This transformation is essential as crops are of fundamental importance to our society – they secure the production of food, feed, and renewable raw materials. However, crop cultivation faces serious challenges: environmental impacts must be reduced, soils and biodiversity preserved, and growing nutritional demands met simultaneously. As available arable land decreases, this requires for a fundamentally new approach to plant production. At PhenoRob, we pursue the vision of developing and managing new sustainable cropping systems, supported by novel, robotics- and AI-driven technologies.

The cluster focuses on developing new sustainable production systems that unite ecological, economic, and social dimensions. Its research is centered around four key areas:

1. Innovative agricultural robotics combined with AI and machine learning: Developing intelligent, autonomous systems to enable minimally invasive plant protection, precise fertilization, ecological weeding, environmental monitoring, soil and biodiversity conservation, and the realization of new field arrangements.
2. Sensor-based in-field phenotyping: Investigating plant responses to local environmental conditions to gain a deeper understanding of growth and stress processes.
3. Design and implementation of new sustainable cropping systems: Integrating and quantifying the impacts of these systems on agroecosystems, biodiversity, and key ecosystem services.
4. Integration of societal, economic, and political perspectives: Exploring how new technologies can be incorporated into agricultural practice, policy, and business while considering the interests of all stakeholders.

Embedded within the Faculty of Agriculture, Nutrition and Engineering Sciences at the University of Bonn, PhenoRob as a Cluster of Excellence represents an interdisciplinary research agenda that closely links geodesy, robotics, AI, soil science, crop science, ecosystem modeling, and agricultural economics to address societally relevant challenges. Through its integrative approach, the cluster provides the scientific foundations and drives the sustainable transformation of agriculture, paving the way for innovative solutions for sustainable crop production.

Involved Institution:

• Forschungszentrum Jülich