Agriculture - the basis of our food supply - faces enormous challenges. Much of current agricultural production is based on intensive, industrialized farming and factory farming. This produces high yields, but at the same time consumes large amounts of water, energy, fertilizers and pesticides, requires heavy machinery and uses problematic methods in livestock farming.
This practice is unsustainable, damaging soils, water and air, and is also coming under regulatory pressure. In many previously less automated areas of agriculture, labor availability is a major problem and has been further exacerbated by the Corona pandemic.
The use of robots can make an important contribution in the transition to high-yield and sustainable agricultural production, while strengthening the position of small farms. Agricultural robotics are an important part of highly accurate, efficient farming (precision farming) and enable significant cost and resource savings. In the sense of "smart farming", this makes agriculture more environmentally and climate friendly and animal husbandry more species-appropriate. New approaches from artificial intelligence, especially deep learning, can significantly increase the precision and capabilities of robot-based systems.
These approaches are to be used within the framework of the DeepFarmBots innovation network to develop intelligent robot systems for Agriculture 4.0 and bring them to market. In doing so, the network partners are to benefit from scientific-technical as well as economic synergies.
Going forward, the DeepFarmBots network will be coordinated by Open Research Base (ORB) gGmbH, a non-profit organization. We aim to unite farmers, universities, research institutes, and companies to create comprehensive, real-world digital solutions for the agricultural sector.
Our network is built on a shared mindset: together, we are stronger. Rather than creating isolated, "siloed" solutions, we believe in collaboration, exchanging knowledge, and advancing each other. This creates synergies, prevents duplicated efforts, and speeds up innovation for the benefit of all.
Networking between research, robotics and practice. On June 18 and 19, 2025, the Organic Field Days took place at the Wassergut Canitz GmbH organic farm in Saxony - a place where organic farming and the protection of drinking water are combined in an exemplary manner.
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At the beginning of June, we had the pleasure of meeting at AI.Land as part of the DeepFarmBots network. A big thank you to Josef and the whole team for the hospitality, the inspiring environment and the exciting insights into your ongoing agricultural robotics projects!
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From February 4 to 6, 2025, Toulouse hosted World FIRA, one of the most important international events for field robotics and automated agricultural solutions. DeepFarmBots was right in the thick of things, represented by network manager Sven Lake, who was on site to promote European cooperation in the field of agricultural robotics.
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