Vision

The network "DeepFarmBots - AI-based agricultural robotics for effi­cient and sus­tain­able agriculture" aims to create new products, processes and services for the use of agricultural robots in different application areas of agriculture. Particular emphasis will be placed on developing technical solutions that can be used in multiple robotic systems across applications.

Some of the players in the network bring a deep understanding of agricultural practices and valuable access to farmers. In this industry, it is of particular importance to understand the user side, and to always consider their needs or requirements for technical systems during development. Economic aspects also play an important role in the course of developments, as new agricultural robotic solutions compete with conventional agricultural machinery technology. This places demands on the agricultural robots to be developed to be both powerful and effi­cient, but not disproportionately complex, in order to exhibit the greatest possible robustness. These basic ideas represent the mission and vision of the network.

The central goal of the network is to develop new technical solutions for the essential, so far open tasks in agricultural robotics through synergistic cooperation between the participating companies and research institutions, and to develop joint concepts for their commercialization. The robot systems are intended to offer an alternative to current agricultural practices, some of which are not very environmentally friendly, and to replace them in the medium to long term. On the technological side, the R&D projects within the network are aimed in particular at linking agricultural robotics with new approaches from artificial intelligence, especially deep learning, in order to significantly increase the precision and capabilities of robot-based systems.

The future viability of agricultural practice in terms of efficiency and sustainability is one of the main tasks of agribusiness in order to ensure both the supply of humanity and the conservation of essential resources and the environment. This opens up excellent market prospects for new technological developments in this field in Germany, the EU and worldwide. The aim of the synergistic and cooperative approach planned in the network is thus also to create global market and competitive advantages for the participating companies and to work jointly towards a leading role for German players in this extremely promising area of agricultural technology.

In summary, the network addresses a topic of increasing importance in the agricultural industry, which is associated with overarching unsolved technical problems. At the same time, the need for action is enormous due to the problems in agriculture described at the beginning, from which a great market relevance for new, innovative solutions that make agricultural practice more effi­cient and sus­tain­able is derived.