Robots for digital pastures

Background and Objective

In the current debate around achieving climate, environmental and biodiversity goals, supplying consumers with regionally produced food is playing an increasingly important role. Organic farming in particular is very labor-intensive - especially for smaller farms - and is therefore often not competitive with large agricultural corporations. In order to maintain the regional diversity of small businesses and to improve supply in the local area, it is important to develop individually adaptable technical solutions. However, this is currently only happening insufficiently, as modern technical solutions based on artificial intelligence and/or robotics are usually only designed for large scales and often require a very high investment volume. With the comparatively large number of small and very small businesses (as of 2016: 3,369 < 10 ha, 10,431 < 50 ha, source: BMEL), there is also enormous potential for digitalization, which, however, must be adaptable to individual circumstances. Furthermore, a public initiative and impulse are necessary to make such new technologies usable for small-scale agriculture and to strengthen them with all their positive effects.

Biodiversity goals can also be supported in organic outdoor farming practices for grazing animals (cows, sheep, water buffalo, etc.) through knowledge of the condition and yield of the pastures. This knowledge can also contribute to species-appropriate rearing and husbandry of the animals. If this data is available on a daily basis in sufficient detail, it can be used to improve work planning and time-intensive activities or, ideally, have them taken over by robot technology. Examples of these activities include maintenance of biomass growth around electric fencing, detecting and eliminating or regulating weeds such as dock (Rumex obtusifolius) and ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), or determining sward biomass yield using plate meters. These activities are time-consuming and monotonous, but must be carried out regularly and with great care.

Approach

In this research project, new technical solutions are developed and tested on farms within several work packages in collaboration between different research areas and practitioners. Navigation and mapping options need to be developed for the use of robots on pastures. Options for automation of weed detection and sward height measurements will be developed and solutions for robotic electric fence maintenance will be assessed. The digital environment for robot use on pastures to assess and define work processes will be graphically displayed in a digital pasture twin. Finally, the usability and quality of the work processes will be tested on farms.

Preliminary Results

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