The document summarizes a team's final presentation on their autonomous vehicle project called Autonomow. It introduces the 9 team members and their backgrounds. It then describes the team's initial business plan to develop and sell autonomous vehicles for mowing and weeding applications to reduce labor costs. The team conducted extensive customer interviews and research, culminating in the development of a prototype weed-eliminating robot called "Carrotbot" over the course of a week. The presentation outlines the technical challenges and opportunities in weed identification and elimination, and validates a market need among farmers struggling with manual weeding labor. It proposes a business growth path focusing initially on providing an autonomous weeding service to organic vegetable growers.

1. FINAL PRESENTATION Team Autonomow ENGR-245 For further information contact Heraud_Jorge@gsb.stanford.edu Confidential

2. 9 Masters degrees 1 PHD and lots of passion Jorge Heraud (MS Management, 2011) Business Unit Director, Agriculture, Trimble Navigation Director of Engineering, Trimble Navigation MS&E (Stanford), MSEE (Stanford), BSEE (PUCP, Peru) Lee Redden (MSME Robotics, Jun 2011) Research in haptic devices, autonomous systems and surgical robots BSME (U Nebraska at Lincoln) Family Farms in Nebraska Joe Bingold (MBA, Jun 2011) Head of Product Development for Naval Nuclear Propulsion Plant Control Systems, US Navy MSME (Naval PGS), BSEE (MIT), P.E. in Control Systems Fred Ford (MSME, Mar 2011) Senior Eng for Mechanical Systems on Military Satellites BS Aerospace Eng (U of Michigan) Uwe Vogt (MBA, Jun 2011) Technical Director & Co-Owner, Sideo Germany (Sub. Vogt Holding) PhD Mechanical Engineering (FAU, Germany) MS Engineering (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Additionally, we got great help from Morgan Quigley (PhD in computer vision) Awesome mentors Carrotbot1.0 Confidential

3. Our initial plan Confidential

4. Business Plan Autonomous Vehicles for Mowing & Weeding Dealers sell, installs and supports customer Co. trains dealers, supports dealers - Innovation - Customer Education - Dealer training Mowing - Owners of public or commercially used green spaces (e.g. golf courses) - Landscaping service provider Weeding - Farmers with manual weeding operations We reduce operating cost - Labor reduction - Better utilization of assets (eg mow or weed at nights) - Improved performance (less rework, food safety) - Dealers (Mowing and Ag) - Vehicle OEMs (John Deere, Toro, Jacobsen, etc) - Research labs - Mowing Dealers - Ag Dealers Engineers on Autonomous vehicles, GPS, path-planning Dealer discount COGS seek a 50-60% Gross Margin Heavy R&D investment Asset sale Our revenue stream derives from selling the equipment Confidential

6. White Farms, Large Peanut farmer in Georgia

7. REFCO Farms, large grower in Salinas Valley

8. Rincon Farms, large grower in Salinas Valley

9. Small Organic Corn/Soy grower in Nebraska

10. Heirloom Organics, small owner/operator, Santa Cruz Mts

11. Two small organic farmers at farmers market

13. Parks: Stanford Grounds Supervisor, head of maintenance and lead operator (has crew of 6)

14. Toro dealer (large mower manufacturer)

15. User of back-yard mowing system

16. Maintenance Services for City of Los Altos

17. Colony Landscaping (Mowing service for stadiums)Confidential

18. Hand weed control is a Nightmare Crews of 100s needed Labor getting harder to get Back-breaking task 2-3 weedings per crop Food contamination risk $250-1,000 per acre Confidential

19. Autonomous vehicles aren’t needed Confidential

20. Autonomous vehiclesWEEDING Dealers sell, installs and supports customer Co. trains dealers, supports dealers - Innovation - Customer Education - Dealer training - Low density vegetable growers - High density vegetable growers - Thinning operations - Conventional vegetables We reduce operating cost - Labor reduction (100 to 1) - Reduced risk of contamination - Mitigate labor availability concerns - Ag Dealers - Ag Service providers - Research labs - Ag Dealers - Ag Service providers Engineers on Machine Vision Two problems: - Identification - Elimination Dealer discount COGS seek a 50-60% Gross Margin Heavy R&D investment Asset sale Our revenue stream derives from selling the equipment Confidential

