AGCO Corporation announced its exhibit on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on March 21-22, as part of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers’ (AEM) Celebration of Modern Agriculture event.

Agriculture equipment manufacturers and AEM partners in the Washington D.C. ag community will showcase how “innovation enables sustainability” in the nation’s capital. The event will take place outside USDA headquarters between the Smithsonian Museums and will feature America’s farmers, ranchers, and agriculture innovators on the cutting-edge of science and technology.

“AEM is pleased to provide a forum for showcasing these fascinating displays of the innovations that are enabling modern agriculture to sustainably provide for a growing world, as it will serve as an opportunity to help educate policymakers on the sustainability of today’s producers,”

said AEM Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs Nick Tindall.

On display will be innovations in such product categories as autonomous robot concepts, combines, applicators, windrowers, data management, in-field conservation practices, creative chemistry, tractors big and small, and much more. All the exhibits will feature the advancements that drive American agriculture’s long history of producing more while shrinking its environmental footprint.

“‘Ag on the Mall’ is a great opportunity to showcase how AGCO is helping farmers develop more productive, efficient, and sustainable practices to feed a rapidly growing world. Visitors will see revolutionary products that have won awards for engineering excellence, such as the Fendt Rogator 900 Series Applicator and Massey Ferguson 8S Series Tractor. And we’re very excited to demonstrate our Project Xaver Planting Robot concept, which represents the industry’s most cutting-edge autonomous technology as AGCO leans into the future of farming.”

said Robert Crain, AGCO SVP of Customer Experience and AEM chair.

“Bringing the ag community together for National Ag Day to tell this important story couldn’t happen at a more critical time, as USDA is in the process of developing its Climate-Smart Agriculture & Forestry Partnership Program and environmental sustainability continues to be hotly debated in Congress and the media. Highlighting how innovation enables sustainability will be vital to ensuring policies allow farmers and ranchers to produce and innovators to innovate.”

said Tindall.

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Agricultural software and applications are becoming more commonplace as they provide unprecedented information around operations and processes. However, there is no single application that captures all of the data a farmer needs, and the information one farm might depend on to make certain decisions is not always the same for another. To address this growing industry issue of data fragmentation, Sway AI and Trilogy Networks are entering a partnership to consolidate information that will augment decision-making throughout the entire production process.

Using RCI Partner Veea’s edge wireless technology and Trilogy Networks’ end-to-end digital agriculture platform for optimized farming, Sway AI will provide AI applications that act on farm-specific data. Data from multiple sources and sensors, such as drones, robotics, local and historical data, will be combined to provide holistic insights for the nation’s farmers.

“Even though more and more farmers are utilizing agricultural software and solutions, if you ask any farmer what applications they use, they’ll most likely have a half dozen or more disparate apps to manage their farms. The sheer thought of the different technologies and applications a farmer has to rely on can be overwhelming, creates a barrier to entry, and also discourages sustained use. As the newest partner of the RCI, we’ll be able to give farmers using Sway AI unified application actionable data and comprehensive insights for precision farming.”

said Jitender Arora, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Sway AI.

Trilogy Networks launched the RCI in 2020 with the purpose to deploy a unified, distributed cloud covering an area of 1.5 million square miles of rural America. The RCI is rapidly gaining momentum as more Network Providers and Edge Innovation Partners across the nation join the initiative.

“The agriculture industry is ripe to undergo a digital transformation, delivering enormous productivity and economic benefit. AgTech made simple – is the key – Trilogy’s FarmGrid is the answer. A digital agriculture platform, simplifying connectivity challenges, delivering and supporting AgTech applications on a single platform allows the grower to see and utilize the data being gathered by a variety of IoT devices. Sway AI and their AI platform applications put the power of the data in the grower’s hands – allowing him to augment his decision-making capabilities with truly actionable data.”

said Nancy Shemwell, COO Trilogy Networks.

