World, meet ROYA - The IPM scouting and Yield Forecasting robot for greenhouses

(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday - Nov 9, 2022) Kingsville, Ontario – 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, ROYA, 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.

ROYA 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.”

See ROYA in action here!

The ROYA 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 and later across the globe. 

 

To get more information about ROYA and learn the qualification and eligibility process, please contact ecoation:

Dr. Saber Miresmailli

+1 (866) 899-5491 Ext. 101

saber@ecoation.com

www.ecoation.com

Joris Bogaerts

+32 (0) 3 361 28 22

joris@bogaertsgl.com

www.bogaertsgl.com

About ecoation:

Established in 2010, ecoation is an award-winning Canadian AgTech Service provider with a forecasting platform that provides actionable insights on IPM, crop balance, and growth as well as yield and production metrics which helps growers multiply their success while having more control and visibility into their operations. With customers all over the world, ecoation is one of the fastest growing AgTech Companies in the Controlled Environment Agriculture sector.

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