Robotic Arable Polyculture Farming

Arable monocultures, a field of one plant species, are usually less resilient to abiotic and biotic factors. Making these systems highly susceptible to pests, diseases, and nutrient deficiencies. These make monocultures highly dependent on expensive agricultural inputs that often have a detrimental impact to biodiversity, soil health, the environment, and human health.

Polyculture, a field with two or more plant species, can alleviate some of these impacts, however the lack of crop science research and specific machinery available to farm them is severely limiting their potential.

This project aims to identify the best arable crop species combinations for an environmentally friendly and economically viable polyculture in England, while investigating the opportunity that autonomous robotics can offer to establish, manage and harvest polycultures that cannot be achieved by conventional mechanisation.