ecoation and Bogaerts unveil the world's first autonomous Integrated Pest Management scouting and Yield Forecasting Robot for greenhouses.

The Biobest, ecoation and Bogaerts partnership has resulted in the world's first autonomous IPM scouting and Yield Forecasting robot for greenhouses. The Belgian-Canadian collaboration has a combined global experience of 100 years in the horticultural industry and is well-known for the highest standard of quality and function.

The autonomous robot, OTTO, is equipped with ecoation's 360 "Virtual Walk" camera, a Universal Model for object detection, 3D climate and light measurement per sqm and a patented multi-modal "Plant Health Sensor" that can flag various crop health issues at early stages and inform growers for further investigation. The robot can navigate the greenhouse autonomously and it can work during the day and night.

OTTO is a member of a suite of offerings that provides autonomous "Find & Fix" solutions for greenhouses. Bogaerts has already introduced UVc robots for disease control. The partnership will soon bring a spot-treatment sprayer solution and biological dispersal robots (T-Bot) that work seamlessly with the collaborative technology ecosystem. This ecosystem includes mobile platforms, trap scanning technology, IPM and Yield forecasting solutions, greenhouse drones, and robots for other labour-intensive tasks such as harvesting and deleafing. The ecosystem is designed in such a way that growers can easily migrate all of the existing historical data that they collected manually or through other platforms to the new ecosystem without missing valuable insights and have control over all of the greenhouse AI and robotics solutions in one place.

"Our core philosophy is to provide the best solution that addresses the needs of the industry. Quality and customer support are in our DNA and when that is mixed with innovation and forward-looking design and development, it results in a platform that can become a staple in the industry." Says Dr. Saber Miresmailli, Founder and CEO of ecoation. "To be able to offer the best solution, one needs to work with the best providers. Therefore, we chose Bogaerts and Biobest as our partners. We aspire to provide the highest level of quality and service." He continued.

"With ecoation, we have reached an important milestone. Now we have a clear and digital overview of the plant health in the greenhouse." Says Joris Bogaert, CEO of Bogaerts Greenhouse Logistics. "Bogaerts has been eagerly awaiting to interface this information with the Qii-Jet TA spray machines, allowing us to spray just the spot of the greenhouse with the right pesticide. This will save time, reduce labour costs and save on pesticides, helping to make the world more green. We are eager to install the first application in practice."

You can see OTTO in action here: https://youtu.be/vHbWfJa5mZY

The OTTO robot has been actively tested at the Canadian Horticultural Technology Center & Academy (HORTECA) and will be available to a select few greenhouses initially in Canada and Europe before being deployed across the globe.