In April, we organised a robotics demo together with RWA Raiffeisen Ware Austria and the Langenlois Wine & Fruit Growing Centre. The highlight of the event entitled “Experience robotics up close – a look into the future of vineyard management” was a demonstration of the winegrowing robot „Slopehelper“. The aim of the demo day was to obtain feedback on the robot in order to fine-tune its further development for use in Austria.
Since hosting the Robotics Challenge, the Agro Innovation Lab has developed extensive expertise in automating technology in the field and vineyard. One aspect of this is our cooperation with PeK Automotive from Slovenia, whose “Slopehelper” was used for the first time in Austria during the robotics demo. The autonomous device is completely electrically driven and designed for a wide variety of tasks in the vineyard, including understock cultivation, maintenance and transport work. During this summer, selected winegrowers are testing the device on their farms, each for a fortnight. The results of these tests will then flow into the further development of the device. Due to the intense interest, a second demo event in eastern Lower Austria was planned for late July.
Agriculture and, in particular, organic farming are facing enormous challenges. These range from the gruelling nature of manual work to climate change, which is shortening the time windows in which one can work on crops. In future, robotics should be able to provide relief by carrying out tasks independently with compact and autonomous devices. However, these devices are often not yet fully developed for practical use. This is why we believe that it is our role to participate in the testing and further development of these new, innovative technologies.
The AIL brings innovative technology to Austria.
The AIL laid a foundation for the future of modern agricultural technology and robots in 2019 in the shape of our Robotics Challenge. This also offered us an overview of the market and we have since built a broad network of important players, innovative developers and startups. One key aspect of this, alongside our cooperation with PeK Automotive, is our sales partnership with Naïo Technologies, who have been developing autonomous field robots for almost 20 years. In addition to the recently introduced Orio implement carrier, the company’s range of products includes the Oz and Dino robots for vegetables and special crops and the Ted robot for winemaking.
Photo (from left) Claudia Mittermayr (former CEO, AIL), Christoph Metzker (Member of the RWA Executive Board), Mikhail Kostkin (CEO, PeK Automotive d.o.o.) and David Oberholzer (CEO, Lagerhaus Absdorf-Ziersdorf).