An AI robot is spotting sick tulips to slow the spread of disease through Dutch bulb fields

Theo the robot works weekdays, weekends and nights and never complains about a sore spine despite performing hour upon hour of what for a regular farmworker would be backbreaking work checking Dutch tulip fields for sick flowers in Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands. The boxy robot, named after a former employee at the WAM Pennings flower 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. — AP

NOORDWIJKERHOUT, Netherlands: Theo works weekdays, weekends and nights and never complains about a sore spine despite performing hour upon hour of what, for a regular farm hand, would be backbreaking labour 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 color.