On the automatic planting machine, a robot takes the young plants out of a tray, one row at a time, and places the plants on a transport belt. The plants are then handed over to the planting mechanism through a number of vertical belts.The limited accuracy of the planting distance (the distance between two successive plants), is the most important draw-back of the automatic planting machine. If the accuracy can be increased, the number of potential customers increases tremendously. That is why Agriplant, one of the leading constructors of automatic planting machines in Europe, and even the world, came to us. 

At the start of this innovation trajectory, Octinion and Agriplant visited a number of customers to see the machine at work in the field. Based on what we saw there, we defined a project proposal to improve the accuracy of the plant distance. In collaboration with Agriplant we then decided to submit a SME-Innovation Project (‘KMO-Innovatieproject’) to the IWT with us as subcontractor.

One of the main reasons for Agriplant to work with us on this project is that we can also take care of the commercial implementation of the solution after the innovation project. When they need support on the implemented solution after the project, they can also turn to us for help. Moreover we can help them with the submission and administration of innovation subsidies.

Note that feasibility studies executed by us for Flemish SMEs can be paid for through the so-called KMO-portefeuille, which offers a 50% discount.