MowHawk – The next step in verge management
The MowHawk is a smart (camera) system on the cutter bar of a verge mower that helps to provide more biodiversity, circular use of the grass clippings and insight during the entire verge mowing process.
Benefits
The MowHawk facilitates nature-inclusive verge management. What does this mean?
Nature-inclusive
The MowHawk spares and takes care of nature. By providing the driver with instructions for staged mowing, insect populations gain living space and this provides a breeding ground for returning biodiversity.
Circular processing
The grass clippings that are collected during verge mowing with the MowHawk are suitable for circular reuse. This is possible because a distinction is made in their quality based on the presence of litter and invasive species. This creates a clean resource flow that can be processed in a high-quality manner.
Detection invasive plant species
The spread of invasive plant species is very concerning. The MowHawk detects invasive plant species, which helps in the elimination, as they can be processed in a separate mowing pass. The collected data can be used to implement effective measures to reduce invasive plant species.
Problems with current mowing methods
Maintaining roadsides is a major expense – let alone giving them the ecological attention they should actually deserve. In addition, research shows that current mowing methods cause a decline in biodiversity and insect populations. Another bottleneck is that the clippings contain litter and invasive plant species, which makes it expensive to process. Without the help of the MowHawk, insight in these cases is mediocre.
The MowHawk
The MowHawk offers support to enable nature-inclusive verge management.
Step 1
Realtime mowing instructions
The driver receives instructions about mowing locations and ecological mowing patterns. The property owner can see in realtime where and how mowing is taking place.
Step 2
Measure the quality of grass clippings
The camera system detects litter, invasive plant species and the weight of the clippings. As a result, the composition of the grass clippings can be classified, processed to a high standard and used in a circular manner.
Step 3
Insight based verge management
Information is collected about mowing patterns, mowing frequencies, litter, invasive plant species, biodiversity, clippings and more. This provides more insight and is the first step towards better policy, circularity and the full utilization of the biodiversity potential of roadsides.
“Datacadabra gave us the feeling of having a good understanding of the practical questions we had. They came up with simple but (cost-)effective solutions. The implementation took place in demonstrable steps in both the technical field and the commercialisation of it. The solution helps us to generate important insights from data and achieve our nature-inclusive goals. Furthermore, it brings us a step closer to the circular application of roadside grass. “
Laura van Vuurde – Provincie Overijssel
Do you have any questions?
Would you like to see the MowHawk live in action or do you have any other questions? Leave your details here and we will contact you.
