Live in harmony with Mother Earth restoring ecosystems. We shift to a more sustainable economy that works for both people and the #planet. Discover @AGC_Robotics accelerated by the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab.

@JA, in charge of agronomic development at AgreenCulture, kindly shared with us how CEOL's Robot contributes to the well being of the biodiversity.

Why biodiversity is so important for humans being?

Biodiversity describes the variety of life in the different ecosystems on our planet. We, as the human race are an intrinsic part of this biodiversity. Every ecosystem has its own balance and as humans our job is to interfere as little as possible in the balance of this ecosystem. It is very arrogant to think that as Humans we are going to save the planet. The planet and therefore nature will always find its balance. It is our existence as part of this biodiversity that is at stake everyday. Covid is the best example.

Can you tell us about AgreenCulture’s mission? What inspires you?

On the short term, it is to bring comfort to the biggest number of farmers out there. On the long term, we work to modernize agriculture, increase its productivity while preserving our ecosystems.

The website describes more than a decade of experience in positioning and satellite guidance – how did you decide to apply your expertise to agriculture? Do any members of the team have a background in or connection to farming?

Our founder is an aeronautical engineer and a farmer’s son and he made of AgreenCulture a very good example of a successful marriage between disciplines and about that, I mean GNSS, aeronautics and agriculture. Our team regroups more than 40 PhD’s engineers and technicians. The majority of my colleagues come from farming, and myself included. 

It is completely useless to develop a product for any customer without including them in the multiple development processes. Validating every step and feature of the product by a group of representative testers is a necessity. This is why we developed since the beginning, partnerships with our potential future customers, this is our way to ensure we are on the good track when it comes to product development.

Can you describe the key breakthroughs/differentiators of your solutions?

Reaching the maximum of farmers with or solutions meant that we had to develop a secure, simple and ergonomic solution at an affordable price. When it comes to security our Asil B positioning solution guarantees the safety of the operator, the robot and their environment. Farmers have had enough with complicated over-dimensioned solutions. At AgreenCulture we focus on developing a friendly user solution that perfectly meets the need of our users.

At what stage are you in your development?

Our solutions are reaching the end of their R&D phase. At this stage, we use the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and the different applications everyday to improve our products and our working methods and habits. This phase allows us to enlarge our groups of testers in order to have the largest feedback possible. 10 of our robots have been sold to different testers at a special price.

Can you tell us, in relatively simple terms, how Agreenculture’s solutions make agriculture more sustainable? How Agreenculture solution positively impact the ecosystem and contribute to harmonize our life with nature?

Well , it is very simple, for the same activity let’s take weeding for example, our robot is using 10 times less fuel and have a 5 times better soil compaction factor comparing to a classic tractor preserving the soil. We use less raw materials than any other agricultural engine or machine and we constantly work on optimizing our choice of raw materials. Using artificial intelligence and different sensors, our robots are able to adapt chemicals and fertilizers to the need of the plant. Our technology reduces inputs, and respects the ecosystem. CEOL Robot  is an autonomous solution that needs very little human intervention (10% of the time spent today driving and maintaining tractors).  If well used a robot will reduce a farms expenses drastically especially when it comes to fuel, inputs and of course human labor on activities with very little added value.

Please tell us about the relationship between humans and your solutions. How do they work together to improve efficiency and productivity? What do you see as the role of farmers in the future of agriculture?

The robots are working side by side with humans to improve the working conditions on the farm and replace the farmer on low value activities such as mechanical weeding for example. We mustn’t see robots as competitors but instead as assistants who will do what we ask them to do. If the farmer takes care of his robot, his robot will take care of him and everybody will be happy.

CATIA ​​​​​​​agriculture ​​​​​​​robotic ​​​​​​​Nature ​​​​​​​environment ​​​​​​​