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.

“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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The revolutionary GUSS made its debut to the world in 2017 and immediately received awards and rave reviews for its precision and efficiency giving farmers, growers, and orchard spraying businesses the ability to lower labor and overhead costs as well as increase precision, efficiency, safety, and profitability with this autonomous machine. Customers throughout the world asked for this technologically advanced machine in a smaller version to make autonomous spraying in vineyards and high-density orchards possible.

GUSS Automation jumped into action to design, develop and debut mini GUSS. This progressive machine uses a combination of GPS, LiDAR and the latest technology to autonomously roll down each row spraying with precision and efficiency. A single operator can monitor up to eight mini GUSS machines from a vehicle, office or home while the nurse truck supplies the spray product when mini GUSS signals for a refill.

“Since debuting GUSS in 2017, the number one request we consistently received was to build a smaller version to fit in vineyards and other high-density permanent crops. Mini GUSS was designed to fit these tight spacings, while still providing the high performance our customers have come to expect from a GUSS sprayer,”

said Gary Thompson, COO of GUSS Automation.

Mini GUSS is 6-feet wide, 5-foot 4-inches tall, and 20-feet long, has a 400-gallon tank and a 3.8-liter Cummins diesel engine to tackle the most strenuous terrain. GUSS Automation offers two-tower options for mini GUSS: a vineyard tower for two-row applications and an apple tower for high-density trellised orchards.

GUSS was developed out of necessity. Orchard spraying business owner, Dave Crinklaw dealt with the shortage of agricultural labor in his own business and he found himself looking for answers and the solution came in the form of a driverless orchard sprayer. After developing and introducing a fleet of GUSS sprayers into his own custom application business, Crinklaw decided to make GUSS sprayers available for any grower to own. GUSS Automation just recently announced the delivery of their 100^th GUSS sprayer.

Mini GUSS is the next evolution of this technology, allowing many more crops to be sprayed autonomously. Its compact design makes it the right fit for vineyards, high-density orchards, berries, hops, and other high-value crops with a tight row spacing. Mini GUSS will be making its debut in the spring of 2022.

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Aceinna earned recognition in the Product, Technology & Services Innovation (Product Introduction) category for the new OpenRTK33L guidance module for robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles.

The Aceinna OpenRTK330L is a low cost, state-of-the-art, high-performance triple-band RTK/GNSS receiver with built-in triple redundant inertial sensors. Designed to replace the expensive and bulky precision RTK/INS systems used in today’s autonomous systems, this compact navigation solution meets the challenging performance, reliability and cost requirements of the automotive market along with the needs of robot, drone, construction and agriculture systems.

According to Dan Kara, VP Robotics & Intelligent Systems at WTWH Media:

“Each year since 2012, Robotics Business Review, the leading source of analysis, opinion and research focused on the global robotics sector, has produced the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards (RBR50). The awards recognize and highlight critical robotics innovations and are also an important indicator of the robotics sector growth.  The selection committee received numerous submissions for the 2020 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Awards. Winners were determined following a rigorous vetting and review process.”

Aceinna’s OpenRTK330L integrates a triple-band RTK/GNSS receiver with redundant inertial sensor arrays to provide cm-level accuracy, enhanced reliability, and superior performance during GNSS outages.

The OpenRTK330L utilizes a very precise 2 Degree/Hour IMU to offer ten to thirty seconds of high accuracy localization during full GNSS denial. This enables autonomous system developers to safely deliver highly accurate localization and position capabilities in their vehicles at prices that meet their budgets. OpenRTK330L‘s embedded Ethernet interface allows easy and direct connection to GNSS correction networks around the world.  OpenRTK330L‘s CAN bus interface allows simple integration into existing vehicle architectures.

Source: Aceinna

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