French robotics is developing surprisingly rapidly.
The Vitibot company is committed to lean farming and reducing the use of chemicals in the cultivation of grapes.Customers liked it — with funding of only three million euros, the startup is doing wellin terms of business metrics.
The team offers two modifications of its“portal” robots: Bakus P75S and Bakus P75L. They differ only in the size of the opening through which the machine passes the plants when moving, so as not to damage them. One version of Backus is suitable for narrow beds with vines, the other – under wider ones. The robots are completely electric and autonomous. They can be used to loosen the soil between rows of grapes, disperse fertilizer, kill weeds, and so on. Comes with ten different tools that can be changed depending on the type of work Bakus needs to do.
According to the developers, the cost of an hour of operation of such a machine will cost less than one euro.
The robot is already being used in various French vineyards with beautiful names.
The company was founded in 2015 as a studentfounder's project. A year later, he registered the company and put together a team. In 2017, his first robot, Hector, was already tested throughout Champagne, showing results so impressive that even the French Prime Minister noticed the project. At the same time, the team began working on the Bakus robot, which was released in the spring of 2018 at a local conference, which helped the team raise those same three million euros. Investors were mainly the famous houses of Champagne, that is, direct clients of the startup, which says a lot about the demand product. In 2020, the team continued pilot projects in Burgundy, Bordeaux and Champagne, despite the pandemic.
So the next time you drink a glass of red steak, think about those robots who may have grown grapes.
Source: Telegram channelRobotics Channel