A portrait of Rodja Trappe

Mr Trappe, you are an IT developer, inventor and Icelandic horse lover - and all of this in Münsterland. Does that go together?

I think it fits: The region and my upbringing are a good argument in favour of our IT products. When I tell people that I have developed a robot called Active Cleaner that collects horse droppings, and I also say that I come from Münsterland - it's not just any region, but a well-known horse region.

What was your childhood like in Münsterland?

I had a great childhood in which my brother and I tried out lots of things. We rode our horses for hours in the forest. Towards Hülshoff there were real canyons to ride up and down. A bit of adventure was important to me. There was everything on the horse farm, including tools to build stalls or reassemble bicycles. I spent a lot of time in nature, painting and drawing. When I was twelve, I wished for a computer and got one. It was state of the art, a 386 with a colour screen - and I first unscrewed it to understand the inner workings. I also used to work on the horse farm, I was on duty on Sunday mornings - even if there was a party on Saturday evening. I helped with the harvest, mucked out, travelled with the tractor and got to know the Münsterland region off the beaten track.

So you know the work on the farms and in agriculture from your own experience - does that help you as an entrepreneur and IT developer?

This is an advantage, because thanks to my connection to the countryside, I can get into dialogue with customers and farmers and understand what they mean and can relate the IT applications to their own lives. I actually enjoy greater credibility thanks to my background.

What role does the horse play as an economic factor in the Münsterland region?

A big one. The horse industry is first and foremost a leisure industry - even though there is of course sport and top-class sport here. There are simply so many farms with horses, and very different farms: pony farms, horse breeding, dressage or show jumping stables and many more. If we stand here now, I can say: 500 metres over there (points out of the window and points across fields and meadows) is a horse farm, 600 metres over there, 300 metres over there are also horses. That is already an economic factor. We feel this ourselves with our Zauberzeug GmbH: I had plenty of opportunities to test our Active Cleaner stable cleaning robot. However, the most important test location was on our farm - where our family also lives. A test can sometimes be accompanied by setbacks, which is completely okay and acceptable. That's where my parents come in, as they like to try things out themselves and I've probably inherited that from them.

Do you think Münsterland is a suitable region for inventing robots?

Münster is a big plus point as the centre of Münsterland, with a pretty strong university and a very strong university of applied sciences, especially for mechanical engineering. This is a very important anchor for us personally because we recruit employees there. Often Bachelor's or Master's students, some of whom we have also taken on. This is a source of qualified staff who are rooted in the region, want to stay and support the idea: I live in Münsterland and work in a robotics company for the agricultural sector. We are also a member of the Agrotech Valley Forum e.V. association - they are committed to agrotechnology in the Osnabrück region and specifically in Münsterland, because so many agricultural machinery manufacturers and similar companies are based here. We were also able to present ourselves at their joint stand at Agritechnica this year.

Weeds don't die - my arse! Your AI-supported robot Feldfreund rolls over fields and arable land on its own with its soil-friendly caterpillar tracks and can weed, hoe, sow, inspect, analyse or harvest thanks to its inner workings with camera and precision tools. You have thus won the Innovation Award Craft 2023 NRW of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Congratulations to you! What does this success mean to you?

This feels incredibly good and is wonderful on so many levels: I myself slipped into the skilled trades as a computer scientist because we have to map everything - we wanted to build a robot - that's just not possible if you only write software. It involves craftsmanship, metal construction, mechanical engineering, everything. That's why this is an accolade for us. We build the machines so that they fulfil their purpose.

Your company buildings in timber frame construction with floor-to-ceiling windows and a view of the countryside are located on the edge of the industrial estate in Havixbeck, right on the edge of the field, so to speak. Do you utilise the nearby nature?

I actually meet up with a colleague every fortnight, we walk for around two and a half hours, preferably in the nearby tree mountains, and we talk about technical things, about agriculture, what we want to change, what needs to be programmed, which people we need - it works really well when we're walking. And from my desk, I can see directly into Münsterland!

Do you already have concrete projects for the future?

Yes - the Active Cleaner travels with horses in the run, fits under fences and is very robust. We therefore had to put the cameras that view the horse droppings on the roof of a stable. That's why it doesn't yet work on a large pasture outside. The field friend, on the other hand, drives through deep ground, is precise and slow. We have a combination in mind: A kind of robot that drives across the grassland and recognises and eliminates sorrel or ragwort. The idea would be a small AI-controlled robot that is used before the harvest to ensure good hay quality. We're already getting a lot of enquiries about this, it's currently in the pipeline.

Thank you for talking to us and we look forward to more agricultural robots made in Münsterland!