In order to bridge the time waiting for face-to-face meetings to become possible again, AIL partnered with the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture to host two webinars on agricultural robotics in April and May. Then, in June, Naio Technologies’ field robot Oz participated in the Innovation Farm LIVE event and the AIL also hosted a live demo of Oz at the Großbötzl Nursery in Hart.

More than 30 interested agricultural advisors and farmers from the horticulture and vegetable production sectors participated in the webinars in April and May and joined Cornelius Donath (Naio Technologies) and Matthias Steinfeder (Agro Innovation Lab) to discuss the future of automation in agriculture. We were particularly pleased with the interest and extremely positive feedback from farmers, which made us even more eager to show the robot in action again.

Oz at Innovation Farm

At “Innovation Farm LIVE” at BLT in Wieselburg on 11th June, a wide range of new technologies were presented and their possible applications, practicality and potential future development were discussed. In addition to representatives from the trade media, experts and practitioners were also present to contribute their opinions to the discussion.
During the subsequent panel discussion, Elisabeth Köstinger (Federal Minister for Agriculture, Regions and Tourism) and Josef Moosbrugger (President of the Austrian Chamber of Agriculture) were joined by other representatives from politics, media and practice. The entire event can also be viewed online here (from 41:45).

Using the Versatile Robot in Tree Nurseries

Farmers and nursery operators were also able to experience the robot “Oz” in action in Upper Austria at an event organised by the Agro Innovation Lab and DI Karin Lorenzi, (Managing Director of the Association of Austrian Tree Nursery and Perennial Gardeners). The subjects under discussion included the need to make everyday tasks easier for workers and the practical applicability of robots. After a short presentation by Matthias Steinfeder, Oz was tested in the tree nursery. Despite the difficult ground conditions after the heavy storms of the previous night, the robot operated excellently. We would like to thank the hosts and the organisers and we look forward to future events.

Foto (c) AIL