Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ALAV (Autonomous Lightweight Agricultural Vehicle)
Período documentado: 2022-03-01 hasta 2023-08-31
Farming is rough. A farmer is both a slave to his occupation and yet has freedom to do what he wants, in a way that he prefers. These days, people find happiness in a lavish and comfortable life, lived in urbanised areas while enjoying job security and the absence of hard physical labour. For this reason young people do not want to become farmers anymore: resulting in almost 60% of all farmers throughout Europe being over the age of 55. This combined with recent trends such as rising populations, increasing demand for food and labour shortage during seasonal peaks, the future for Europe’s agricultural sector is at risk. To cope with these challenges and increase productivity, farmers increasingly use heavier machines and resource-intensive farming systems, causing massive negative environmental impact such as soil compaction. In this project AgXeed presents the Autonomous Lightweight Agricultural Vehicle (ALAV). As a single unit or as part of a fleet, the ALAV is able to execute all operations throughout the cultivation cycle, completely independent and in a safe and efficient way due to robotics precision. Additionally, the ALAV stays under the irreversible soil compaction threshold, eliminating further degradation of the soil in comparison with conventional increasingly heavy machinery, leading to healthier crops and higher yields. The ALAV comes with a cloud based operating portal, is designed as a platform and can be connected with conventional implements already in use by farmers. In being autonomous, the ALAV eliminates labour shortages during seasonal peaks and generates tremendous savings for farmers in terms of labour and operational costs. The ALAV takes the first steps in shifting the essence of being a farmer from executing tasks manually to the monitoring and management of his agricultural business.
WP1: Build 2 demonstration machines
• Based on the feedback as received during the “AgXperience” Tour in 2021 the demonstration machine of the Track version has been completed in Q2, 2022.
• In addition the 2nd demonstration machine of the 4-wheel version of the ALAV platform has been completed in Q3, 2022.
• Both machines have been extensively tested and demonstrated at farms in a.o. NL, DE, FR & UK and went to the leading ag shows Cereals UK and Innovagri FR where our solutions have generated a lot of attention.
• The general feedback is extremely positive during the demonstrations. There is consensus that autonomy is not something of the far future, but it is here today and working. We can proudly announce that we are building 1 machine per week and ALAV’s are already in use at farms in Europe, Canada as well as Australia.
WP2: Functioning “Live” Portal
• Adding functionality to the Path Planning Tool in the Portal is now a continuous process. During the AgXperience Tour and now also with the first machines at customers we have the opportunity to validate usage of the Portal at a multitude of farms with a large variety of fields in various countries in Europe, as well in Australia and Canada.
• We have a 100% score on generating field plans – in case any issues in planning occurred we have been able to resolve these to a satisfactory level.
• Several features have been added over the past period: collection of implement data, including in-field objects, block routing, "as worked" coverage, headland first/last and forward only.
• The obstacle detection system is continuously tested in all types of conditions, including during the night. Additional sensoric systems are currently tested including obstacle recognition systems.
WP3: Demonstration results
• Based on the AgXperience Tour we have realized the first commercial traction; we have signed over 50 contracts for machines to date.
• These first machines have been sold directly by AgXeed’s team. As regional support and knowledge is required we are partnering up with local distribution entities. At this moment we have contracts with over 20 companies. The focus is on signing up partners in the main European markets, but we are also represented already in Australia, Canada and recently the USA.
• Testing will also be carried out by research institutions like the WUR (NL) to monitor soil compaction and impact on biodiversity – as these require samples over longer periods we decided to take this out of the scope of this project.
WP4: Project Management
• During the past period partnerships have been focused both on the commercial side as well as on the development and suppliers side. We have presented combinations of our ALAV platform with implements that are optimized for autonomous operation.
• During the next phase of the company we will continue to set up distribution and development contracts with regional partners in key markets to sell and service the machines.
• Based on the feedback as received during the “AgXperience” Tour in 2021 the demonstration machine of the Track version has been completed in Q2, 2022.
• In addition the 2nd demonstration machine of the 4-wheel version of the ALAV platform has been completed in Q3, 2022.
• Both machines have been extensively tested and demonstrated at farms in a.o. NL, DE, FR & UK and went to the leading ag shows Cereals UK and Innovagri FR where our solutions have generated a lot of attention.
• The general feedback is extremely positive during the demonstrations. There is consensus that autonomy is not something of the far future, but it is here today and working. We can proudly announce that we are building 1 machine per week and ALAV’s are already in use at farms in Europe, Canada as well as Australia.
