Robotics design is a synthesis of Industrial and Interaction Design, in order to propose comprehensive solutions to users issues.

Design is essential to promote technical disrupting innovations, translate and orchestrate them in order to ensure users satisfaction.

Here I will showcase both aspects of the work I do for Agreenculture : Industrial and Interaction Design - this page is still under construction

Industrial Design

CEOL is the actual demonstrator dedicated to viticulture, arboriculture and market gardening.

When I began my collaboration within Agreenculture, CEOL had a prototype look.

We started looking for symbols and aesthetics to express Agreenculture's values :

Bravery, Reliability and Heritage

Early stage visuals

Based on the existing frame, I quickly made this concept which wasn't for production but express how to promote Agreenculture's values.

To me, in order to meet the market (robots are not yet deployed) and inspire confidence in users, the recipe is simple : we must be humble yet slick. But…

- What codes can define elegance for an agricultural robot ?

- Where or When can we look for it ?

- How to remain in the mainstream agriculture aesthetic codes while evoking something completely new and make it look at least homogeneous ?

One of CEOL's aspects is "Affordable" : Agreenculture wants to deploy a democratic solution.

For the design, it means a product that you feel close to. A product you can easily read and understand without even thinking about it. You feel familiar with it.

Another aspect of CEOL is the convergence of what - in normal circumstances - could be seen as contradictions.

For example, a very high-tech autonomous solution in a culture of handiwork.

In a way CEOL is the "iPhone" of the agricultural robotics. This is not disruptive, as high precision and automation have been present in agriculture for years. But it happens at a moment where potential users and technology are mature. It's a step in technology evolution. What's new with CEOL is the replacement of the emotional image of the farmer on his tractor.

The last time in history of technical innovations we had this convergence of contradictions and yet opportunities, marking the beginning of a complete new era, was the iPhone of course. Joke aside, where handiwork culture meets high precision, close enough to a mobile self-supporting structure, is in the car industry, especially car racing.

The race cars of late 1920s really inspired me for CEOL as they represent the commitment of an entire team offering the equivalent of high precision and excellence for both manual work and technology.

This is "When" I find the trick which will become the backbone of CEOL's design to orchestrate values, starting with Bravery, Reliability and Heritage.

Of course, race cars weren't an inspiration about target price…

Anthropomorphism awareness sketches

As an introduction to Industrial Design inside Agreenculture, I started with a small contest to familiarize employees with anthropomorphism. I wanted to allow them to express their feelings regarding shapes and proportions, especially in prediction of light integration.

The new frame

With the backbone defined, I orchestrate other aesthetics codes as the mechanical and electrical developments evolve.

The 1920s race cars stick to what is strictly necessary. Every single part has a function and its integration respects two principles in order to make it both usable (visible, following the concept of affordance) and characteristic (through color, symmetric or asymmetric geometry, creating a visual pattern or a uniqueness, etc)

I reproduce this principle on CEOL as it is a professional machine. Actuators, informations and feedbacks (light, signal, etc) must be easily found and understood.

CEOL is orange, so it is easy to distinguish it among the vegetation.

But orange has another meaning. Agreenculture's founder wanted to revive memories of the French tractors of the past, when Renault produced tractors in France.

Although deeply European thanks to its partnerships, the company wishes to celebrate its French origin through a very useful color on the ergonomic level.

Ergonomics also consists in organizing the user interactions poles on the robot which then becomes more a dashboard.

This is how I try to answer the question "How to remain in the mainstream agriculture aesthetic codes while evoking something completely new and make it look at least homogeneous ?"

- Time & Line : CEOL is a step in the history of agriculture and technical evolution. It is a milestone in a large timeline.

- Agriculture aesthetic mainstream code : the "steep-nose" hood design

- Matching contradictions to highlight opportunities : I split design in two areas. The Square will represent the industrial aspect of CEOL, the power, the efficiency, the precision. It sits where the cabin used to sit. The roundness, at the front, represents the Tradition and Heritage CEOL is made from, and also the familiarity and the stamina.

