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CIC - Coppenrath Innovation Center - Where we work

Our offices are located in sheds 12 to 14, where we welcome guests and demonstrate robots and machines, e.g. in autonomous docking at a charging station. However, the real demos and test environment take place in Arenshorst, where our workshop is located and autonomous robots interact with real plants in the fenced-in AI Market Garden test environment.

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Offices in the CIC - Woodcubes

We are a young, agile tech scaleup that places great value on sustainability. Fittingly, we work in wooden cubes and have a view of the greenery and the River Hase, which meanders around the building, as well as the train station and the trains that pass through. This makes the workplace the perfect sweet spot for developing new innovative ideas and turning them into products. And a few doors down, you can ponder solutions with doctoral students from the Joint Lab or meet up for a coffee with people from the local companies.

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Gut Arenshorst & AI Market Garden - Where we integrate and test

Arenshorst, Bohmte is 20 km to the north-east and one train stop away from our office in Osnabrück. We are located in the middle of nature on the grounds of a former golf course. In the 2000 square meter fenced-in robot test site, we can test our robots and our customers’ robots autonomously over long periods of time, for example in vegetable patches, and further advance technologies such as laser weeding and selective hoeing. The site is adjacent to an old manor house with its own moat. We have a workshop and offices right next to the test site, which allows us extremely fast integration cycles. In Osnabrück, we develop and test autonomy software in the simulation; in Arenshorst, we then transfer the software modules to the real machine and can then make changes to the code very quickly, build entire robots and assemble hardware and sensors.

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Network - With corporations to success

At the CIC, the Coppenrath Innovation Center, a strong network of companies and researchers are working together on AI, robotics and AgTech and developing the agriculture of the future, working closely with the players in Agrotech Valley, the DFKI, Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences, the Joint Lab and the other companies and innovation departments in the CIC. Osnabrück and the surrounding area is at the heart of the AgTech scene, as leading agricultural machinery manufacturers such as Claas, Krone, Lemken, Grimme and Amazone develop their machines and new technologies here.

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Coppenrath Innovation Center

The CIC is a flagship project of the Aloys and Brigitte Coppenrath Foundation, which is located in the immediate vicinity of Osnabrück Central Station. Here, forward-looking architecture is combined with the exciting topic of artificial intelligence (AI). A total of 18 research institutions and companies have found their home in the Innovation Hub. Together, they are dedicated to researching and developing AI solutions, with a focus on the agricultural and healthcare sectors. The CIC offers space for exchange, collaboration and innovation and thus promotes dialog between science, the start-up scene, industry and trade.

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At the heart of a new sustainable district

The Lokviertel: One of Germany’s most exciting urban development projects is being built on around 30 soccer pitches in the middle of Osnabrück - within walking distance of the main railway station, where Europe’s main railroad lines intersect. The planning takes into account local climate and environmental conditions and focuses on sustainability as a central guiding principle - in ecology, architecture and social interaction. Together with the city of Osnabrück and the state of Lower Saxony, a sustainable district is being created here that combines innovative ideas with concrete social and ecological added value. Take a look at it as a virtual tour.

Team

We are an agile team of experts in AI and robotics, with over 10 years of experience in the robotics industry and more than 15 years in agricultural machinery. Our passion is to blend technology with nature to create intelligent, nature-inspired solutions that benefit both industry and the environment. With our extensive expertise in automation and a strong commitment to sustainability, we work as innovators at the forefront of our field.

Nature Robots Team Photo
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CEO

Dr. Sebastian Pütz
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CTO

Malte kl. Piening
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COO

Gerrit Woeckner
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CSO

Sven Lake
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AI Software Engineer

Christopher Bröcker
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Robot Software Engineer

Marvin Schulte
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Robot Software Engineer

Matthias Holoch
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Robot Hardware Engineer

Manuel Ballmann
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Robot Software Engineer

Georg John
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Student Robot Software Engineer

Timo Dobrowolski
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Student Robot Software Engineer

Arthur Chavant
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Student Worker Design

Caroline Diersmann
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Student Worker Management

Christina Pfafenro

Advisory Board

Marc Matthaeus

Strategic advisor and operations leader supporting B2B tech and manufacturing companies. Spent 15 years at AGCO Corporation, serving as Vice President & General Manager of the Hay & Forage product line, Vice President of the Global Strategy & Integration function, and Director & Strategic Coach for the North American region.

