Automation in agriculture Research for the future of agricultural technology
*** Press release from Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences ***
Interdisciplinary joint project between Ostfalia, TU Braunschweig and TU Clausthal aims to establish foundations for Europe-wide standards in cooperation with industry
Researchers from various disciplines at Ostfalia University, TU Braunschweig and TU Clausthal are working towards a common goal: a comprehensive development guide for a safety and automation concept for agricultural machinery (GESAL) that brings together safety, technological and legal requirements.
The interdisciplinary project is being managed by Ostfalia University and will receive around £2.7 million in funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) until October 2027.
“Automated agricultural machinery is at the heart of current innovation and transformation processes in agriculture. Unlike automated passenger cars, the focus here is not only on driving, but also on carrying out complex agricultural work processes under sometimes difficult environmental conditions,” explains project manager Prof. Dr. Harald Bachem from Ostfalia University. The challenges ranged from technical issues relating to sensor use and process assurance to clarifying the legal framework, which includes European product safety law, liability law and environmental law. In order to be as well prepared as possible for potential hurdles, the GESAL project is developing a development guideline – the so-called Code of Practice – which can be used as a guide for the automation of agricultural machinery throughout Europe in the future.
The interdisciplinary project combines expertise from various fields in three sub-projects:
Sub-project A is the responsibility of Ostfalia University, specifically the Vehicle Safety Teaching and Research Area (LFF), and deals with the hardware safety of automated agricultural machinery. The aim is to develop a sensor architecture for automated agricultural machinery that ensures the reliable operation of the machines. To this end, a digital twin – a virtual model – of the agricultural machine is created in a computer simulation. In this environment, various sensors and their arrangement are then tested and compared with each other. In addition, various AI object recognition models are being developed to reliably detect safety-critical objects, such as deer, under various disturbance variables, such as dust or fog.
The Institute for Mobile Machines and Commercial Vehicles (IMN) and the Institute for Law (IRW) at Technische Universität Braunschweig together form sub-project B. As part of the project, the IRW is researching the key legal issues surrounding this future technology. The focus is on product safety, liability, approval and environmental law, as well as the question of which rules enable safe and responsible use. The results of these analyses will be published in order to make a well-founded contribution to the scientific discourse.
In this project, the IMN is looking at process reliability, which plays a key role in the automation of agricultural work processes. While farmers continuously monitor the work process and adjust process parameters on conventional tractors, autonomous agricultural machines take on this responsibility themselves. Prof. Dr. Ludger Frerichs from the IMN at TU Braunschweig comments: “Process safety must be understood in two ways. The processes must function safely, i.e. perform the task correctly under all conditions, and they must be safe in terms of the hazards they may pose.”
Subproject C is dedicated to the software safety of automated agricultural machinery and is being carried out by the Institute for Software and Systems Engineering (ISSE) at Technische Universität Clausthal under the direction of Prof. Dr. Andreas Rausch. The aim is to develop a safety concept that ensures reliable operation even in the event of malfunctions – such as GPS drift or unexpected and unknown obstacles in the working environment. To this end, the ISSE is designing a software architecture with clearly defined building blocks and middleware solutions that will be closely integrated with the planned sensor and hardware technology. The methods used here originate from the field of automated driving of road vehicles and are being specifically adapted to the requirements of agriculture.
“In the first six months of the project, we were already able to implement numerous steps for the development of the Code of Practice,” explains Ostfalia scientist Bachem. European regulations – including the Machinery, Data and AI Regulations – were examined and concrete requirements for the application of automated agricultural machinery were derived from them. In addition, a worst-case scenario is being developed to systematically examine safety-critical operating situations.
According to project manager Bachem, automated agricultural machinery offers considerable potential for increasing efficiency, ensuring process quality and reducing the workload of agricultural workers. “This is an important issue, particularly in light of the increasing shortage of skilled workers and growing demands for sustainability and resource conservation,” he says. At the same time, however, automation poses fundamental challenges in both technical and legal terms. The GESAL project therefore focuses precisely on the interfaces between the research areas and involves industry. It aims to responsibly exploit the potential of highly automated agricultural technology while creating a reliable framework for research, development and regulation.