Solinftec, a global leader in artificial intelligence solutions and sustainable agricultural practices, announced that its Solix Sprayer Robot is now commercially available to farmers, cooperatives and ag-retailers, and will be on farms around the country this month.
The Brazilian company hosted an open house Friday with government representatives, customers, partners and ag companies at its local facility at 7450 C.R. 1125N, New Richmond.
In addition to Solinftec’s existing Solix Scouting Robot, the newer Solix Sprayer is designed to detect and spray weeds.
This past December, in partnership with Wabash Heartland Innovation Network and Still Waters Manufacturing, Solinftec announced the expansion of its manufacturing capacity in the United States with the opening of its robotics plant in New Richmond.
The collaboration and efforts of the companies make robotic technology more accessible to American producers, leading to a significant reduction in herbicide use and promoting sustainable agriculture.
“This partnership represents a significant milestone for the U.S. agricultural industry, and it’s gratifying to see two companies from our network bringing innovation to our region,” said Johnny Park, CEO of WHIN. “Collaboration among all parties was crucial to the success of this project.”
The use of Solinftec solutions has already led to a reduction of up to 97% in herbicide volume on properties that piloted the Solix robot last year in the United States. The key differentiator is that, through the collaboration of the three companies, the solutions will be adapted to the reality of the Midwest.
“The collaboration and work in our new Indiana factory supports the development and innovation of agricultural technology in not only Indiana and the Midwest, but throughout the country,” said Guilherme Guiné, Solinftec’s director of operations for North America. “The new plant has a capacity to produce up to 800 units per year and by the end of 2024, American employees will represent 10% of Solinftec’s global workforce as we continue to generate jobs in the region.”
A leading innovator and pioneer in the AgTech space, and champion for sustainable farm practices, Solinftec has designed its scouting and sprayer robots to help producers reduce their chemical inputs and deliver a lower carbon footprint and environmental impact.
Commercially available beginning this month, the new Solix Sprayer robot provides autonomous and sustainable spot-spray applications on grower’s fields. The robot was piloted on select farms in the Midwest last year. Similar to the Solix Scouting robot, the spray robot is powered by four solar panels that control the drive system and the spray system while providing reports on crop populations, weed identification and densities, disease identification and thresholds, insect identification and thresholds, nutrient deficiency identification and densities, NDVI among other layers of maps for data analysis, and much more useful data to the grower virtually 24/7.
“Our open-house event is an opportunity to view our cutting-edge robots and share the success of this collaboration between Solinftec and WHIN,” said Leonardo Carvalho, director of Global Strategy at Solinftec. “We’re celebrating the success already achieved through the first units produced in New Richmond that are already operating in the American Corn Belt.”
