Aiko and Eldorado Brasil Test Connectivity for Machines in Forests Still Being Planted; This Startup Project Aims to Accelerate Data Collection in Operations of Large Areas Cultivating Trees

A Aiko, A Minas Gerais Startup for Management and Automation of Equipment Used in Planted Forest Areas, Announced the Development of a Project to Connect Eldorado Brasil’s Machines.

A company with about 260 thousand hectares of eucalyptus in Mato Grosso do Sul and also a factory producing 1.8 million tons of cellulose per year. In 2021, the company controlled by Grupo J&F had a revenue of R$ 6 billion.

“This is an innovative solution, extremely beneficial, and cost-effective,” says Aiko’s CEO, Rafael Pereira. 

The estimated area with planted forests in the country is 9.5 million hectares, with 70.1% concentrated in the South and Southeast regions. There are about 7.3 million hectares of eucalyptus and more than 1.8 million of pine, according to the 2021 IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) survey on Production of Vegetal Extraction and Silviculture.

Due to the lack of connectivity in the field, or even poor connectivity, data collection for the entire forest area becomes an additional challenge for operations across large areas.

Aiko and Eldorado Brasil 

In general, in its projects, Aiko uses three types of connectivity: mobile networks (3G and 4G), Wi-Fi, and also M2M collectors. In the case of Eldorado, due to all the characteristics of its operation sites, these M2M collectors and Wi-Fi are the ones that require good connectivity the most, to make these projects and data processing more dynamic and timely.

This technology being developed consists of a mobile structure, which features a satellite network antenna from Starlink, a company of Elon Musk, being even more efficient than the market average, according to the Startup.

“Thus, the machines communicate with the tower via Wi-Fi and send all processed data from that onboard computer to the server instantaneously via satellite,” explains Pereira.