22. Integrated Crop Pest Management, California

23. Coastal Tractor, California

24. Ag West Supply, Oregon

25. Martin Kleinschmit, Organic Farmer in Nebraska

26. Burks Tractor, Idaho

27. FISCHER Landtechnik, Germany

28. GARTNER, Land, Forst-und Kommunaltechnik, Germany

29. Fisher Equipment Supply (John Deere Dealer), McMinville, OR

31. Recruited Computer Vision Engineer (Morgan)

32. Interviewed Ken Giles from UC Davis

33. Interviewed David Slaughter from UC DavisVisit Bolthouse farms in Avenal, CA Confidential

34. 1 Week – 1 CarrotBot Confidential

35. Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Confidential

36. CarrotBot meets the Carrot FieldWednesday Confidential

38. Use Hyper-Spectral Imaging

39. Weed elimination needs more work

40. Partner with Ken Giles of UC DavisConfidential

41. World Ag Expo interviews:the need is real and wide spread 10+ interviews at show Everyone confirmed the need Robocrop, UK based, crude competitor sells for $171 K Revenue Stream Mid to small growers prefer a service Large growers prefer to buy, but OK with service until technology is proven Charging for labor cost saved is OK, as we provide other benefits (food safety, labor availability) Confidential

42. Autonomous weeding - Final Direct - Provide high quality service at competitive price - Innovation - Customer Education - Dealer training - Low density vegetable growers - High density vegetable growers - Thinning operations - Conventional vegetables We reduce operating cost - Labor reduction (100 to 1) - Reduced risk of contamination - Mitigate labor availability concerns - Ag Service providers - Research Institutes (eg UC Davis, Laser Zentrum Hannover) - 3-4 key farms Direct - Alliance with service providers - Eventually sell through dealers Engineers on Machine Vision Two problems: - Identification - Elimination Costs for service provision COGS seek a 50-60% Gross Margin Heavy R&D investment Service provision - Charge by the acre with modifier according to weed density - Eventually move to asset sale Confidential

44. Consumers care about fair labor practicesConfidential

45. Veggies Lose against Weeds Confidential

46. But hand weeding is unsustainable Confidential

47. Robotic elimination is 10x cheaper 100:1 labor advantage Farmers struggle with labor availability Hand weeding risks food contamination Confidential

48. Growth Path For Autonomow

49. We Are starting the company Sep 2011 Funding Jun 2011 Graduation Sep2012 First unit Mar 2011 Technology Track Advisory board member & minimize risk Proof of concept First unit System design Market Track Select 1st target crop Advisory board member & minimize risk Get first customer order Finance Track Series A Screening strategic seed investment by domain experts Confidential

50. Q&A For further information contact Heraud_Jorge@GSB.stanford.edu (408) 718 7457 Q&A: Confidential

51. Laser solution seems promising Laser Zentrum Hannover German laser research lab Currently studying using lasers for weed control Findings: Effective and efficient Maximal dose of 5 J mm2 CO2 laser better than diode Source: “Laser Light Beams for Weed Control in Horticulture” C. Woltjen, et. al., LZH

52. UC davis Over 10 years of weed recognition and elimination research Hyper-spectral imaging Precision spray of hot organic oil Dr. David Slaughter, UC Davis Source: “Autonomous robotic weed control systems”, D.C. Slaughter, et. al. Computers & Electronics in Agriculture, 2008

