Robs4Crops Trials

Mechanical weeding in vineyards

Requirements and challenges

Mechanical weeding in vineyards with a tractor driver is not economically attractive (€800 per ha; 5-7 passes per year). Moreover, around seven different implements are used to achieve complete crop management: 3 tools for inter-row and 4 tools for intra-row, with 3 experienced drivers to handle the tractor/implement operation for an area of 40 ha.

How Robs4Crops approaches the challenge

The goal is to deploy and test the Ceol robot, since it is currently used for 3 passes per season and €250 per ha in Loire Valley. In this pilot, Robs4Crops will use all possible implement configurations on the Ceol robot, in order to reduce chemicals used and labor costs and to evaluate the modularity of the platform on different implements and working scenarios

Country: France

Vineyard mechanical weeding

Technology: Ceol robot, Different implements

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

R4C Mechanical weeding in vineyards 1

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

Mechanical Weed Control

High precision inter and intra row weeding of vegetables using the Ceol robot and several different mechanical weeding implements attached.

Table Grape Spraying

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

Targeted Spraying In Apple Orchards

Addressing the labour challenge of the apple sector by automating the complex task of orchard spraying.

Crop Rotation in Potato Farming

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