Bringing the farmer perspective to agricultural robots
Revitalizing Agriculture with Labor-Saving Tech
Navigating Change in Agriculture's New Era
Farmers are grappling with many challenges, including labor shortages, soaring costs of essential resources like fertilizer, seeds, fuel, and farming equipment, and the disruptive impacts of climate change. These challenges are making it tough for farmers to adapt and succeed in the changing agricultural landscape. They need to be resilient and resourceful to overcome these obstacles.
Robs4Crops- Helping farmers to thrive
The EU funded project ROBS4CROPS aspires to deliver a labour saving, fully autonomous robotic system for spraying and mechanical weeding, together with a supporting ecosystem, ready for wide-scale adoption. Featuring smart implements, autonomous vehicles, and high- level software for planning and scheduling, this innovative system will help farmers reduce
labour requirements and reduce costs.
Smart implements
Sprayer implements will support the entire application loop ranging from perception up to decision and actuation. Weeding implements like IC-weeder from Steketee will be equipped with additional sensors to assess in real-time the effectiveness of the implement
Autonomous vehicles
Autonomous robots/tractors with a sensing of environment, localisation and navigation that are able to communicate with smart implements.
Farming controller
Planning and scheduling software. The Farming controller uses Digital Twin technology for pro-active and reactive planning and scheduling. Data is stored in FMIS/ERP, along with all other information needed by the Farming controller.
Large- scale pilots
ROBS4CROPS is demonstrating robotic farming in large-scale pilots in four European countries. From mechanical weeding and table grape spraying in vineyards to mechanical weeding in arable crops and apple orchards spraying, these pilots are organised in The Netherlands, France, Spain, and Greece. In each pilot, farmers, engineers, and scientists are jointly working to establish robotic spraying and weeding in farming practice. Large-scale trials serve as a “proof testing” of the technical advances and demonstrators of socio-economic benefits and business potential of the Robs4Crops robotic farming system.
"Agriculture is very sensitive to the cost and scarcity of labour. And making cultivation practices more efficient and sustainable is critical. Robs4Crops is a game-changer in revitalising the European food and farm industry and the vital catalyst in accelerating the adoption of high-tech robotics and automated technologies in agriculture."
Dr Frits van Evert
Senior Scientist at Wageningen University &
Research and Robs4Crops Project Coordinator
Research and Robs4Crops Project Coordinator
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Our Resources
Explore our knowledge base- deliverables and scientific publications to stay updated on the latest advancements in agricultural robotics.
Partners
Robs4Crops is a four-year project co-funded under Horizon 2020, the EU research and innovation programme. Led by Wageningen University and Research, the consortium is a diverse and dynamic network of partners, representing key players in pure robotic science and engineering, agricultural robotics industry, agricultural and social sciences, real-world farming, and sustainability-driven innovation practices and collaborative business models.
Project Coordination
Wageningen University & Research
Department of Agrosystems Research
PO Box 16
6700 AA Wageningen
The Netherlands
info@robs4crops.eu
Project Communication
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101016807.
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