EXC 2070:  PhenoRob2 - Robotics and Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production

• Subject Area: Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine ; Geophysics and Geodesy ; Computer Science ; Plant Sciences ; Systems Engineering
• Term: since 2019
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 390732324

Crops are crucial for producing food, feed, and renewable raw materials, making them essential to our society. Crop production faces major challenges. First, undesirable side effects of agricultural production on the ecosystem should be reduced and sustainable cultivation made possible. Second, the demand for food, feed, and renewable raw materials is increasing while the land available for crop production is decreasing. These conflicting demands require a fundamentally new approach to crop production. PhenoRob addresses this key challenge of our society by investigating new solutions to produce crops sustainably. We follow novel technology-driven approaches to realize our vision of sustainable crop production. Our interdisciplinary findings will enable us to design new cropping systems in order to maintain arable land and ensure food security while maintaining biodiversity and reducing the environmental footprint, as well as support next-generation plant breeding through machine learning and in-field phenotyping. This goes hand-in-hand with achieving the next level of modeling capabilities to partially replace comprehensive field experimentation with simulation and automation. Our approach to designing novel sustainable cropping systems will investigate four essential areas that are aligned with the four scientific objectives of PhenoRob. First, innovative robotic and machine-learning technology that acts as an enabler for minimally invasive plant protection, ecological weeding, precise fertilization, environmental monitoring, soil and biodiversity conservation, and realization of new field arrangements. Second, in-field phenotyping of plants to understand their reactions to stresses and local environmental conditions. Third, approaches to design and realize sustainable cropping systems and their interactive relationships with the environment. Here, broader implications will be quantified by measuring the impact on agro-ecosystems, biodiversity, and key ecosystem services. Fourth, implementations and assessments of new environmentally-friendly crop production schemes considering farmers’ and agribusiness perspectives, societal expectations, and resulting policy implications. We pursue an interdisciplinary approach to advance research, establish close links between disciplines, and identify new pathways for sustainable crop production. PhenoRob brings together outstanding researchers from robotics, mobile sensing, geodesy, machine learning, plant phenotyping, soil science, crop science, ecology, ecosystem modeling, and agricultural economics. This is a unique selling point that enables us to research and implement new, technology-inspired approaches for sustainable cropping systems.

• DFG Programme: Clusters of Excellence (ExStra)
• Applicant Institution: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
• Participating Institution: Forschungszentrum Jülich
• Spokespersons: Professor Dr.-Ing. Heiner Kuhlmann; Professor Dr. Cyrill Stachniss
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Wulf Amelung; Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Bauckhage; Professor Dr. Sven Behnke; Professorin Dr. Maren Bennewitz; Professor Dr. Jan Börner; Professorin Dr. Anna Cord; Professor Dr. Armin Djamei; Professor Dr. Frank Ewert; Professor Dr. Jürgen Gall; Professorin Dr. Claudia Knief; Professorin Dr. Anne-Katrin Mahlein; Professorin Dr. Annaliese Mason; Professor Dr. Christopher McCool; Professorin Ana Meijide, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Matin Qaim; Professor Dr. Uwe Rascher; Professorin Dr.-Ing. Ribana Roscher; Professor Dr. Gabriel Schaaf; Professor Dr. Christoph Scherber; Professorin Dr. Andrea Schnepf; Professor Dr. Ulrich Schurr; Professor Dr. Jan Vanderborght; Professor Dr. David Johannes Wüpper