“Sway AI’s approach to democratizing AI for all is helping to further the RCI mission. Partnering with an edge cloud leader such as Trilogy Networks presents an incredible opportunity to empower America’s two million farms with AI. Through our AI applications, we hope to revolutionize the agricultural industry and also help with critical matters such as climate change and food shortages.”

said Amir Atai, CEO & Co-Founder of Sway AI.

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To help ensure the success of this first-time event, FIRA partnered with Gabriel Youtsey, Chief Innovation Officer at University of California, Agriculture, and Natural Resources, and Walt Duflock, Vice President of Innovation at Western Growers. Youtsey and Duflock, who are working to provide “boots on the ground” support for the forthcoming three-day conference, see great potential in spotlighting agriculture robotics and automation in a place where it’s sorely needed.

“We really wanted to bring a FIRA event to the US because the US market for specialty crop AgTech startups is the first or second market to enter so it makes perfect sense to have this event right in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. FIRA USA organizes the entire specialty crop community – educators, commercialization folks, startup companies, and large and small growers—and puts the entire event focus on specialty crop automation for three days,”

says Duflock.

The specialty crop piece of the equation is particularly important because it is an industry segment that has much to gain from ag robotics and automation. Specialty crops, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture defines as “fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits and horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture,” tend to be more labor-intensive to produce and pick, and require more sophisticated technological solutions.

Duflock and Western Growers are working to advance the pace of innovation in this sector through the Global Harvest Automation Initiative. One of the initiative’s action items is to automate 50 percent of fresh specialty crop harvest production in the next 10 years.

For his part, Youtsey is focused on attaining similar goals by ensuring the event addresses the agriculture industry’s most pressing topics in a substantive, no-nonsense way. FIRA USA is built to be a place for developing real-world solutions.

“I firmly believe we should always put agtech startups on stage with a grower that knows their product, unless it’s a fundraising pitch or in demo day. Engaging the grower in the conversation helps the conversation get real and makes the presentation more relevant for grower audiences that want to get the grower and startup perspective on the solution. Farmers can see the holes and recognize the gaps in the technology, and those things get called out with grace. It also gives the startup a chance to address those concerns in a real-world context,”

Youtsey says.

To keep the event focused on actionable outcomes, FIRA USA is structured to maximize opportunities for networking, learning, and collaboration. Each of the three days has a theme. There is a research-and-development day, technology day, and demonstration day. The event will begin with a keynote that centers on the future of California agriculture, common industry challenges, and the need for automation. This sets the stage for the remainder of the event’s programming to address solutions.

“On the R&D day, we’re going to bring a lot of the scientists and students together. There are a lot of new ag technologists in universities around the country that are winning some of the new artificial intelligence grants for ag automation. We want to use this event as an opportunity to bring them together face-to-face in Fresno and really set their priorities. We want to get them focused on solving some pain points that are still problematic and developing,”

Youtsey says.

“The technology day would all be focused on growers, equipment manufacturers, and investors working on commercializing and scaling the technologies discussed on day one. Then, the third day will be a demo day, where we see current technologies operating,”

Youtsey continues.

In the panel discussions, breakout sessions, and roundtables throughout the event, the participants will build on several big-picture themes: understanding specific specialty crops, introducing different levels of automation and smart technologies, optimizing mechanization, prioritizing value for growers of all sizes, addressing climate-smart objectives, determining appropriate ownership and maintenance models, and more.

Another big draw will be the in-depth look at the Global Harvest Automation Report, which dives into the state of harvest automation technology today. The report also names the startups that are doing the work to move the needle faster and most effectively based on crop type, giving growers and investors an inside look at where to potentially spend their dollars.

Combined with the other event programming, Youtsey and Duflock agree that FIRA USA will be an information-packed event for everyone.

“Attendees are going to be able to join the first ag robotics and automation event that focuses on specialty crops that we know of. It’ll have the right mix of growers, technologists, academics, and scientists in one place to really advance the ag-tech innovations a lot faster,”

Youtsey says.

