Low-cost design proposal of a modular telescopic autonomous agricultural robot
Publication date
2026-04-16
Document type
Forschungsartikel
Author
Organisational unit
Publisher
MDPI
Series or journal
Agronomy
ISSN
Periodical volume
16
Periodical issue
8
Article ID
818
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Funding(s)
Language
English
Keyword
Autonomous robotics
Digitized farming
Organic farming
Mechanical robotic platform
Precision farming
Sustainable farming
Pilot study
Local production
Northern Germany
dtec.bw
Abstract
The application of autonomous robotics in food production is still in its infancy but bears significant potential, especially in the sector of precision farming. Here we present the results of a survey conducted during the years 2022–2023 with local farmers in Northern Germany to identify the challenges that are being faced by both conventional and organic farming practices due to climate change and increased food production regulations in the EU region. Additionally, a pilot study with a medium-sized (Demeter) farm is presented, identifying the real needs and problems organic farmers face during their food production chain from seeding, weeding, and maintaining the equipment till bringing in the harvest. The results indicate a strong demand for modular, autonomous, and digitized solutions to address key challenges in agricultural production. To address these challenges we propose a novel mechanical robotic platform design that has been developed in accordance with the Fab City principles of open and local production resulting in a low-cost open-source solution.
Description
This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Version
Published version
Access right on openHSU
Metadata only access