Dutch agriculture faces huge sustainability challenges related to environmental, labour and societal aspects. Various factors limit incremental improvement of current systems. We start from the new paradigm of ‘technology-4-ecology-based-farming’ (T4E-farming) that will initiate and support the next-generation agricultural production systems that are sustainable, circular and nature-inclusive. We will build and integrate fundamental knowledge from life, technological and social sciences, and provide the technological methods, tools, and human capacities to facilitate acceptance and transition of new production systems into the market. We do this for three use-cases representing the variety of agricultural systems: greenhouse horticulture, dairy production and field crops.
Within this project we resesarch flexure-based robotic systems for weeding in the field and harvesting and maintenance operations in greenhouses.