Catalogue of Infrastructures and Facilities

The Off-road vehicle and robot mobility tracks in Allier (France) feature advanced testing infrastructure developed by INRAE-TSCF-AGROTECHNOPÔLE for mobile machines and vehicles. The facility offers numerous accessories, including obstacles like mannequins and natural or artificial hedges. The cross-shaped track allows testing from various cardinal points and orientations relative to the sun. Additionally, the inclined profiles enable testing of agricultural machinery on different slope gradients. The facility supports the comprehensive evaluation and advancement of mobile equipment in diverse conditions, ensuring thorough performance assessment and development.

Facility

Experimental plots - Montoldre AgroTechnoPôle

The experimental plots for alternative weed control consist of a 4-hectare field, with additional areas available. Depending on the experimental needs, the site is equipped with advanced technology for data capture of soil and plants, an electric power supply using an electric generator for the computer units and charging for electric weeding solutions, as well as remote monitoring of crops and the environment via wireless sensors and a field meteorological station. This supports research on crops like maize and beans and weeds such as ryegrass, mustard, lamb’s quarter, and Matricaria chamomile. The site includes manoeuvring zones and buffer spaces between plots to allow machines or robots to move freely. INRAE-TSCF-AgroTechnoPôle ensures experiments' maintenance, protection, and organisation, offering an ideal environment for field trials and technology testing.

Facility

Machine-Soil interaction - Montoldre AgroTechnoPôle

The experimental plots to study machine-soil interaction offer advanced tools to study machine-soil interactions. The MONROE system measures the efficiency of agricultural tires and machines, assessing traction and soil compaction under various conditions, including tire type, pressure, and soil characteristics. It uses constant torque and traction force methods alongside additional measurements of effort, torque, angular velocity, and actual speed. The SoilXplorer tool provides electromagnetic response maps of soil, based on texture and moisture levels. Additionally, the facility features a FARO Focus 3D X130 laser scanner for precise 3D mapping of tire tracks and soil impressions.

Facility

CEMIB bench - Montoldre AgroTechnoPôle

The CEMIB rotating test bench, patented by INRAE, is a high-performance device for measuring the distribution of granular products (fertilisers). It enables quick, reliable, and cost-effective evaluation of spreading patterns. CEMIB scans the spread pattern, angular sector by angular sector, using around 90 sensors recorded at 10 Hz by a synchronous system. It provides precise, disturbance-free measurements of fertiliser distribution in grams/m² and reliable data on projection range and angles. The setup includes a rotating carrier for the spreader and a "sensitive" part with 50x50 cm trays and highly accurate weight sensors (0.02 grams), ensuring continuous, accurate assessments.

Facility

CEMOB bench - Montoldre AgroTechnoPôle

The CEMOB Bench is dedicated to enhancing the efficiency of spreading processes by optimising both machines and products, such as granules and compost. The CEMOB research bench accurately measures and characterises spreader sheets using traditional transverse measurement methods. The 3D measurements enable detailed analysis of spreading performance, including mapping ground distribution and assessing homogeneity. CEMOB also allows the evaluation of a product’s suitability for wide-area spreading and the impact of optimised spreading devices.

Infrastructure

Montoldre AgroTechnoPôle

INRAE (National Institute for Agrarian, Food, and Environmental Research of France) is a leading research organisation dedicated to advancing sustainable agricultural and food systems. Through its work in research, innovation, and public policy support, INRAE seeks to provide solutions for life, humanity, and the Earth. INRAE's research, conducted across 18 research centres, 14 scientific departments, and nearly 300 research, service, and experimental units, is integrated into regional policies and actively engaged in international partnerships, making it a global effort in which you can participate. The Montoldre research and experimentation site is located in the scenic Allier Department within the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France. The site is dedicated to pioneering research into developing productive and environmentally friendly farming systems. The services offered under the AgrifoodTEF project on the Montoldre site are provided and implemented by the AgroTechnoPôle. This open innovation platform, supported by the INRAE-TSCF Unit, is not just dedicated to helping to develop technological solutions for tomorrow's agriculture but also to inspiring a new era of innovation in the industry. The AgroTechnoPôle brings together public and private expertise to accelerate the development of innovative agricultural tools, machinery, and services, inspiring all those involved to push the boundaries of what's possible in agriculture, making it more efficient, less energy-demanding, and environmentally friendly. Montoldre has various advanced machinery and infrastructure, making it a central hub for research and development in agricultural technology and robotics.

