How TRIC Robotics is reducing pesticide use on strawberries using UV light

Are strawberries The most popular berry in the USA For both consumers and farmers. They are also at the top of some pesticide-dependent fruits and consistently environmental working groups The list of “dirty doses” The most polluted production.

San Lewis Obposo, California -based Trick robotics It seems that strawberry farmers can help reduce the use of chemicals with UV lighting and robots.

The startup created a fleet of robots that used UV-C lights, it is a form of ultraviolet light that is mainly blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere, killing bacteria and damaging pest population. The tractor -sized autonomous robots can treat up to 100 acres and use vacuums designed to suck the residue of the bug without harming the crop.

TechCrunch co-founder and CEO Adam Stasger told TechCrunch that the company operates its robots overnight as a service as a service to the farmers, as they seemed more difficult to directly start trading.

“We have done a lot of work with the farmers to understand the right way to turn the technology and what the right business model is.” “We learned that many farmers paid for the control of pest disease as a service, so a company came to spray. And what we’re doing is just to replace it as a service model.”

Although the stage said that the company was very focused on what the farmers wanted, it was not always that way. In fact, the trick has not even focused on starting in agriculture.

The company launched the company in 2017 after completing his PhD on stage robotics. The company was first concentrated on 3D-printed robots for swat teams. In 2021, the stage decided to enter a area that he thought he would have a further impact and began to concentrate on agriculture.

“I really wanted to answer this question, if you died tomorrow, would you be happy with what you achieved in your life?” Stage Dr. “I was okay, ok, I really need to do something that is really influential that can help a lot of people feel valuable for themselves নিজের I stumble in agriculture on that journey, [and realized] It’s a place where we can influence so many people, only everyone. “

The stage was reached in the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that they had any technology that they could assist in commercialization, knowing that a lot of great technology had never been released from his PhD program.

He was connected to a USDA program that brings people like stars and scientists who have not yet commercially commercially commercialized their work. This promotion attached him to UV light technology that became the basis of trick’s robotics.

“We loaded two robots that we built in my garage on SUV,” the stage said about him and co-founder Vishnu Somsundaram. “We had two connections that the USDA helped us to create with the farmers, which was only willing to give us a small land in 2021 and this is the only time it started when it started. It was a cross-capital journey of AirbnB Surfing for eight months where we were deploying two robots and got this amazing data with these farmers.”

Now the company, who has also counted Ryan Beard as its third co-founder, works with four big strawberries producers, deployed nine robots and there are three more robots on the way.

Trick Robotics recently raised a $ 5.5 million seed round led by version One Venture with the participation between other investment companies and other investigators of Garage Capital, Tod and Rahul Capital and Lucas Venture Group.

The company planned to keep this money in the form of autonomous robots and the trick finally wants to go on other types of crops.

“I think here is a fact, the truth is going to be a bright future [agriculture] Tech, “said the stager.” I just think people should know that things are moving towards really a great way, and really a lot of exciting things arrive. “