Robust robot location and behaviors for on-farm navigation.

English Growers' ability to obtain the large seasonal (75,000+ strong)(9) workforce needed to harvest field vegetables has been severely impacted by Covid-19, Brexit and declining migrant worker availability across Europe(10). This has become a national crisis that threatens the UK food system's resilience more than any other single challenge(11).

According to a report by the National Farmers' Union (NFU), UK farming is facing a significant labour shortage. Up to a quarter of the UK's fruit and vegetable crops could be left to rot in the fields this summer due to a shortage of pickers, packers, and other seasonal workers from overseas(12). The reported crop losses have doubled since 2020(13).

According to a report by Farmers Weekly, published on October 13, 2022, labour shortages in the UK farming sector have worsened due to COVID-19 and Brexit, with a significant shortfall of seasonal workers for the 2022 harvest. This has led to delays in harvesting and reduced yields, which has resulted in a shortage of vegetables in UK supermarkets(14,15).

"UK farming crisis: quarter of fruit and vegetables at risk of rotting in fields as labour shortage hits,"(16)

**"Unprecedented labour shortages have left hundreds of tonnes of produce rotting in the fields"** Financial Times(17,18),

**"Labour availability is very tight \[...\] we could have done extra volume \[with more workers\]" (G. Read, Staples Vegetables UK)**

Muddy Machines (MM)'s agri-robot, Sprout, is a lightweight (doesn't compact soil), battery-operated (sustainable) robot that selectively harvests vegetables in-field. It has already been demonstrated to selectively harvest asparagus in-field effectively.

In this £999.5k, 36-month project, MM and JGHC farms will demonstrate a robust on-farm robotic localisation and navigation system allowing safe harvest execution without unrealistic reliance on RTK-GPS. **This will be achieved through the innovative optimisation of several independent techniques, and safe yet harvest-executing behaviours for on-farm navigation.**

This project will open new possible markets for our herd of Sprouts in more varied growing environments.