Crover

Based in the UK, Crover offers automated robotic solutions to monitor and record information on harvested grains such as wheat, and barley. The company’s robotic device is known to be able to “swim” into a bulk of granular grains, monitor their condition and provide information on spoilage and drop in quality, to farmers or grain store keepers. The robotic systems can be operated remotely to reach every corner of the bulk of grains, and are also equipped with temperature and moisture sensors to provide real time information so as to avoid crop loss. 

Crover’s robot is offered through a hardware-as-a-service business model, priced at GBP 3,000 (nearly USD 4,000) per robot per annum for both the hardware and software. According to the company, farmers would require one robot per silo of grain. During 2020, the company reported that it piloted its robot in Scotland and England and claimed that it has also received interest from European countries like Italy and Spain. 

In July 2021, Crover raised GBP 321,833 (approx. USD 448,000 ) via its crowdfunding campaign on the Crowdcube platform. The campaign was launched at the end of June with a target to raise GBP 150,000. The funds are expected to be used to scale production of its robotic device and run pilot projects in the UK, and Europe and, potentially in the US by 2022. In March 2023, The company has secured GBP 50,000 (~USD 64,700) from Innovate UK funding to progress its study of remote autonomous operations of a grain-swimming robot.

The company also expects to further develop the technology to provide detailed crop analysis, and an automated sampling feature at different levels of the bulk of grains, while also making it possible to apply the technology only in crop areas where there is a problem.