Duflock agrees. In fact, he’s so sure the event will be revolutionary that he’s beginning negotiations with the weather gods ahead of time.

“I can say with certainty that October 1st through the 20th will be the only time when Western Growers roots against rain because it’ll make a sloppy mess out of our field trial day. Regardless, if you want the scoop on specialty crop innovations from the research phase in the labs to the commercialization and field trials, and you want to get all of it in three days, you’ve got to be in Fresno.”

Duflock laughs, saying that outside of this specific window, the organization hopes for rain year-round.

Source: FIRA

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The autonomous tractor serves a specific purpose: feeding the world. The global population is expected to grow from about 8 billion to nearly 10 billion people by 2050, increasing the global food demand by 50%. Furthermore, farmers must feed this growing population with less available land and skilled labor, and work through the variables inherent in farming like changing weather conditions and climate, variations in soil quality, and the presence of weeds and pests. All of these factors impact a farmer’s ability to farm during the most critical times of the year.

The autonomous tractor has six pairs of stereo cameras, which enables 360-degree obstacle detection and the calculation of distance. Images captured by the cameras are passed through a deep neural network that classifies each pixel in approximately 100 milliseconds and determines if the machine continues to move or stops, depending on if an obstacle is detected. The autonomous tractor is also continuously checking its position relative to a geofence, ensuring it is operating where it is supposed to, and is within less than an inch of accuracy.

To use the autonomous tractor, farmers only need to transport the machine to a field and configure it for autonomous operation. Using John Deere Operations Center Mobile, they can swipe from left to right to start the machine. While the machine is working the farmer can leave the field to focus on other tasks, while monitoring the machine’s status from their mobile device.

John Deere Operations Center Mobile provides access to live video, images, data, and metrics and allows a farmer to adjust speed, depth, and more. In the event of any job quality anomalies or machine health issues, farmers will be notified remotely and can make adjustments to optimize the performance of the machine.

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With 60,000 operating hours to its credit, Naïo is now looking to leverage its extensive experience with new customers for the vineyard.

“In France, TED is already at work for big brands such as Hennessy and Grands Chais de France. We have acquired a great deal of expertise on American soil with Dino: now that we have eight robots in service and over 5,000 hectares weeded, it is time for Naïo to expand its presence in the United States on the wine-growing market with TED, but also with our historical robot Oz which is about to become available throughout the United States thanks to a distribution network that is currently being deployed,”

adds Julien Laffont, Strategy and Development Manager at Naïo Technologies.

A Naïo USA office is already established with a team of 14 people

In response to a local market and to growing demands, Naïo has consolidated an office in the United States in Salinas, California.

It is a team of 14 people who work in a territory covering the whole of California, all the way down to Arizona. With Ingrid Sarlandie recently joining the team as Chief Operation Officer (COO), Naïo US reinforces its positioning:

“Naïo Technologies is the TESLA of agricultural robotics,”

says Ingrid Sarlandie.

New robots for 2022

CES 2022 will therefore mark the beginning of a year filled with new developments for Naïo Technologies.

New robots will complement its existing range of three, with the promise of a controlled, proven, and easy-to-use navigation and to its patented safety system. The team will be strengthened by new hires, in order to meet the growing demand.

The post Naïo’s Vineyard Robot TED Hits the US at CES 2022 appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

TED the vineyard robot selected at CES 2022

Naïo Technologies has been active in the United States since 2019 with Dino, its mechanical weeding robot for vegetables. The company is now taking things to the next level and CES 2022 will provide a showcase for its international opening.

“Labor issues and the need to reduce the use of pesticides are global challenges. With its autonomous agricultural robots Oz, Dino, and Ted, Naïo addresses these issues to ensure sustainable agricultural production in phase with people and the environment,”

explains Ingrid Sarlandie, COO for Naïo Technologies.

