Chouette, a French startup, used Sculpteo 3D printing service to develop machine-mounted sensors for a system that can analyze a plant’s condition on a leaf-by-leaf basis. As the farm machine goes down the rows of grapevines, the sensor’s synthetic vision, coupled with AI trained on agronomic models, can:
- Shoot the plant with an exact dose of whatever is needed.
- Detect withered or otherwise unproductive vines or branches so they can be culled.
- Used throughout the growing season, the system can detect if a vine is slow to grow or bear fruit.
- Detect a variety of blights that grapevines are subject to before they spread.
Léo Chassery, embedded systems engineer at Chouette, explains: “3D printing enabled us to design and mass-produce a custom model in record time, which is essential if we don’t want to miss the start of the wine-growing season.”
Chouette is a French startup established in 2015. The company’s precision viticulture solution is in use at over 100 vineyards covering over 30,000 hectares. The company secured €5 million Series A funding in February to expand into more of France and Europe.
For more information, visit www.chouette.vision.
Paris-based Sculpteo offers a 3D printing service that lets users upload their design files (in native format), creates the part or parts in their U.S. or French facilities, and then ship the finished part or parts to the customer. In addition to this push-button service, Sculpteo offers Design Studio that lets businesses integrate additive manufacturing into their product development and production systems.
BASF acquired Sculpteo in November 2019.
For more information, visit: www.sculpteo.com
