A vineyard somewhere in the Champagne region in France; as if by magic, the four-wheeled robot rolls along the rows of vines systematically, makes a turn at the end of each line and starts working on the next row. "Bakus" is the name of this autonomously driving vehicle, developed and manufactured by the relatively young company Vitibot in the French city of Reims. Founder Cédric Bache is not only an engineer, but also the son of a winemaker. Thus he precisely knows the challenges which modern viticulture must face. Enough reason for him to found the company Vitibot in 2016. The goal: coming up with solutions together with a team of 50 people to automatise most of the work in the vineyards. The result after two years of development is now the autonomously driving robot "Bakus," ready for series production. It is a moving "Tooling platform."

Jocelyn Vermillet, Senior Manager for mechanics at Vitibot: "The machine meets the requirements of our customers, the winemakers, who want to automatise all tasks in the vineyard. We produce everything ourselves, from body to chassis, drive, controller on to machining tools. With this stand-alone solution, the winemaker can act a lot more flexibly and can take care of tasks automatically (which used to be carried out by hand and be very time-consuming) during the day as well as by night." Various tools are attached to the vehicle which take care of different tasks on the field like loosening earth, cutting leaves and weeds and spraying the plants. "Bakus is capable of precisely spraying the plants at the right spot with exactly the right dose. We can thereby cut the amount of pesticides by half. This does not only save money but also preserves the environment," says Jocelyn Vermillet.

Powerful performance

The electrically powered robot takes its energy from batteries with a capacity of 80 kWh. This enables 10 hours of autonomous work, before the battery needs to be charged again for two hours. Its all-wheel drive and the four big, individually driven and steered wheels provide for maximum agility even on rough terrain, while at the same time they enable turning maneuvers where space is restricted. Even steep slopes with a 45% gradient pose no problem to the Bakus.

Cédric Bache is the founder and Managing Director of Vitibot: "This machine is special in the way that it’s not just electrically powered, but also drives completely autonomously. It is placed by the winemaker at a corner of the vineyard and runs through the entire field on its own. Bakus follows the vine rows and as soon as it reaches the end, it lifts its tools and starts working on the next row."

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