TED is participating in the global innovation show for the first time and is among the honorees for the CES Innovation Award 2022 with dozens of innovation leaders in robotics for more sustainable agriculture.

TED in “RaaS” mode for US customers as of January 2022

From January 2022 onwards, TED will be commissioned and will run demos on the RaaS – Robot as a Service – model for new customers in California. RaaS will allow wine-growers to enjoy economic benefits while quickly addressing the labor shortage they face, and it is strong market demand. With 60,000 operating hours to its credit, Naïo is now looking to leverage its extensive experience with new customers for the vineyard.

“In France, TED is already at work for big brands such as Hennessy and Grands Chais de France. We have acquired a great deal of expertise on American soil with Dino: now that we have eight robots in service and over 5,000 hectares weeded, it is time for Naïo to expand its presence in the United States on the wine-growing market with TED, but also with our historical robot Oz which is about to become available throughout the United States thanks to a distribution network that is currently being deployed,”

adds Julien Laffont, Strategy and Development Manager at Naïo Technologies.

A Naïo USA office is already well established with a team of 14 people

In response to a local market and to growing demands, Naïo has consolidated an office in the United States in Salinas, California.

Today, it is a team of 14 people who work in a territory covering the whole of California, all the way down to Arizona. With Ingrid Sarlandie recently joining the team as Chief Operation Officer (COO), Naïo US reinforces its positioning:

“Naïo Technologies is the TESLA of agricultural robotics,”

says Ingrid Sarlandie.

New robots for 2022

CES 2022 will therefore mark the beginning of a year filled with new developments for Naïo Technologies. New robots will complement its existing range of three, with the promise of a controlled, proven, and easy-to-use navigation and to its patented safety system.

The post Naïo’s Vineyard Robot TED Hits the US at CES 2022 appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

The sixth edition of the event was packed with announcements, including the presentation of new models of agricultural robots, the launch of the “AgRobotics Land” territorial brand, two awards for agricultural robotics young companies and start-ups, and two save-the-dates: the official launch of FIRA USA 2022 in October and World FIRA 2022 in December.

New models of agricultural robots at World FIRA 2021

The World FIRA is now a reference event for the announcement of new robot models by manufacturers. Thus, the company Naïo Technologies presented its brand new robot model: Orio. Intended for field crops, Orio’s main functions are seeding and hoeing.

For its part, the Danish manufacturer Agrointelli unveiled its new model Robotti LR – Long Range. Its greater autonomy and its unique engine, which uses space in the modules, for a diesel tank with a capacity of 330 liters, allow the robot to operate up to 60 hours without stopping before refueling.

As for Exxact Robotics, the French company presented its compact single-row straddle robot, Traxx, while the Rennes-based start-up Tibot Technologie presented the T-MOOV, a poultry robot with a redesigned design to meet the needs expressed by its network of more than 200 breeders who already use the Spoutnic robot.

This year, two awards were held during World FIRA.

First, the second edition of the Best Field Robot Concept 2021 (BFRC), co-organized by FIRA and Future Farming magazine announced the following winners:

• Category « Specialised » : Bale Hawk de Vermeer,
• Category « Multipurpose »: Roboter de Horsch,
• Category « Harvesting » : Eve de Ripe Robotics.

A jury of international experts selected their concepts from among the most promising robot concepts that have been covered on www.futurefarming.com in the past 12 months and those that responded to a call from FIRA and Future Farming.

At the Best Innovative Ag Robotics Startup 2021 Award, E-Terry was awarded the top prize.
The German startup was awarded for its technology, business model, market potential, and
team, among 11 startups that pitched to investors on December 7 during the World FIRA.

The new « AgRobotics Land » brand says “Bonjour” to Agricultural Robots The World FIRA 2021 was also an opportunity to present the new “AgRobotics Land” territorial brand. Inaugurated on December 7, AgRobotics Land embodies the dynamics of southeast Toulouse and its region, a center of gravity for agricultural robotics open to the French and international ecosystem. A mapping of the expertise offered by the region was presented on a dedicated stand.

