About AgriLab¶
AgriLab started end of 2018, as an open Innovation center in Agriculture and FabLab. It wants to be the bridge between Agriculture, FabLab and the opensource world.
With 1200m2, in a huge building on the University UniLasalle Polytechnique campus in Beauvais (France), we are installed in an agriculture exploitation. We can directly test in the field. A full tractor can enter in the Lab. We have cows and chickens next door and a variety of crops to test different prototypes. We even have some facility to host peoples several days. And we have a huge local network: the agriculture chamber is next door, some major constructor of agronomic equipment have their headquarters in the neighbourhood.
AgriLab is composed of a team of 8 enthusiasts.
Location : AgriLab is located one hour from Paris and less than 5 minutes from an airport serving part of Europe. Located on the campus UniLasalle Polytechnic University, AgriLab has a large number of infrastructure and can facilitate access to housing.
FabAcademy node¶
AgriLab meets all FabAcademy inventory requirements, but goes much further. AgriLab has large equipment for machining because AgriLab is also intended for the agricultural world, Equipment for SMT electronics and composite 3D printers exceed the limited scope of a Lab in urban area. AgriLab is surrounded by agricultural land and allows trying prototypes in real conditions & outside.
Visit AgriLab during this world tour FabAcademy 2021 student’s Bootcamp.
Agriculture¶
Agriculture is a challenging subject. Many peopels have a non realisitic point of view on Agriculture. You can not build a community food process like you grow a basilic plant in your appartment.
Many technical challenges :
Build stuff that resists harsh condition : Humidity, Sun, Wind, Dust, Mud, Snow.
Network coverage : electricity and wireless network are non trivial questions.
Living creature : you can not do projects or tests without respecting life for animal or plants.
Bpex, a box designed for outside sensors. Adapted to agriculture, it protects against rain but allow electronics to measure humidity, temp, gas… Designed with openscad to be 3D printable and fully parametric : size, thread size, angle… BPEX is for Boitier Parametrique Extérieur. Bpex doc
Coronavirus¶
During the pandemic, we first produce material inspired by ULB design , then we created our optimised model for mass production with our laser cutter equipment.
The related documentation to build them
FabAcademy Regional meetings¶
AgriLab is involved in the Central Europe Regional meeting group with the Waag in Amsterdam , ULB in Brussels and Kamp-Lintfort . Each week, students and instructors meet online and exchange on their progress, discoveries and challenges .
We succeed to gather during the short pandemic pause during the 2020 summer to do a FabX meeting in AgriLab and had a great time.
Accreditation and European ECTS¶
This year 2 students from the UniLaSalle group study with this process. They will have 2 diplomas : the engineering diploma delivered by UniLaSalle at the end of 5 years of studies and the FabAcademy diploma delivered by FabFoundation. AgriLab deliver 30 ECTS through the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System recognised by european universities.
AgriLab is involved in the European accreditation group for FabAcademy. We meet once a month to improve high education accreditation in Europe. AgriLab recognise for the French engineering studies FabAcademy as engineering studies .
Those meetings help other FabAcademy nodes in the recognition process of FabAcademy as a higher education study by universities. Other discussion are on the exchange of instructors and students through our network for short period.