WP2: Functioning “Live” Portal
• Adding functionality to the Path Planning Tool in the Portal is now a continuous process. During the AgXperience Tour and now also with the first machines at customers we have the opportunity to validate usage of the Portal at a multitude of farms with a large variety of fields in various countries in Europe, as well in Australia and Canada.
• We have a 100% score on generating field plans – in case any issues in planning occurred we have been able to resolve these to a satisfactory level.
• Several features have been added over the past period: collection of implement data, including in-field objects, block routing, "as worked" coverage, headland first/last and forward only.
• The obstacle detection system is continuously tested in all types of conditions, including during the night. Additional sensoric systems are currently tested including obstacle recognition systems.
WP3: Demonstration results
• Based on the AgXperience Tour we have realized the first commercial traction; we have signed over 50 contracts for machines to date.
• These first machines have been sold directly by AgXeed’s team. As regional support and knowledge is required we are partnering up with local distribution entities. At this moment we have contracts with over 20 companies. The focus is on signing up partners in the main European markets, but we are also represented already in Australia, Canada and recently the USA.
• Testing will also be carried out by research institutions like the WUR (NL) to monitor soil compaction and impact on biodiversity – as these require samples over longer periods we decided to take this out of the scope of this project.
WP4: Project Management
• During the past period partnerships have been focused both on the commercial side as well as on the development and suppliers side. We have presented combinations of our ALAV platform with implements that are optimized for autonomous operation.
• During the next phase of the company we will continue to set up distribution and development contracts with regional partners in key markets to sell and service the machines.
• One of the main issues farmers are facing today is the availability of labour. The travel restrictions due to COVID have only intensified this problem, in exceptional cases even leading to crops left rotting on the field due to the lack of available labour for harvest. This is one of the main decisive factors farmers are approaching us; our solutions will give them confidence that tasks will be executed, and in a more accurate and precise way any of the operators can do. We heard stories of farmers that want to expand their farm but wouldn’t because they could find the personnel that would be required to do so.
• Another trend that we see that is intensified by COVID is the dependency on foreign food supply and the extensive travel that comes with certain crops. There is a clear awareness of locally produced food.
• With our solutions farmers do get the resources and flexibility to expand and grow locally. The path planning tool allows complicated crop plans like strip tillage where multiple crops are grown next to eachother increasing biodiversity and local availability of a broader range of crops.
• The wealth of data that is collected with the machines – and we consider the farmer to be the owner of this data - will give the farmers a very powerful position all the way at the start of the food supply chain. The farmers can proof where the products were grown, how much fertilizer and chemicals were used, perform growth & yield predictions providing them with a powerful position towards distributors and retailers down the food supply chain.
• But most importantly by taking the driver out of the equation farmers can start to change the principles with which we cultivate our soils today. There is no more need for massive machines doing combined operations because only 1 operator is available to do the job. We can go back to splitting certain tasks which is better for the soil and the crops, and will lead to higher yields. We need to consider our soil as a non-renewable resource and stop the current trend of “bigger is better” that will inevitably lead to erosion and ultimately desertification. With our solutions we can accomplish that and based on the conversations we have with farmers they do realize that this change is now at their doorstep. It is great to see that our solutions start to make them wonder why they do things the way do now.
• Another trend that we see that is intensified by COVID is the dependency on foreign food supply and the extensive travel that comes with certain crops. There is a clear awareness of locally produced food.
• With our solutions farmers do get the resources and flexibility to expand and grow locally. The path planning tool allows complicated crop plans like strip tillage where multiple crops are grown next to eachother increasing biodiversity and local availability of a broader range of crops.
• The wealth of data that is collected with the machines – and we consider the farmer to be the owner of this data - will give the farmers a very powerful position all the way at the start of the food supply chain. The farmers can proof where the products were grown, how much fertilizer and chemicals were used, perform growth & yield predictions providing them with a powerful position towards distributors and retailers down the food supply chain.
• But most importantly by taking the driver out of the equation farmers can start to change the principles with which we cultivate our soils today. There is no more need for massive machines doing combined operations because only 1 operator is available to do the job. We can go back to splitting certain tasks which is better for the soil and the crops, and will lead to higher yields. We need to consider our soil as a non-renewable resource and stop the current trend of “bigger is better” that will inevitably lead to erosion and ultimately desertification. With our solutions we can accomplish that and based on the conversations we have with farmers they do realize that this change is now at their doorstep. It is great to see that our solutions start to make them wonder why they do things the way do now.