Weed robots are gaining popularity very fast

Krinkels nv of Brussels is part of the Krinkels group. The Dutch family company - founded in 1965 by Leo Krinkels and since taken over and significantly modernised by son Ruud - is one of the leading landscape contractors in Europe. Krinkels is present in several countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom, and has some 700 permanent employees in action every day in Belgium alone.

Steven Mattelin, site manager: "Krinkels mows roadsides and takes care of the construction and maintenance of greenery, as well as the maintenance of trees along motorways and provincial roads. We landscape parks and playgrounds, provide beautiful and safe banks, maintain watercourses, provide tree advice, and lay out sports fields. Also, cleanliness - such as sweeping, cleaning gullies, and so on - is an important part of the job. One of our great advantages is that we are so regionally anchored that we are no more than ten kilometers away from any one customer. This means that we can respond quickly and efficiently where necessary.

Master's level knowledge

Dieter Lannoo, regional manager: "Because the company has been around for so long, we have an enormous amount of knowledge. We work at master level, for both construction and maintenance as well as innovation and the resulting digitalization. An exponent of this is the robotization of machinery in the green sector. For this we work together with the most progressive suppliers in the sector. Think not only of the well-known mowing robots. We also put a lot of effort into line robots. These robots can provide a terrain with lines quickly and accurately. Doing this kind of work manually is very time-consuming and often produces less accurate results. The alignment robots work almost completely autonomously and get their geographic data via GPS/satellite connection."

Automated weeding

"But our weed robots are also gaining very fast popularity," Dieter Lannoo continues. "Because weeding was long considered impossible for maintenance automation. The robot scans a piece of ground, takes a picture, recognizes the weeds (six to seven species) and starts its work. To do so, it makes bores into the heart of the weeds. Our record is 3,600 borings in eleven hours. This machine will one hundred percent certainly cause a small revolution in the sector. Because in this way we can go for the total unburdening of the customer and at the same time significantly reduce the ecological footprint."

Policy sustainability

Steven Mattelin: "Krinkels has also been working on sustainability in terms of policy for years: construction with an eye for nature, ecological management, optimization of raw materials, smart waste processing, reuse, priority to local products and many other interventions. Think of a transition path to have only hybrid (PHEV) and one hundred percent electric (BEV) vehicles in our passenger car fleet by 2025. Meanwhile, we are sorting no less than 97% of our waste. Én addition, we will have completed 41,000 m² of softening alone by 2021. Finally, that same year we reduced the CO2 emissions - per employee (FTE, full-time equivalent) - of our machinery and vehicle fleet by 4%. We don't just talk about it, we do it!"

Fluid Feeder & Violette

"The new purchases for our machinery also follow the same sustainability route. Vredo's Fluid Feeder, for example, is one such innovative topper. This machine, equipped with the Vredo double disc system, injects liquids -- without coming into contact with UV light -- directly into the root zone. In this way (bio)stimulants can be applied, but also liquids with special nematodes to control grubs. This machine therefore deservedly won the Golden Clover Four 2022, the award for the most striking innovation at GroenTechniek Holland. But we also have the second place winner, the autonomous gps weed remover Violette by Milati Grass Machines. This is how you take real steps towards a better, greener world," concludes Steven Mattelin.