Robs4Crops Trials

Mechanical Weed Control in Vegetable Production

Requirements and challenges

Traditional vegetable farms in the Loire Valley are based on bed cropping, in open field or under cold plastic greenhouse. More than 60 kinds of vegetables are grown and the pilot area requires 20 workers for an area of 70 ha to cultivate salads, lamb lettuce, leeks, baby-leaf salad, carrots, and in one year, several (3-5) crops are produced at the same place. As a result, many kinds of tasks must be managed on different vegetables, and many tools must be available at any time, while several passes of tractors damage the soil and cause severe compaction. That is the reason why, most often, old tractors are used with always the same tool: tools are not uncoupled.

How Robs4Crops approaches the challenge

The second testing site will be established to focus on high precision inter and intra row weeding of vegetables using the Ceol robot and several different mechanical weeding implements attached. Emphasis will be given on navigation and weeding along the rows, in order to ensure that Ceol does not step over the plants and weeding knives make accurate distinction between vegetables and weeds.

 

Country: France

Vegetables mechanical weeding

Technology: Ceol robot, Mechanical weeding implements

Partners: Terrena, Agreenculture, Agricultural University of Athens, Fundacio Eurecat, University of Copenhagen

R4C Mechanical Weed Control in Vegetable Production

Via trials in four countries – the Netherlands, France, Spain and Greece — Robs4Cros hopes to create a robotic farming solution consisting of three elements: smart implements, autonomous vehicles, and the farming controller.

Towards large-scale implementation of robotics & automation in European farming

Table Grape Spraying

Direct comparison of both retrofit tractor and Ceol robot, under the same scenarios. 

Targeted Spraying In Apple Orchards

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Crop Rotation in Potato Farming

Low weight Robot and camera-based weeder to innovate potato farming and minimize damage to soil structure.

Mechanical weeding in vineyards

With the help of Ceol robot, Robs4Crops will reduce chemical use and labor costs, and evaluate the modularity of the platform.