54. Product Offering Daily rental: All Inclusive Weeding Kit Equipment Trainer/Operator Logistics Maintenance “I like it, because I need to pay for the equipment only when needed. Plus, you guys make sure the technology works“. “I like it, but once the technology is robust, I want to buy.” “I like it, because it allows us to test a new service in different small-acreage environments. Eventually, I want to buy.“ Competition does asset sale with mixed success: one of the “Vincents” bought a Robocrop, but cannot operate it. competitor

55. Growth for Organic Farms Technology Matures

56. Week 2 – Business Canvas Dealers sell, installs and supports customer Co. trains dealers, supports dealers - Innovation - Customer Education - Dealer training Mowing - Owners of public or commercially used green spaces (e.g. golf courses) - Landscaping service provider Weeding - Farmers with manual weeding operations We reduce operating cost - Labor reduction - Better utilization of assets (eg mow or weed at nights) - Improved performance (less rework, food safety) - Dealers (Mowing and Ag) - Vehicle OEMs (John Deere, Toro, Jacobsen, etc) - Research labs - Mowing Dealers - Ag Dealers Engineers on Autonomous vehicles, GPS, path-planning Dealer discount COGS seek a 50-60% Gross Margin Heavy R&D investment Asset sale Our revenue stream derives from selling the equipment Confidential

57. Autonomous vehiclesWEEDING Dealers sell, installs and supports customer Co. trains dealers, supports dealers - Innovation - Customer Education - Dealer training - Low density vegetable growers - High density vegetable growers - Thinning operations - Conventional vegetables We reduce operating cost - Labor reduction (100 to 1) - Reduced risk of contamination - Mitigate labor availability concerns - Ag Dealers - Ag Service providers - Research labs - Ag Dealers - Ag Service providers Engineers on Machine Vision Two problems: - Identification - Elimination Dealer discount COGS seek a 50-60% Gross Margin Heavy R&D investment Asset sale Our revenue stream derives from selling the equipment Confidential

59. Marketing

60. Demo and customer feedback

61. Farming conventions.

62. Demo, demo, and demo!!

63. Proximity is paramount

64. Organic Farmers

65. Weeding Service Providers

66. Conventional Farmers

67. Cost Reduction

68. Remove labor force pains

69. Eliminate bio-waste hazards

70. Research Labs

71. Equipment Manufacturers

72. Distribution Network

73. Service Providers

74. IP – Patents

75. Video Classifier Files

76. Robust Technology

77. Dealers

78. Direct Service

79. Indirect Service

80. … then Dealers

81. Asset Sale

82. Direct Service with equipment rental

83. … then Asset SaleValue-Driven

85. Marketing

86. Demo and customer feedback

87. Farming conventions.

88. Demo, demo, and demo!!

89. Proximity is paramount

90. Mid/Large Organic Farmers

91. Agricultural corporations

92. Weeding Service Providers

93. Mid/Large Conventional Farmers

94. Cost Reduction

95. Remove labor force pains

96. Eliminate bio-waste hazards

97. Research Labs

98. Equipment Manufacturers

99. Distribution Network

100. Service Providers

101. IP – Patents

102. Video Classifier Files

103. Robust Technology

104. Direct Service

105. Indirect Service

106. … then Dealers

107. Direct Service with equipment rental

108. ($1,500/d; 120d/yr )

109. Low density: $1,500/d

110. High density: $6,000/dValue-Driven

112. Marketing

113. Demo and customer feedback

114. Farming conventions.

115. Demo, demo, and demo!!

116. Proximity is paramount

117. Mid/Large Organic Farmers

118. Agricultural corporations

119. Weeding Service Providers

120. Mid/Large Conventional Farmers

121. Research Labs

122. Equipment Manufacturer

123. Distribution Network

124. Service Providers

125. 2 or 3 Key Farms

126. Cost Reduction

127. Remove labor force pains

128. Eliminate bio-waste hazards

129. IP – Patents

130. Video Classifier Files

131. Robust Technology

132. Direct Service

133. Indirect Service

134. … then Dealers

135. Direct Service with equipment rental

136. Low density: $1,500/d

138. Bill of Materials

139. Training & Service