Prof. Dr. Karin Schnitker

Prof. in Business Management at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. 15 years in various nat. / int. business roles. After various management roles Dean of Studies at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Landscape Architecture and co-project manager of the university's Startuplab@HS.

Prof. Dr. Joachim Hertzberg

Prof. for Computer Science, Robotics and AI at Osnabrück University. Managing Director, German Research Center of Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) Niedersachsen. Head, Plan-Based Robot Control research department at DFKI. Research fields: AI, Robot Control, and their applications in agriculture.

Prof. Dr. Wolfram Burgard

Prof. in Robotics and AI and Founding Chair of the Engineering Department at Technical University of Nuremberg. Fellow of ECCAI and AAAI. Member of Leopoldina and Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 2009.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Stiene

Prof. for Intelligent Agriculture Systems at University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück. Head of the DFKI competence center Smart Agriculture Technologies. Project leader of Gaia-X research project Agri-Gaia. Research fields: Autonomous robot navigation and 3D data processing.

Erik Pekkeriet

Programme Manager Vision + Robotics at Wageningen University & Reserach. Founding father and network coordinator of agROBOfood. Chair of the topic group Agricultural Robots at EU Robotics. Chair at Greenhouse Horticultuire section at Dutch Society of Technology in Agriculture. Advisory board member of the European Machine Vision Forum

Prof. Dr. Dieter Trautz

Prof. for agroecology and environmentally friendly land management: Cultivation in organic farming, mixed crops, precision farming in organic farming, technology transfer organic farming - conventional farming, climate change - effects on land management

Prof. Nick Hawes, PhD

Prof. in AI and Robotics at the University of Oxford and Director of the Oxford Robotics Institute. Leads the GOALS research group. Research into long-term autonomy, mission planning for mobile robots, and sequential decision-making under uncertainty.

Our Journey

Timeline of Our Achievements

Follow our path from the beginning to where we are today

Jul 2014

First Research Paper

Integrating semantic information in navigational planning.
Nov 2015

First ROS Software Implementation

First complete and flexible ROS software implementation and successful experiments for advanced robot navigation framework for autonomous outdoor missions in uneven terrain.
Jun 2016

First Research Paper about 3D Navigation

First paper about 3D Navigation Mesh Generation for Path Planning in Uneven Terrain.
Sep 2017

Move Base Flex

Move Base Flex as the universal, flexible navigation framework was made open source. Followed by a ROSCon Talk in Vancouver, Canada in September 2017.
Oct 2018

IROS Research Paper

Move Base Flex: A highly flexible navigation framework was made open source.
Jul 2019

First Founders & Friends Gathering & BBQ

Apr 2021

EXIST Transfer of Research Positive Response

Nature Robots achieved a positive response for the EXIST Transfer of Research program, Germany’s most prestige federal funding program for Spin-offs from research institutions. The starting date of the 3-year program was set to October 2021.
Jan 2022

Incorporation of Nature Robots GmbH

Official incorporation as Nature Robots GmbH in January 2022
Apr 2022

Start of EIP Agri Research Project

The EIP Agri research project started
May 2022

First Lero01 Prototype

Within 7 months after the EXIST Transfer of Research project start, Nature Robots developed and built the Lero01 Field Robot as a first prototype for its solutions in the field of regenerative agriculture.
Mar 2024

Second Lero02 Prototype

First test drives with the second prototype, the Lero02. Being a lot bigger than its predecessor, Lero02 is able to carry more payload and cover more agricultural area during operation.
Oct 2024

Development of Lero03 has started

The official start of Lero03 development. Stay tuned for the latest updates in the near future. Lero03 will be publicly shown in Summer 2025.
Mar 2025

EIC Accelerator Blended Finance Project Approval

Nature Robots achieved the milestone of securing 2.5M€ of non-equity funding with an additional 4M€ of equity funding for a future financing round. The EIC Accelerator is among the most prestigious funding programs for startups in Europe. The project starts in May 2025 with a total duration of 24 months.