Camso extends R&D partnership on rubber tracks for farming robots

Paris – Michelin’s off-road tire and rubber track manufacturer Camso has extended an R&D partnership with French agricultural robots specialist Naïo Technologies to improve productivity of farmers and winegrowers.

The partners aim to adapt tracks for agricultural machinery to achieve greater 'flotation' and enhance accessibility and flexibility in the field – while also reducing carbon emissions.

The partnership started more than a year ago, with the collaboration yielding “great results during the early stages”, said Gaetan Severac, co-founder of Naïo Technologies.

“We are now launching a second phase, lasting several years, which includes technical tests in the factory and field trials with producers," he said in a 5 March statement.

Through the partnership, Camso seeks “technical challenges and innovation”, said Caroline Schoenhenz, head of the Michelin agricultural products

The rubber tracks manufacturer will particularly share its knowledge and experience in testing processes and in “respecting soils," she added.

According to the joint statement, the R&D teams of the two companies have advanced in “a project of electrically driven rubber tracks”.

Naïo, it added, brings experience in ‘augmented autonomy technologies’, with its farming robots focusing on "precision agriculture, crop and people safety and connectivity".

For its part, Camso contributes knowledge of materials to offer “high-performance products specifically designed to meet the demands of the agricultural sector”.

Technologies developed by Camso via the partnership could be implemented, in the medium-term, in Naïo's autonomous robots, as well as in other agricultural machines.