The Eurecat technology centre is showcasing, starting today at the Agrobiotech Innovation Forum in Lleida, autonomous agricultural robots that carry out spraying, fumigation, care and crop harvesting through the integration of technologies such as artificial intelligence, intelligent perception, decision-making algorithms and autonomous navigation.
The automation of critical field tasks helps advance towards advanced precision agriculture and “provides concrete solutions to the challenges posed to the agricultural sector by the effects of climate change, labour shortages and the need to optimize resources and improve productivity,” says Carol Benedí, Business Development Manager for the Food Market at Eurecat.
In this regard, Eurecat stands out for its “ability to integrate multiple differentiating technologies to address real needs, accelerate innovation and transform knowledge into proven, scalable solutions with a direct impact on companies’ competitiveness and on increasing the resilience of the agri-food sector,” notes Daniel Serrano, Director of Robotics and Automation at Eurecat.
Robotics to optimize field management and improve productivity
In this regard, Eurecat demonstrates at the Agrobiotech Innovation Forum the operation of an autonomous robot developed with the company GeoEntec Environment Technologies for the automation of crop spraying the application of plant protection products in greenhouses and in trellised vegetable crops.
The solution, called ROVAG, is a modular, multifunctional robotic platform for greenhouse agriculture that incorporates advanced sensing technologies and autonomous navigation and perception, enabling it to operate autonomously and move both indoors and outdoors.
In addition, being equipped with artificial intelligence, it carries out the entire plant protection product application process, from planning to adapting droplet size according to plant growth and health status, as well as its application. At the same time, this technology enables crop yield prediction and the early detection of phytosanitary problems.
In the words of Carlos Rizzo, Head of Mobile Robotics at Eurecat, “ROVAG, in collaboration with GeoEntec, is an example of how Eurecat works alongside the business community to transfer technologies such as the combination of robotics and artificial intelligence into real, co-designed solutions adapted to field needs, validated together with producers and ready to scale.”
“Project of the Year” award for the ROVAG solution
Thanks to this autonomous robotic platform, whose development involved Eurecat as the main developer and technology integrator, the company GeoEntec Environment Technologies recently won the “Project of the Year” award at the Night of Robotics organized by the College of Industrial Engineers of Catalonia.
Meanwhile, at its stand Eurecat is also showcasing the HarvBot robot, implemented together with the company Enkitek, which incorporates sensors, intelligence and machine vision to locate and harvest fruit, assess ripeness and detect potential defects. Tested in soilless, hydroponic cucumber crops, the device features a robotic arm equipped with a specialized gripper to handle fruit autonomously and safely.
In addition, Eurecat is presenting a ground robot that enables crop monitoring and the autonomous transport of fruit on uneven terrain, equipped with 3D perception for environmental understanding and semantic reasoning for intelligent decision-making.
This solution is managed through the SOMAgro platform, a multi-robot application developed together with Grupo Saltó for fleet coordination and for farmers to assign and control tasks.
A new agrivoltaic system
At its stand, Eurecat is previewing an agrivoltaic system implemented within the European SYNATRA project, featuring organic, flexible and semi-transparent photovoltaic modules manufactured using printed electronics technology, incorporating materials specifically selected to ensure a balance between light absorption and plant growth in agricultural activity.
The solar cells in this solution, in the field of sustainability and climate change mitigation, are made of organic materials, which give them properties of flexibility, lightness and greater recyclability compared to conventional ones.
Regarding bioeconomy and decarbonization, Eurecat highlights the circularity to convert waste and by-products into new value streams, the introduction of energy vectors such as renewable hydrogen and new carbon pathways to keep it circulating, in order to bring efficiency and sustainability to the agricultural industry.
Strategies for agricultural soil health
In addition, the technology centre is previewing pioneering solutions for the remediation of agricultural soil through the use of biotechnology and omics sciences such as metagenomics, metabolomics and proteomics, aimed at characterizing soil health at the microbial and molecular scale, identifying contamination or imbalances, and proposing natural and regenerative strategies to restore soil fertility.
These developments pave the way for new strategies in intelligent fertilization and soil regeneration that help agriculture adapt to the effects of climate change and environmental regulations.
Furthermore, within the framework of the innovation forum, several Eurecat experts are sharing key insights into the transformation of the agricultural sector through innovation in technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, decarbonization, water regeneration, the circular economy and insect farming.
