French agricultural robot developer Naïo Technologies has built a second prototype of its BlueBob, an autonomous vehicle developed to mechanically hoe sugar beet crops.
Delivered to German seed breeder Strube D&S, BlueBob 2.0, an autonomous and fully-electric six-row version, is equipped with Naïo navigation technology and Strube/Fraunhofer sugar beet detection techniques.
Using a combination of camera-guided inter-row attachments and in-row powered tools, the machine mechanically tackles weeds from the first two leaves stage to canopy closure.
“The weeding principle is based on distinguishing between weeds and beet in real time and at a very early stage,” comments Christian Hügel, head of seed quality research at Strube. “This is an essential advantage for eliminating weeds quickly and to avoid competition between weeds and beet.”
BlueBob 2.0 uses RTK GPS to autonomously follows the in-field route of the drill, finding the rows, recognising the end of a bout, and turning independently into the next one on the headland. Covering around 0.5ha/hr, a fully charged battery set allows it to run continuously for eight hours.
Based in Toulouse, Naïo Technologies was founded in 2011 by robotic engineers Aymeric Barthes and Gaëtan Séverac. The current robotic weeding portfolio includes the Oz and Dino for vegetables and Ted for vineyards. The company reckons to have delivered nearly 150 machines worldwide so far.
