“Challenge Centéol 2018” is the ambitious project of AgreenCulture . It is a smart farming project, for which the French agricultural technology startup has secured the consulting and engineering company AUSY Group as its partner. At the center of this achievement is an autonomous agricultural robot: The CEOL weighs 300 kg and is equipped with high-precision GPS technology, a tank for seeds, fertilizer, or water, and crawler tracks. The “challenge” is a 50 ha maize field that the robots, sometimes three at a time, farm 100% autonomously.

No manpower has been needed on this very special agricultural land since last fall: In October 2017, a robot took soil samples to determine the necessary fertilization strategy and sowing density; the 8 km/h-fast devices have since worked the field, sown the maize, and fertilized the land. The project will be draw to an end in October 2018 when the maize is harvested. At the end of the year, Swiss company ecorobotics also plans to launch its autonomous weeding robot on the market. This 120 kg machine is solar-powered and can be configured using a smartphone.