At a glance: TRIC Robotics’ tractor-sized autonomous fleet, including the Luna platform, delivers non-chemical pest and disease control to high-value crops like strawberries. By integrating Point One Navigation’s RTK corrections network, TRIC achieves the centimeter-level precision necessary for consistent, effective, and autonomous operation across hundreds of acres per robot, accelerating the shift toward sustainable agriculture.
The need for precision in sustainable AgTech
Strawberries are a multi-billion dollar crop but are among the most pesticide-reliant and labor-intensive produce. TRIC Robotics has developed a Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) model using autonomous robots that deploy UV-C light and bug vacuums to control pests and diseases, offering a proven non-chemical alternative.
However, scaling this innovative solution to commercial scale farms presented significant challenges related to precision and operational efficiency:
- Ultra-high precision requirement: To be effective, the UV-C light booms (spanning over 30 feet) and bug vacuums must track consistently and accurately down the center of narrow strawberry rows, which are often characterized by challenging, uneven terrain. Even a slight deviation could damage the high-value plants or render the treatment ineffective.
- Farm-scale coverage: TRIC’s robots are designed to cover large commercial fields, with the Luna platform capable of treating 50-100 acres while spanning 6-7 rows. Achieving this scale autonomously demands highly reliable, continuous, and repeatable positioning data.
- Operating in the dark: The most efficient time for UV-C treatment is overnight, requiring the robots to navigate and perform their tasks perfectly without human intervention or visual reference in dark fields.
- Minimizing field personnel: TRIC’s service model is built on providing fully managed, autonomous treatment. To keep the service cost-effective for farmers, who are used to “Pay what you spray”, the system needs robust autonomy that minimizes the need for extensive in-field labor and manual correction.
Centimeter accuracy with Point One’s Point One RTK
For TRIC, the critical technical hurdle was navigation. For the UV-C light to be effective and the bug vacuums to work without harming the delicate crops, the robots must navigate precisely down the center of narrow strawberry rows, often spanning up to seven rows at once. This requires centimeter-level accuracy, not just for one pass, but for consistent, reliable treatment twice a week, often overnight. Achieving this level of Farm Scale Autonomy (FSA) reliably across hundreds of acres of varied terrain and over a long growing season demanded a robust and accurate Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) positioning solution.
TRIC integrated a high-precision GNSS receiver system, corrected by Point One Navigation’s RTK network, into its autonomous fleet. This combination provides the foundational layer of repeatable, centimeter-level location accuracy essential for the robots to perform their task reliably.
Previously, in-field base stations posed a significant operational risk. Even a slight deviation of the base station pole, caused by equipment bumps, settling soil, or environmental factors, could corrupt the entire field map, rendering the robots’ precise navigation useless and requiring time-consuming recalibration. Point One’s network-based RTK corrections eliminate this vulnerability entirely. By leveraging a robust network of reference stations rather than a single on-site base station, TRIC’s fleet gains built-in redundancy. This redundancy ensures uninterrupted autonomous operation across hundreds of acres, even in challenging field conditions, providing the reliability required for TRIC’s commercial-scale RaaS model.
Proven impact
Point One RTK Features | Benefit to TRIC Robotics |
Centimeter-level accuracy | Provides the sub-inch precision needed for Luna to flawlessly track the center of a row with its multi-row payload (UV-C light and vacuums), ensuring 100% treatment efficacy and zero crop damage. |
Scalable corrections | Point One’s RTK network delivers continuous, reliable correction data across vast agricultural regions, ensuring the robots maintain accuracy throughout their 50-100 acre treatment cycle, even in remote fields, without the need for local base stations. |
Repeatable “Stake Back” capability | Precision location allows the robot to return to the exact same path for bi-weekly treatments, which is critical since the UV light is effective only with consistent application. This ensures long-term pest and disease control. |
Streamlined autonomy | Adam Stager, CEO of TRIC Robotics says it best, ““Automation is the key to unlocking greater efficiency on the farm, allowing farmers to grow more with less, without damaging the planet,” RTK corrections integration enables fully autonomous navigation and row tracking, drastically reducing operational complexity and the need for constant human oversight, supporting TRIC’s high-efficiency RaaS model. |
Precision driving, sustainability, and growth
The integration of Point One Navigation’s RTK correction network has been instrumental in allowing TRIC Robotics to scale its service and deliver quantifiable results:
- Pesticide reduction: Pilot programs have demonstrated a reduction in pesticide use by up to 75% for participating farmers, providing a direct path to healthier, safer, and lowering environmental impacts.
- Enhanced efficacy: Consistent, high-precision row tracking ensures the UV-C light and bug vacuums are applied uniformly and effectively, offering reliable pest control that is resistance-free unlike chemical alternatives.
- Rapid commercialization: The reliability of the autonomous navigation has allowed TRIC to rapidly scale from servicing half an acre a few years ago to covering hundreds of acres across four large strawberry producers with a fleet of nine robots.
Cost-effective service: With coverage capacities of 50-100 acres per robot, TRIC’s RaaS model, powered by robust autonomy, is already becoming cost-effective for farmers compared to traditional chemical sprays.
The future of farming
TRIC Robotics is now the largest automation company in open field strawberries, an accomplishment that hinges on the precision and reliability provided by Point One Navigation. This partnership is transforming a heavily chemically-dependent farming process into a sustainable, data-driven, and highly automated service.
Ready to explore how Point One’s RTK corrections can embed centimeter accuracy into your service? Reach out to our team today for a personalized discussion and POC. Contact Sales