About thirty agricultural robot demos

So many automated functionalities are present at World FIRA 2021. A series of workshops also provided an opportunity to take stock of the various autonomous solutions available to producers.

Livestock farming was well represented with Lely and its startups Datamole, Ilmens and
Cynomis, as well as poultry robots from Tibot and Octopus Biosafety. A workshop dedicated to harvesting and picking solutions was also a hit, with the new broccoli picking robot from Agrointelli, or the presentation of robots from Advanced. farm and Harvest CROO Robotics.

3rd Scientific Workshop by RobAgri and INRAe, in collaboration with Wageningen U&R and the University of California

For its 3rd edition, the International Scientific Workshop aims to exchange scientific
progress allowing robots to become an efficient tool for farmers.

Moderated by Roland Lenain, Director of Research at INRAE, a dozen projects were
presented in three main sessions:

• The decision of a mobile robot for adaptation to a variable context and task
• Autonomous navigation for the farm
• Interaction with farmers and acceptability of robotics

The post Agricultural Robotics: The 6th Edition of the World FIRA is Closed with Over 1,500 Participants appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

“Automation and autonomy are at the forefront of advancing the agriculture industry. The functional resilience and performance of ROS 2 paired with our OEM7 receivers speeds up integration and reduces time to market for our customers developing new equipment,”

said James Szabo, agriculture autonomy product manager.

As the integration of NovAtel’s OEM7 receiver increases in autonomy projects, algorithms for academic investigations, ride-share programs and agricultural autonomy solutions, NovAtel continues to support the growing needs of the robotics community. With the power of ROS 2, developers can create autonomous applications quicker, without the need to develop or adapt existing community drivers. Tested and supported by NovAtel and Hexagon | AutonomouStuff, the driver enables seamless access to the receiver’s GNSS and inertial capabilities so users can simultaneously utilize live, recorded and post-processed data.

“We have many users globally who have already adopted the ROS driver in unmanned operations. From tillage and viticulture operations to broadacre crop spraying. The ROS driver has shortened the transition from prototype to production, allowing users to focus on furthering their autonomous solution without the worry and complexities of third-party interfaces,”

said Eric Wuestefeld, executive vice president, agriculture.

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This pioneer of autonomous agricultural robots is already celebrating its 10 years of existence and growth. To mark this occasion, the founders look back at some key dates that have made Naïo Technologies today.

Naïo Technologies’ beginnings

Aymeric Barthes and Gaëtan Severac, both robotics engineers, decided to embark on the adventure following the first discussion with farmers in Pontoux-sur-l’Adour during the Asparagus Festival held on 1 May everyday year. Their first encounter with a producer gave them the idea of creating a robot to help him and his colleagues with their time-consuming, arduous, and repetitive tasks.

After two years of sketches and trials, in 2013 Naïo Technologies was the first company in the world to market an agricultural robot in the field, called Oz, on the farm of a couple of Occitan market gardeners in Belberaud (department 31). At the time, this little assistant was perceived as a real revolution in the agricultural domain!

The story continues

The family expanded in 2016. A new range of robots made their appearance. Alongside Oz, Naïo Technologies welcomed Dino, dedicated to the mechanical weeding in large-scale vegetable fields, and Ted, dedicated to the viticulture sector.

Among other things, the French start-up accelerated its international development between 2016 and 2019 through the establishment of a distribution network in more than 25 countries: Germany, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Canada, Hawaii, Japan, New Zealand, etc.

In 2020, Naïo Technologies conquered the United States, opening an American subsidiary in Salinas, California. With a team of 15 people now, the company offers the service provider of a robot, the famous “Robot As A Service”, which is proving highly successful.

The year 2020 also marked the launch of the second version of Ted, the robot for vineyards, and the evolution of the pioneering Oz, now fitted with new tools allowing it greater versatility and henceforth a multi-task machine.

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