Strube signs a partnership agreement with Naïo Technologies and Fraunhofer Institute to develop innovative agricultural robotics solutions
Söllingen, Fürth – Germany & Escalquens – France
22 April 2020
German breeder Strube D&S GmbH, European seed referent, Fraunhofer Development Center X-ray Technology EZRT and Naïo Technologies, leader in agricultural robotics solutions, announce a new partnership. Create a sustainable agriculture through innovation is the objective of this cutting-edge partnership.
Together, Strube, Fraunhofer EZRT and Naïo Technologies share the same goal: contribute to more sustainable agricultural practices aligned with the current societal, environmental and economical expectations.
This is the next step for Strube in the announced company strategy called VisionBlue. “Strube, as a responsible supplier of the sugar-beet value chain, has decided to develop progress not only in breeding but also in new methods of beet cultivation. We are convinced that precision farming and robotic will play an important role to face the challenges of tomorrow”, emphasizes Martin Reisige, managing director from Strube D&S.
By signing this partnership with Strube, Naïo Technologies shares its expertise in agricultural robotization, serving a new crop, that of sugar beet. “Based on our respected experience gained on vegetable and wine, we are delighted to use now our expertise for new type of cultures. Our cooperation with Strube will result with a robotic mechanical weeding solution for their beets’ fields”, explains Aymeric Barthes, CEO of Naïo Technologies.
The long-term cooperation between Fraunhofer EZRT and Strube has led to a successful development of a wide variety of systems for sugar beet research. “We are pleased to contribute our extensive competencies in the fields of cognitive sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) to this important and future-oriented research field,” explains Prof. Dr. Randolf Hanke, Divisional Director of Fraunhofer EZRT.
This collaboration highlights a common desire to adapt to the new weeding methods. The first outputs of this partnership will be presented in upcoming months.
Naïo Technologies
Anouck Lefebvre
Head of Communications
Naïo Technologies
235 rue de la montagne noire
31750 Escalquens
Tel: +33 6 43 06 64 90
Mail: anouck.lefebvre@naio-technologies.com
Deleplanque & Strube
Anne Roze
Communication & Marketing
Tel: +33 6 12 42 94 57
Mail: anne.roze@deleplanque.fr
Fraunhofer EZRT
Thomas Kestler
Communication
Naïo Technologies
235 rue de la montagne noire 31750 Escalquens
Tel: +49 911 58061-7611
Mail: thomas.kestler@iis.fraunhofer.de
About Naïo Technologies
Created by robotics engineers Gaëtan Séverac and Aymeric Barthes in 2011, Naïo Technologies is an Agtech company based in Toulouse which designs, manufacturers and markets agricultural robotics solutions co-built with farmers and consumers. Being people- and environmentally-friendly, these weeding robots can, in particular, compensate for the lack of an agricultural workforce, reduce the drudgery linked with some agricultural tasks and limit the need for chemical inputs. To date, nearly 150 robots are in circulation worldwide, including Oz, designed for diversified market gardeners, Dino for weeding mound-grown vegetables and Ted, for wine growing.
About Strube
Strube D&S GmbH is a leading company in the field of plant breeding, and is based in Söllingen, in the northern part of Germany. The company was established in 1877. Nowadays Strube, as part of the Group Deleplanque and with SUET as other shareholder, delivers seed for sugar beet, wheat, sunflowers, vining peas and sweetcorn to more than 30 countries. The company’s research and development departments ensure a high-performance and highly innovative range of products. Further information on the company can be found at www.strube.net
About Fraunhofer EZRT
Fraunhofer EZRT is an internationally leading research and development center in the area of non-destructive monitoring along the entire materials value chain of the product life cycle, ranging from raw materials via production towards recycling. Fraunhofer EZRT is defining and advancing the state of the art in this area, especially by applying imaging XRay and magnetic resonance techniques as well as optical inspection technologies. The research areas include sensor systems, simulation for data acquisition, image processing for data enhancement and evaluation (metadata acquisition), system development, metrology as well as applications and training.
