IET awards innovation funding to agritech start-up - The IET

A British agritech start-up has won a prestigious Horizontal Innovation Award from the IET and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC) to help develop'Harry', the company's drilling and planting robot. Small Robot Company, based in Shropshire, harnesses the power and precision of robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve the way that food is produced. The £50,000 funded research award will look to develop'Harry' from concept through to in-field prototype. Addressing key challenges around the use of robotics in agriculture, the development of'Harry's' punch planting mechanism will be supported by the Manufacturing Technology Centre, one of seven centres of excellence which make up the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVM Catapult), which is sponsored by Innovate UK. The technology is built on 15 years of robotics research by Professor Simon Blackmore, the world's leading expert on precision farming at Harper Adams University.