After playing mine-sweeping at the Paris Olympic Games, E-doggy is back in action. And this time, he comes to the farm. Since the end of the summer, the Landes agricultural cooperative Maïsadour has been experimenting with the use of this funny four-legged, headless robot with poultry breeders, whose gait is reminiscent of that of a dog. Its mission: to return tens of thousands of chickens to their shelters every evening.
“It’s a task that requires breeders between an hour and an hour and a half per day, summarizes Laetitia Domange, director of agricultural development at Maïsadour. In terms of social and family life, it represents a lot of strain. With E-doggy, time is reduced. »
Concretely, the robot dog guides the chickens towards the buildings, detects those which remain outside and sends a signal to the system which orders the hatches to be closed. If it is not yet perfectly autonomous, its designers are developing artificial intelligence to enable it to find its way beyond a circuit programmed by the breeder.
Designed for safety
Originally developed for civil security, E-doggy was not predestined to enter the agricultural field. During the Paris Olympic Games, the robot assisted mine clearance teams in Île-de-France, but also in Bordeaux and Lyon. In 2023, he was even seen trying his hand at street vending on the beaches of the Atlantic coast…
The idea of applying such an innovation to poultry farming germinated in the mind of Laetitia Domange while speaking with Anthony Gavend, founder of Evotech, the company – also from Landes – which manufactures and markets the robot. “Originally, it was in a humorous toneshe says. The first farmer with whom we tested it was quite doubtful… Before realizing that it worked. »
“Technological bricks”
To adapt the tool to its different uses, Evotech modifies the sensors, integrates tools such as thermal cameras and designs different artificial intelligence algorithms. “These are technological building blocks that we add to our dog on a case-by-case basis,” explains Anthony Gavend. So far, the company has marketed a few dozen robots.
She is particularly interested in securing events or logistics sites. “In these cases, our dog serves as a detector and a deterrent, illustrates its designer. If it detects someone in a prohibited area in the middle of the night, it sounds the alert and can scare them away using sirens and strobes (floodlights). »
Facilitate transmission
In terms of agriculture, Evotech is also testing the capabilities of its robot to help identify diseases in crops. For its part, Maïsadour imagines future applications for breeding: E-doggy could, thanks to its scaring capabilities, protect animals from predators or, with new sensors, detect infections in herds.
“The robot should allow you to free up time for yourself and your family, and therefore make the transfer of farms or the installation of young breeders less difficult,” supports Laetitia Domange. Incidentally, it could contribute to the perpetuation of the protected geographical indication (PGI) “Chicken farmer des Landes”, which requires outdoor breeding, and therefore the routine of sheltering chickens every evening.
Commissioned in summer 2025
To afford one of these 2.0 dogs, farmers, private security companies or any other entrepreneur who sees a use for it must pay around €10,000. A significant cost for breeders, which they can however amortize in a relatively short time, according to Maïsadour. “If they count the remuneration for the time they spend bringing in the chickens, they make the tool profitable in one year,” thus affirms Laetitia Domange.
In the coming months, the cooperative hopes to convince at least a third of the 250 farmers with whom it works to equip themselves with such a tool. It remains to be seen whether the optimism surrounding this innovation will last beyond the announcement effect. This version of E-doggy is still in the testing phase. If its development continues correctly, it could be marketed in the summer of 2025.
