Farming is facing many economic challenges in terms of productivity and cost-effectiveness, as well as an increasing labour shortage partly due to depopulation of rural areas. Furthermore, reliable detection, accurate identification and proper quantification of pathogens and other factors that affect plant as well as animal health, play a major role in reducing economic expenditures, creating trade disruptions and even risking human health.
In order to tackle vastly different challenges such as increasing efficiency and, productivity, improving animal and crop health as well as food quality, and yet reduce farm labour costs, collaborative and autonomous systems that allow the integration of agricultural Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) may be critical. Besides autonomously driving off-road vehicles, which are more demanding than road vehicles due to limited road indications and connectivity, systems that control and monitor crop and livestock are a main aspects of smart farming. Big data analysis of measured environmental impacts has the potential to optimally (and automatically) control and calculate pesticides and fertilization of plants. This technology can decrease the use of fertilizers and pesticides dramatically which is also a huge reduction of costs for food production.
This workshop encourages the discussion of diverse approaches to sensor integration, (semi)-autonomous control of off-road vehicles, and means for meassuring parameters associated with environment and livestock.