RoBivaL

Mobile robots are increasingly being used in agriculture, for example, to detect and eliminate specific pests without unnecessarily polluting the environment through large-scale use of pesticides and herbicides. One criterion for the use of robotic systems in agriculture is that the plantable area is maximized and that the robots are minimally invasive to the soil in their locomotion. In the RoBivaL project, different robot locomotion concepts from space research and agricultural applications will be compared using experiments conducted under agricultural conditions.
 
Four robot systems will be used in the experiments, two of which (Artemis & SherpaTT) have their origin in futuristic space applications and two others (Naio Oz & BoniRob) have been developed specifically for the agricultural sector.
The exact evaluation criteria will be determined in the course of the project, with the help of workshops involving experts from both application fields to identify and address the aspects specifically relevant to agriculture.
 
In order to further promote interdisciplinary exchange, the recorded experimental data will be made available for future research work.For this purpose, a standardized log and experiment database will be developed and operated, which will allow easy access to the collected data for further processing.
In subsequent ventures, the data could be used, for example, to make predictions about subsurface conditions, which in turn could be taken into account in mission and path planning, or to adjust controller parameters or locomotion behavior, which in turn would be of benefit to both space and agricultural robotics.