Free Green Nature S.r.l. is an innovative start-up established in 2020. The aim of its operations are development, designing and production of technologically advanced machines, including, in particular, mechatronic equipment, robotic systems for agriculture, and machines for combating viruses and bacteria.

MAJORITY SHAREHOLDING

The agreement provides for taking up the increase in the share capital, together with a purchase of majority shareholding by Maschio Gaspardo. In the new team, Valter Mazzarolo and Valerio Balliana, partner founders, will play a strategic role in product and company development, while maintaining their operational roles.

PATENTED UV-C SYSTEM

The first project implemented by Free Green Nature involves development of ICARO X4, a cutting-edge, completely autonomous, patented robot for irradiating vineyards and orchards with UV-C, which was designed to reduce the environmental impact by even 90%, when compared to traditional techniques using chemical products.

Icaro X4 is a technological products consisting of various components, each having its special function. It is not just a machine, but a tireless working partner on wheels. This is first in the world hybrid robot for prevention of fungal diseases, such as downy mildew, powdery mildew, and botrytis that is typical for vineyards, by using the power of ultraviolet radiation, UV-C. It is completely safe for people and the environment due to its autonomous navigation system and sensors detecting presence of humans. Apart from drastically reducing the use of chemicals in vineyard cultivation, this robot also reduces CO2 emissions, because it is equipped with an engine with an integrated hybrid system.  The smart autonomous movement reduces even overheads of an operator responsible for managing a traditional system.

INNOVATIVE ROBOT DESIGN

The design is based on a sophisticated system of technologies, from mechanical through kinematics, up to electronics and IT. The company independently developed a Real Time Kinematic (RTK) system consisting of antennae of a georeferencing system, a user-friendly telemetric system that can also be accessed on smartphones, an environmental (weather) analyses system, and AI controlled security cameras, where all of them conform to the requirements of Industry 4.0.

Robotic automation and digitalisation are processes covering the entire world of agriculture. Electrification of agricultural machines and development of an autonomous cruise control, representing a very current trend in the automation sector, is also characteristic for the agricultural sector, and for those who look forward to the future, strategic investments in this areas.

‘Maschio Gaspardo has already invested significant resources in electrification of a new range of machines developed in recent years, such as Technology 4.0, which is available in all our machines of the new generation,’ says Luigi De Puppi, General Director of Maschio Gaspardo. ‘It is a process of business transformation, into which we deeply believe, and in which electronics and digitalisation represent basic agents driving development of the product and the company of the future’.

‘For us, this taking over is a strategic investment,’ says Andrea Maschio, Maschio Holding C.E.O. ‘Apart from an option to expand the Maschio Gaspardo range, it is a beginning of our presence in the segment of robots for vineyard cultivation, and we gain new knowledge in a very specific area of mechatronics, where know-how is of fundamental importance for development of increasingly innovative machines’,

Mirco Maschio, Maschio Gaspardo C.E.O., continues: ‘The founders of Free Green Nature, Mr Mazzarolo and Mr Balliana, and their entire personnel, should be considered creators of Italian perfection in the vineyard cultivation sector that was developed in Treviso, the country of Prosecco, due to their inventiveness. Our aim will be to introduce new innovative solutions with a great care for environmental sustainability and costs of farms’.