Facility

Des Bordes Land

The farm operates two complementary production systems:

Conventional system (82 ha, Les Bordes): This site includes 33 ha of permanent grassland, while the remaining land alternates between temporary grassland and annual crops according to trial requirements. These crops include cereal–protein mixtures harvested as grain or forage, small-grain cereals, forage sorghum or maize, and summer forage crops.
Organic system (64 ha, combining Les Grandes Règes and Le Domaine Neuf): Managed as a single unit, this system includes 30 ha of permanent grassland, 24 ha of temporary grassland, and 10 ha of cereal–protein mixtures harvested as grain.

Infrastructure

Des Bordes Experimental Farm

The Des Bordes experimental farm is located 25 km south of Châteauroux, on the edge of Brenne, on the border between the two natural regions of Brenne and Boischaut Sud. This transition zone, on the edge of the Massif Central and the Paris Basin, is dedicated to mixed farming, traditionally focused on suckler herding of Charolais and Limousin breeds. Grassland farming is more prevalent in the two departments of Limousin. The soils are mainly sandy loam, sensitive to excess water in winter and spring, but shallow and drying in summer.

Facility

Villers Saint Christophe Experimental Farm

Each year, around 7 hectares of potatoes and 10 hectares of cereals are used for nearly one hundred small-plot trials, covering topics such as fertilisation, crop protection, varietal selection, and irrigation. Each trial is managed by dedicated coordinators and aligned with evolving research priorities. The facility also stands out for its integration of digital tools to enhance trial efficiency and data accuracy.

Infrastructure

Villers Saint Christophe

Institut Francais de la Vigne et du Vin (IFV)

The ARVALIS station in Villers-Saint-Christophe was inaugurated on September 16, 2022 The station's premises house several experimental facilities dedicated to cereal, corn, potato, and flax activities, as well as administrative offices. In terms of field experimentation, each year, nearly 7 hectares of potatoes and 10 hectares of cereals in the Villers-Saint-Christophe area are devoted to small-plot trials: fertilisation, plant protection, varieties, irrigation, etc. It is the only experimental station in France to conduct experiments on potato storage and preservation, a crop to which it devotes 50% of its activity program. Located in the heart of the leading soft wheat producing region, it is also the institute's benchmark for testing and developing digital technologies to support experimentation.

Facility

Vinimag©

Institut Francais de la Vigne et du Vin (IFV)

These fermenters are individually thermoregulated, and the temperature is measured at three heights by IR sensors. A collaborative arm transfers the fermenters to a weight and colour measuring station and to an input addition station. Weight monitoring provides access to fermentation kinetics. This measurement is carried out every hour, as well as the measurement of the colour, which follows the extraction of the film from the juice during fermentation. The second station allows the liquid addition of inputs in an automated manner.

This robot is the central experimental device of the new UMT Actia Oenotyping, which brings together the scientific and technical skills of the IFV, the Institut Agro Montpellier, the UMR SPO and the UEPR of INRAE. Unique in the world for red wines, it aims to allow "high-throughput oenotyping". Indeed, thanks to this system, researchers will study and integrate oenological criteria upstream of the creation and varietal selection, which aims to adapt plant material to climate change (adaptation to high temperatures, resistance to diseases).

The effect of drought on the wine will also be studied, as well as new winemaking routes with little or no inputs. Vinimag© is the central tool of the Minicave project, which is the result of 5 years of development by the IFV, INRAE and the Institut Agro to respect the main principles of red winemaking on a kilo scale.

A Grape Bank allows the 1 kg batches to be kept frozen and fermentation to be postponed throughout the year, thus freeing itself from the seasonality of the harvest. The robot ensures the fermentation and pressing carried out by a 9-station plant, called Nano'press.

Facility

Pech rouge experimental vineyard