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The champagne house Moët & Chandon has developed a robot tractor for cultivating its vineyards in collaboration with the Japanese agricultural machinery manufacturer Yanmar. It is the autonomous YV01 robot, which is controlled by GPS and can work on steep slopes of up to 45 degrees.
Moët & Chandon has been driving forward the use of such vehicles since 2019, which can be used to spray plant protection products autonomously even in difficult-to-cultivate plots. The prototype was introduced in 2021 and initially tested on a plot of land belonging to the Comité Champagne. This was to ensure that it met the requirements of the appellation.
Moët & Chandon then undertook "extensive trials" with two YV01 machines on some of its most difficult plots to test the performance of the spraying robots in real-life conditions. At the same time, the company began training its employees to teach them the new working methods.
At the end of 2022, Moët & Chandon confirmed its intention to use the YV01 in "challenging" vineyard parcels in Aÿ and Cramant. The vehicle costs around 152,000 euros. Based on the good results, Yanmar Vineyard Solutions and Moët & Chandon began developing another robot for weed control in 2023.
(ru / Drinks Business, Harper's)