UPTEC company wins international design award
UPTEC company wins international design award
Everythink – a company incubated at UPTEC – Parque de Ciência e Tecnologia da U. Porto – has developed, under a project of INESC TEC’s Center for Industrial Robotics and Intelligent Systems, the Weta robot and won another IF Design Award, one of the most prestigious international design awards.
This new technology, designed by Everythink, aims to address the question of movement in mountain vineyards, thanks to its ability to perform monitoring, precision spraying, weeding and selective harvesting tasks in the context of permanent and tree crops. As a process automation technology with high precision levels, this solution aims to reduce the use of plant protection products significantly, while increasing the quality of agricultural tasks.
The iF Design Award is an international design award, established in 1953. Launched in Germany, this initiative grants technologies the iF badge of quality, i.e., “good design for consumers and the design community alike”. This project is particularly relevant to SMEs and start-ups, which are generally subject to limitations regarding the development of robotic platforms, since it’s a tool designed to be easily acquired and produced by small companies that seek to enter the market with a robotic solution for precision agriculture.
Filipe Neves dos Santos, head of the project, highlighted the importance of receiving such an important award. “This award shows the quality of our prototypes and is badge of quality that we can present to potential companies that adopt these technologies,” he said.
“For Everythink it is always very special that we win an iF Design Award. It is a world reference in the recognition of quality design and is a seal of quality for the product we create. It is very important for us to feel the importance that the people responsible for this project gave to design as an essential part of its success. It’s not just about creating something with style, but something with concerns about the proper integration of technology, functionality, viability and sustainability” says Júlio Martins, founder of Everythink.
The award was presented on May 16, , at a Gala Night in Berlin. This is already the third iF Design Award from Everythink, the UPTEC company responsible for the robot design, which won the first prize in 2018 with the creation of a carbon fiber violin and the second in 2019, with the creation of the GigaRouter.