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 & 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 | 2 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. 6 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
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.
Febuary 25th 2021
Over January we worked with ECE's FabLab thanks to Yelane Tara Chermak, a 1st year student in engineering program - Tara is both nice, effective, and tenacious, allowing her to go through January lockdowns uncertainties without impact on the production of some 120 3D printed parts for the prototype. A good leap forward, leaving now the reworking for adjustment of these parts, the printing of the rest, and the manufacturing of the parts of the torque stage on the path to the hardware achievement of the robot.
November 19th 2020
Inria Startup Studio that host and support us organizes its first anniversary event on Thursday 26th! The 3rd part starting at 17:00 is public, and many of the startups in the studio will pitch there - in French, and we are grouped by thematic in videocalls "rooms".
It is a free event, upon registration! Find us room 3 :)
September 11th 2020
Yet another fruitful visit to the domain of a partner, with a selected land lot to deploy our first prototype representative of the strength of the technology: no dependance to the ground. With a mean slope of 50%, these land lots are impossible to work with current mechanized equipment.
The slope actually represent yet another challenge: any soil work (or support for a machine) lead to soil erosion. Hence once again the need for tools without support from the soil, and plant-targeted work.
June 17th 2020
A fruitful visit to the domain of a partner, with a selection of land lots to deploy our first prototype, along with a redefinition of the first tasks to be handled 'natively' by the robot.
Beside the obvious advantage of our robot for uphill land lots and total absence soil compaction or dependance, our attention was brought to the costs: nowadays, per-unit-of-surface costs can make aging land lots no longer profitable, while a per-(selected) plant costs ensure profitability.
The domain, fully organic and forward-thinking, has a lot more to teach us!
April 22nd 2020
Our CEO shared his vision on cable-driven robots for agriculture in a webinar organised by INNO’VIN, a French innovation cluster dedicated to grape farming and the wine sector. “One advantage of cablebots is that farmers will no longer be dependent on the weather to work their fields”, explained Laurent Blanchet. His words were greeted with an article in Vitisphere magazine, a specialised magazine (in French).
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 12 months support will give us the tools to develop the best version of our large-scale AgRobot.
Lets get in touch. Send us a message:
Paris, FR
Email: contact [AT] greenfarm-robotics [DOT] com