[Disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company AgFunder is an investor in Solinftec.]
Spot-spray weed-killing robots offer a sustainable, cost-effective option for farms facing soaring input costs and labor challenges, says Solinftec, an ag robotics startup that now has just shy of 80 ‘bots in the field in North America and 100 in South America.
AgFunderNews caught up with North American COO Guilherme Guiné at the World Agri-Tech summit in San Francisco earlier this week to discuss the sweet spot for autonomous sprayers, and the importance of keeping things as simple as possible for farmers. If you can operate a Roomba to vacuum your house, he says, you can operate a Solix ‘bot to spray your field.
“The main challenge that we are facing now is how we can make this technology affordable for a small farm,” says Guiné.
ROI in one or two seasons
Spot spraying solutions “are great,” says Guiné. But most still require an operator, whereas Solinftec’s Solix solar-powered spraying robots can operate autonomously 24/7.
“Now we’re launching a docking station in combination with the robot, so it can refuel itself with chemicals, so you can be truly autonomous for the whole season.”
The business model is still evolving, he says. “Right now we are selling the units to farmers and ag retailers, and they typically get a return on investment in one or two seasons. But moving forward, we could change the business model, and we are still figuring out the best way to do that.
“But so far, we are seeing good results with the farmers we are talking with. What we are also seeing with our partners is that when they are spraying fewer chemicals on the crop, they are seeing better yields. They’re saving money [from using fewer inputs and from labor savings] and increasing their profit because they are producing more in the same acreage.”
If you can use a Roomba, you can use a Solix robot
The sweet spot for the tech is farms of close to 500 acres, he said. “So far, we are working with corn, beans, wheat, cotton, and sugar cane, but row crops are our main focus.”
For the farmer, he says, “The user experience should be as simple as possible. The example that I use is a Roomba [vacuum cleaning robot] in your house. If you have a Roomba, you just scan your house, and after that, it knows where to go. It’s the same with Solix.”
Stepping back to look at the ag robotics space, he said, “A lot of companies are popping up and appearing with other solutions. I think this is great because there are a lot of challenges and it’s good to have more companies in the space. But the unique thing that we have with Solix is the [accompanying digital] platform.”
For example, Solix’s permanent presence in the field enables it to monitor the phenological development of plants during their growth, recognize flaws, vegetative development, and other important indicators for an overall view of the plot and farms, he says. With a field survey goal, centimeter by centimeter, Solix can generate data and information for production estimates or decision-making.
“As for the robot itself, he says, “We don’t really care if it’s a sprayer, a spreader, a planting machine. We made a sprayer as a first step, but moving forward, we’ll have different versions. The beauty is that the platform will be the same.
“In robotics, the big challenge is how we can automate tasks for the farmer but also make something that can produce more for them. If you are just reducing chemicals, this is a great thing, but if you are not producing more bushels per acre, I don’t think that will be the end solution.
“We start with the herbicides, but moving forward, we can apply biologicals, we can apply different fertilizers… and reduce the time that you have with people walking around the field.”
Almost 80 units in the US, 100 in South America
Currently, Solinftec has “just shy of 80 units running in the US, plus 100 units running in South America,” says Guiné. “We are doing hard work in the row crop space but down the road, we may look at specialty crops.”
The main challenge Solinftec is facing now is “how we can make this technology affordable for a small farm,” he says. “If you look at the average sized farm here in the US, we’re talking about 200 acres. And this is what we are trying to do next, create something that is affordable for that kind of farmer.”
