Modular
Simple design
Robust and ambitious
Resistant to perturbations
We make a robot for you - but as we're developping it, here are our values.
Agriculture-driven
We listened, and studied agriculture's history, to bring simple, reliable hardware to the farmers' service.
Our team is mission-driven - we have farmers' hardships at heart and we want to bring them the tools of the 21st century. We are not pushing some highly complex technology - for instance, wheeled robots that put Tesla cars to shame.
First-rate competencies
Because Europe's finest has nothing to envy to famous institutes world-wide, we work with the best institutes in software (Inria), and agriculture (INRAE), both based in France.
We enlisted the help of the best researchers in their domains, and we are setting up partnerships with research institutes all across Europe.
Support
We are dedicated to the project, and we will put all our efforts in bringing the best experience and service to our trusted forerunners - and our clients.
Size adapted to your tasks.
In development - subject to (a lot of) modifications
Key features of the solution
| Type of robot | Semi-permanent installation | |
| Main differences of usage | ||
| No pedoclimate dependancy | ||
| Slopes from 0° to well above 20° | ||
| Automatic tasks, time- and weather-triggered | ||
| Virtually no limit on interrow | ||
| Electric & and lower power than tractors | ||
| Future features | Plant-wise care | |
For development purposes mostly
| Surface serviced | 0.36 ha |
| Height of masts | 5 m |
| Tooling mass | 75 kg |
| Tension max in cables | About 500 kg |
| Task speed | Est. 5 cm/s |
Adapted for viticulture
| Surface serviced | 2.5 ha |
| Height of masts | 20 m |
| Tooling mass | 500 kg |
| Tension max in cables | About 1.5 tons |
| Task speed | Est. 1.5 cm/s |
For the average French vineyard
| Surface serviced | 25 ha |
| Height of masts | 20 m |
| Tooling mass | 500 kg |
| Tension max in cables | About 5 tons |
| Task speed | Est. 5 cm/s |
We're making it happen
CEO & Founder
Benedict O’Donnell has a PhD in physics and experience in entrepreneurship, having founded and run an energy consultancy in 2013, a technical communications firm in 2015 and an international NGO in 2016. He has coordinated dozens of business and charity partners across Europe and the Middle East to sustainability and organic farming.
CTO & Founder
Laurent Blanchet completed his PhD on Cable-Driven Parallel Robots and guaranteed computation with J-P Merlet at Inria. He has hands-on expertise in designing, industrialising, manufacturing and assembling robots, having worked at the Swiss Space Center on space robots for orbital debris removal, at XtreeE on 3D printing of concrete, and having headed robotic design and workshop of the startup Wandercraft, bringing the first dynamic self-stable lower limbs exoskeleton medical device to the market.
Directeur de Recherche Inria (eq. Full Professor)
Jean-Pierre is one of the worldwide authority figures on parallel robots in general, and cable-driven ones in particular. With research interests ranging from Mechanism theory, parallel manipulator and Cable-driven parallel robots, to assistance robotics, he has a lot of experience of bringing ideas to world.
Shortlist of distinctions: IEEE Fellowship, Executive Council of IFTOMM membership and Award of Merits, Artifical Intelligence chair at the Côte d'Azur Interdisciplinary Institutes of Artificial Intelligence and doctor honoris causae University Innsbruck
Research team leader (eq. Professor)
As if a unique expertise on calibration of cable-driven parallel robots was not quite an accomplishment already, David now leads the Auctus (Augmented hUman by CoboT for a Use in Symbiosis) team - part of the design of collaborative robotics. The stakes of assisting the gesture of an industrial worker are important for our society because it leads to preserving the human and its expertise within a production unit, while improving its productivity. He's also the president of the region robotics advisoral committee.
Directeur de Recherche INRAE (eq. Full Professor)
Roland has dedicated his research in robotics to the agriculure sector. He develops autonomous or semi-autonomous robotic systems in order to offer new solutions for sustainability and agriculture. He received various prizes recognising the high value of his works to the Ag-sector, among which, the Francis Sevila Young Professional prize at EurAgEng 2018, and in 2019 he received the Sedimaster trophee - from industrials. He is also the president of the scientific board of the RobAgri association that federates the ressources for ag-robotics.
March 6th 2020
We have been selected for the Inria Startup Studio after the jury reviewed our project and our pitch. They found the project ambitious and inline with both Inria's sustainability efforts and software excellence.
This 6 to 12 months support will give us the tools to develop the best version of our large-scale AgRobot.