2022 SPECIALTY CROP AUTOMATION REPORT
>> Spotlight Interview
Growth path? In November 2022, Verdant Robotics closed its $46.5 million Series A to scale its advanced robotic technology and accelerate broad adoption of its regenerative and precision ag solutions. Verdant’s commercial RaaS is in high demand, actively servicing a wide variety of specialty crops on thousands of acres with orders pending for tens of thousands of additional acres.
Offering? Verdant Robotics offers an autonomous multi-crop platform for weeding and spraying. The machine autonomously sprays herbicides and microfertilizers and removes weeds via laser using machine learning and computer vision while using a human driver. Verdants’ offering is compatible with apples, tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, carrots, garlic and onions. Business model? The company operates with a robotics as a service business model, and also provides their own human labor to drive and operate the machine. Pricing is dependent on the characteristics of the field, but discounts of 10-20% are typically offered relative to human costs. Impact? Verdant Robotics’ weeding offering is less expensive than human weeding, and thus provides growers with ROI on Day 1. By using targeting spraying, Verdants’ offering reduces use of sprayed materials by 96%. Harvest platform: Harvest platforms offer automated assistance to the harvesting activity, without fully automating the activity. They typically enable increased safety due to the level of support they provide, resulting in increased employee satisfaction as well as increased efficiency gains. The technology is typically less expensive than automated harvesting systems, making it an attractive option for growers who are wary of making large capital investments. Burro is a key player in the segment and is considered an innovation leader in harvest assist platforms, offering
Website? https://www.verdantrobotics.com/ Contact details? info@verdantrobotics.com
Picture of Verdant Robotics’ large-scale weeding fleet
Figure 48: Verdant Robotics – Interview spotlight
plug-and-play collaborative robots for outdoor, heavy-weight logistical support (see Figure 49). To date, the company has more than 200 robots in service and supplies around 20 customers, mostly located in California. Its platform is crop agnostic and can be deployed in all settings where people need to carry heavyweight produce over long distances. Burro also collaborates with multiple other technology companies, including harvest automation and pollination systems, that use their platform for mobility.
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