Interview with Christophe BLONDIAUX,President and co-founder of IC Green

Can you tell us how IC Green came about?  

I trained as an engineer and have an MBA in business creation. For many years, I managed IT projects for major corporations. But I’ve always been driven by an entrepreneurial spirit. About ten years ago, I set up my first company, AeroScoot, specializing in hydro-propelled machines. But the market was quite small. So I looked for another business creation project that would meet an unmet need and a large market. It was while fighting weeds in my garden that I came up with the idea of finding an environmentally-friendly weeding robot, a solution that didn’t yet exist on the market. I canvassed the opinions of several specialists: landscapers to understand the issues involved in weed control, and engineers to evaluate the various technologies that could provide an answer to this problem. Artificial intelligence emerged as the most appropriate technological response. Thanks to changes in environmental regulations, weed control on sports fields has emerged as the most promising market. Indeed, the extension of the Labbé law to July 2022 led to a ban on phytosanitary products on most sports fields (soccer, rugby, lawn tennis, etc.). As of January 1, 2025, it will also apply to very large sports fields (such as racecourses and golf courses).

With DAVID Weber, the other co-founder, we created IC Green in 2022 and worked on the design of an autonomous, intelligent mechanical weeding robot for grassed sports fields.

What’s so special about your robot? 

Our Sportee™ robot is equipped with computer vision coupled with an artificial intelligence (AI) system capable of accurately discriminating images of grasses (turf) from images of weeds (clover, plantain or dandelion, which are the most common weeds on sports fields). Thanks to its GPS navigation system and mechanical weeding tools (rotary claws), it scours the field autonomously, locating weeds which it exfoliates and shreds, leaving the turf intact. This repeated mechanical stress weakens weeds, whose resistance is weaker than that of grasses, gradually leading to their regression or even disappearance.

How did you integrate the artificial intelligence technology into your product? What stage of development is IC Green at today?   

I was lucky enough to be in contact very quickly with INRIA (Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique) to develop the AI technology, and with SATT Linksium (Sociétés d’Accélération du Transfert de Technologies) for human, legal and financial support. A post-doctoral AI expert wrote the AI algorithms, and I put together a set of 8,000 lawn images to train the AI and test its performance, while continuing to exchange ideas and involve green space professionals.
The integration of an artificial intelligence system wasn’t the most complex part of this project, as we ended up having more challenges with other technological aspects, which have now been resolved. I built the first prototype robots with the French POC, an innovation platform located in the Ain region. We had three beta-testing customers, Olympique Lyonnais, LOSC Lille and a distributor in Brittany, which enabled us to identify and solve the final problems.
In 2024, we carried out no fewer than 150 demonstrations, leading to around ten firm orders, and almost all our prospective customers are fully convinced of the relevance of this robotized solution.

At SalonVert, IC GREEN was awarded the Innovation prize in the “Sports Grounds Maintenance” category.

What are the advantages of your solution over traditional methods? What is the economic and environmental impact of your solution? 

There are three main traditional methods for suppressing weeds. The first is to spray chemicals. But regulations no longer allow this, as I explained earlier. The second is manual weeding, which requires a large team of gardeners, and the third is the use of a “lawn comb”, a method that is not very selective and is very aggressive on the soil. This method requires reseeding, which makes it quite costly.

Our SporteeTM robot uses no phytosanitary inputs and offers a very competitive cost of €70 per hectare, without human intervention. The existing turf is not damaged, so there’s no extra cost for re-grassing. There’s no need to invest in a tractor or spreader. Our patented mechanical weeding solutions are environmentally friendly, eliminating all the risks associated with the toxicity and harmfulness of chemical products.

What are your short- and medium-term objectives?

Coseec, a company specializing in flooring and sports equipment, will be responsible for the deployment of our Sportee robot in 2025. The robot will benefit from exclusive distribution in a third of France.

I chose a fabless startup. We’re lucky enough to be in the heart of an industrial region, so it’s not difficult to find partners. Today, the robots are manufactured and assembled by industrial companies located between Valence and Annecy. When volumes are sufficient, I don’t rule out the idea of opening a manufacturing plant in Crolles or the Grenoble region.
In the medium term, we’ll be able to adapt the robot to more demanding grassed sites, such as golf courses or military cemeteries. Another avenue of development could concern data. At present, we’ve opted for real-time data processing without storage. This means that we don’t have any historical data with which to analyze the evolution of the situation. Eventually, we could create a post-processing analysis tool to optimize the robot’s use. We have no known competitors in the world today, so we’re considering international development, but not before 2026.