- Being humble to meet the market : CEOL's design is made of only one strong characteristic, one line. Fading from the square area at the back, to the front, where this familiar link resides. This line guides the eye from the back to the front and vice-versa, like a pendulum movement, linking both aspects of Agreenculture's know-how.

The front view of CEOL prefigures what later will express its "face".

Here, the vertical legibility links proximity and connectivity with self-confidence and structural aspects, so user can feel close and reassured by a machine to which he/she will entrust his/her assets in complete autonomy.

AGC Box

Agreenculture's core expertise is certified GNSS positioning.

The strength is to have invested in a single object that can be reconfigured to fit several uses according to businesses or users needs.

To illustrate this strategy and the intelligence behind the product based on more than 10 years of Research & Development, I wanted the box to express preciousness in contrast to the roughness of Agricultural world. I made a white "black box" because it is as precious as a black box, but instead of keeping everything secret, AGC Box is the hub of communications.

The box is slightly raised to create a shadow and a visual emphasis. This choice is also technical. While maintaining a strong contact surface to keep the mechanical relation between the box and the robot, the elevation increases air exchange surface to dissipate the heat through the aluminium.

I also wanted to express openness even if it must remain closed for obvious reasons. This is why AGC Box is pointing to the sky.

This box is really about porosity and interconnectivity. Designing the AGC Box's inside to fit all the electronics, make sure it is feasible, has only one objective, communicate with the outside world.

Thanks to the AGC Box, CEOL can locate himself and ensure it won't go through its certified fence. This box is the starting point of robotization.

Interaction Design

Robotization is intended to serve needs and answer users issues, like any other object human made.

What is different - and exciting as a Designer - with robots, is that they are developed in a way that, from a user's perspective, they have more abilities than conventional tools. CEOL is autonomous in the field, you don't guide it through a remote controller during its mission. It is also able to interact with humans at a very high level.

The design job is to keep the complexity behind the scene and organize tools (user actions) and informations (system feedbacks) to happen at the right moment and the right time.

The Designer leads the discussion so the final user is surprised to discover how easy and natural it is to exchange with the robot, without ever imagining all the technology needed.

System Interaction

Not all of the UX (User eXperience) is on the screen. The interaction is global with the system behind CEOL. The best design is the one you don't see. Before I present screens, I must be grateful to the developers who make the magic happens with the robot.

The fact that user don't have to think about some details means a lot of work for technical teams. For example, one of my favorite feature is the fact that the robot can start its mission from almost anywhere in the field. Otherwise, the cognitive load every day would be huge. Think for a second about the difference it would be to have to remember the exact row in front of which you have to place your robot before launching the mission.

These details make a huge difference. Mobile applications must contribute to this effort for the benefit of the user.

We chose mobile apps which increase technical load instead of a specific device or even an embedded screen, to meet our commitments and make a real autonomous solution, user won't need to stay close to.

Methods

As CEOL is part of a global system, we can not user test only an application.

You can not test drive wheel innovations with users who never drove a car.

This is important to understand why we adapt the methodology here and we create first version of applications based on expert users (like in aeronautics), before we can present a working system to users. Of course we don't develop every feature, even if we imagined a lot of them. We create a MVP application which will evolve based on users feedbacks.

Mission Management

The paradigm of the application is the rule following which all the interactions will be defined. This is a very important step which defines the identity of the product, but above all, the effort the application will require from the user to understand the logic.

The better we refine this part, the faster the user will adapt and find his marks.

After we discussed features priority, I organize the user journey and decline it into a screen flow.

This documentation goes with a detailed wireframe and a small design system to explain the mechanism of assets

Using Adobe XD helps a lot to exchange with developers for production and marketing team for the demonstrations

Land Survey

Description is coming…

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