Naïo Delivers Autonomous Weeding Robots
By Stephanie Metzinger W hile driving down the road through the iconic and broccoli line the fields; farmers survey the grounds, meticulously checking on the crops, soil and equipment; and farmworkers span the fields, rapidly preparing for planting and harvesting. But then a sleek, green and white robot with tractor-like wheels moves swimmingly up and down the rows. The machine, affectionately called “Dino” by inventor Naïo Technologies, is on a search-and-destroy mission. Its target? Weeds. Dino’s range of mechanical weeding tools—including spiked harrows and rotary hoes—are GPS and camera guided, which allows the machine to kill weeds swiftly and precisely while eliminating the need for pesticides or plastic crop covers. “Our weeding robots respect both the environment and man,” said Simon Belin, the U.S. technical referent for Naïo Technologies. “We provide a solution to assist farmers in their daily work, reduce the strenuous physical workload and limit the use of chemical weed killers.” Dino is among three robots designed by Naïo that weed, hoe and monitor crops completely autonomously. Equipped with a standard navigation system that can be implemented on any off-road robot, these mechanical weeders can be used for a wide variety of crop types on any sized farm. Meet the Robots Salinas fog, all looks normal in Monterey County at first glance. Endless rows of lettuce, strawberries, Naïo is based in France and was founded in 2011 by two robotic engineers, Aymeric Barthes and Gaëtan Séverac, who believed that “robotics is a perfect way to feed humanity in the coming years with sustainable agriculture.” Though the company has only been up and running for less than a decade, it has already deployed 150 robots to tackle weeding issues across Europe and North America. Today, the company is focusing on its international expansion into the United States and has set roots in
Salinas, California, at the Western Growers Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT). “Seeing an opportunity for growers in California and Arizona to benefit from our robots, Naïo sent me here in February 2019 to set up shop with a hot desk at the Western Growers’ Center,” said Belin. “It was just me and one robot. Now, we have a team of four and operate five robots.” The five machines include three vegetable robots (called Dino) and two weeding robots (called Oz). Belin expects to have Naïo’s vineyard robot (called Ted) available in the United States in September 2020. The differences between each robot are as follows: • OZ: ideal for small-scale vegetable farms such as nurseries and gardens Oz has two operation modes which include effortlessly hoeing between rows and plants and towing a trailer or seat to save time on harvest, trellising and debudding. First, farmers select
Oz is designed for small-scale vegetable farms
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JULY | AUGUST 2020
Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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