The Eurecat technology centre is showcasing at the 4.0 field fair Expo AgriTech, which opens today in Málaga, new technologies and solutions for autonomous and intelligent agricultural robotics tailored to the needs of companies in the sector. These solutions address tasks such as fumigation, spraying, crop care and harvesting, with the aim of optimizing agricultural management and productivity.
“The challenges facing agriculture due to the effects of climate change, labour shortages and the need to optimize resources require innovation in real solutions that we promote together with the agricultural business ecosystem,” says the Director of Eurecat Andalusia, Verónica Ramírez del Valle.
In this context, Eurecat is presenting at AgriTech “autonomous robots developed together with companies from the ecosystem that showcase the opportunities to modernize agriculture with precision solutions available to optimize agricultural management and productivity and to complement traditional labour,” explains Business Manager for Eurecat’s Food Market, Carol Benedí.
In the digitalization of agriculture, “artificial intelligence enables the development of automation, production forecasting, early pest detection or product classification—operations that are ultimately key for data-driven decision-making, process efficiency, competitiveness and increased resilience of the agri-food sector,” notes Joan Guasch, Director of R&D&I Policies at Eurecat.
Robots for spraying, crop care and harvesting tasks
At its stand, the technology centre is showcasing an autonomous robot developed with the company Geoentec Environment Technologies for automating crop spraying and the application of plant protection products in greenhouses and in trellised vegetable crops.
The robotic solution, known as ROVAG, “incorporates advanced sensing technologies as well as navigation and automatic perception systems that allow it to operate autonomously and move both indoors and outdoors,” explains the Director of Eurecat’s Robotics and Automation Unit, Daniel Serrano.
In addition, thanks to artificial intelligence, it carries out the entire plant protection application process—from planning to adapting drop size according to plant growth and health status, and application.
Eurecat has also implemented, together with the company Enkitek, the HarvBot robot, which incorporates sensors, intelligence and artificial vision to locate fruits, assesses their ripeness, detect potential defects and carry out harvesting. The device, which has been tested on hydroponic cucumber crops (i.e. grown without soil), features a robotic arm with a specialized gripper that mimics the movements of human pickers to handle the fruit autonomously and safely.
In the field of robotics, Eurecat is also presenting a ground robot for monitoring crop status and autonomously transporting fruit over uneven terrain. It is equipped with 3D perception for environmental understanding and semantic reasoning for intelligent decision-making. This solution optimizes fleet coordination and task assignment, replanning and control by farmers through the SOMAgro platform, a multi-robot application developed with Grupo Saltó.
Printed electronics to combine photovoltaic energy and agricultural activity
In the area of sustainability and climate change mitigation, Eurecat is previewing at its stand at the Málaga Trade Fair and Congress Centre an agrivoltaic system developed within the European SYNATRA project. The system features organic, flexible and semi-transparent photovoltaic modules manufactured using printed electronics technology, incorporating materials specifically selected to ensure a balance between light absorption and agricultural activity.
Technologies for the remediation of agricultural soils
In addition, the technology centre is unveiling new developments in pioneering solutions for the remediation of agricultural soils through the use of biotechnology and omics sciences such as metagenomics, metabolomics and proteomics. These approaches enable soil health to be characterized at the microbial and molecular scale, contamination or imbalances to be identified, and natural, regenerative strategies to be proposed for restoring soil fertility and sustainability.
The application of this approach makes it possible to develop intelligent fertilization and soil regeneration strategies, and to adapt agriculture to the effects of climate change and to new environmental regulations.
AgriTech 4.0 Congress
Within the framework of the fair, Eurecat experts will also share at the AgriTech 4.0 Congress innovations in technology that are transforming the agricultural sector and shaping its future.
Daniel Serrano, Director of Eurecat’s Robotics and Automation Unit, will outline the key aspects of the current state of robotization in the Spanish agricultural sector; Carme Bosch, Head of the Soils and Groundwater Line within Eurecat’s Water, Air and Soils Unit, will present biotechnological solutions to improve soil health and their impact on agriculture; and Pol Torres, Head of AI Technologies for the agri-food sector within Eurecat’s Applied Artificial Intelligence Unit, will highlight the use of artificial intelligence for prediction and prevention in olive cultivation.
