Strip-Cropping Systems Robotization: Prototype Design Guidelines For Targeted Fertilisation

Summary

Organic agriculture has an increasing demand, driving conventional farmers to change their businesses 1. In some cases, the lack of attention for biodiversity and soil fertility of current practices may damage the credibility of organic products 2. The SUREVEG project focuses on the implementation of strip-cropping in organic production to improve soil fertility and biodiversity throughout Europe. The aim is to enhance resilience, system sustainability, local nutrient recycling, and soil carbon storage 3. However, husbandry crops grown and mixed in a strip design pose new challenges regarding mechanisation, which in many cases can only be overcome by increasing human tasks 4. To counteract the additional labour of a multi-crop system, one of the main objectives of this project is the development of automated machinery for the management of strip-cropping systems. A robotic tool is proposed, which will be operating upside down, attached to a wide-span mobile carriage similar to gantry systems used in Controlled Traffic Farming. Within the project framework, a modular proof-of-concept version is being produced, combining sensing technologies with actuation in the form of a robotic arm. Despite many robotic developments recently presented, which are designed for weed removal, this proof-of-concept will focus on providing precise organic fertilization. Fertiliser needs will be identified in real-time and carried out on a single-plant scale. Design guidelines of the proposed prototype have been detailed. The planning and control of the manipulator are being developed in two ways: using conventional algorithms and applying machine learning techniques. First results have been also obtained with the sensorics onboard the robotic platform, by using a combination of LiDAR systems and multispectral cameras to localize single plants, and to detect their status, according to fertilisation demands.