Rinaldin launches the machine that works without personnel. Weeding, treatments, topping: there is already a boom in requests
TREVISO. Do the farms find no staff? Someone is thinking of replacing individuals with robots. If so far the prototypes of the various agricultural machines that work “alone” have followed one after the other, from tomorrow in the province of Treviso one of these robots will enter the market for the first time.
The machine is called “Vitibot”, comes from a French manufacturer, is marketed by Rinaldin Group Srl of Ponte di Piave and does practically everything, from weeding to topping, without the need for personnel. The same CEO of the company, Roberto Rinaldin, states that: «It is not politically incorrect to say that it solves the problem of manpower. If there are no people, and if there is no human willingness to do certain jobs, there are robots ».
How does it work
The presentation is scheduled for tomorrow at 3.30 pm in a farm in Noventa di Piave (quota places to comply with anti-Covid regulations). “Vitibot” was born, as mentioned, in France, where it is already built in series. About fifty of them have been sold so far: «He works in the vineyards completely independently» continues Rinaldin, «a piece of vineyard is mapped out, and he is told what to do. We will first show the under-row weeding, to avoid the chemical one. But it is already possible to change tools, always in the same machine, to take advantage of a system of treatments, inter-row mechanical weeding, topping and cutting the grass ».
The machine is totally electric, without batteries, without pollution. There is no (or almost) difference between lowland vineyards and hillside vineyards: it is designed to overcome slopes of over 45%. The cost? Top secret, of course. It goes without saying that it is not a small producer who will hardly be able to afford it. The requests, so far, come mainly from contractors.
Employees at risk
And here comes the other aspect of the question: does the robot retire the manpower? Farms complain about not finding staff. «The fact that contractors are interested in it is significant» explains Rinaldin, «as it is a problem to find skilled labor, having machines that work without real personnel is a very intriguing prospect. It is not politically incorrect: if there are no people, it cannot be said that the robot takes someone’s work away ».
Rinaldin assures that Vitibot is the first machine of this type to be marketed in Italy. In recent years, DOC and DOCG vineyards have filled up with robots of all kinds, from those for treatments to those for automatic grape harvesting (in fact the first to make their appearance among the rows). But actually very few are already on the market, and used with some regularity. The biggest stumbling block remains that of the price, which cannot be within everyone’s reach.