancements with the European Commission. Though Secretary Perdue did not say whether he would be influencing American growers to begin using drone systems to combat pests, he did Tweet, “Here at @koppertcress they are embracing technology in more than just their production approach. Fascinating to hear how they are using @PatsDrones micro-drones to detect & eliminate invasive pests in their greenhouses.” While PATS and Koppert still understand that the system is not yet perfect, they know that they are moving in the right direction. Mr. Baan believes that with some fine tuning and a fleet of around 50 drones, the PATS system will be a valuable step in responsible pest management.